The Appeal of the MiddleThere’s a type of game that I don’t think the world will ever have enough of: they’re the pleasant, 45-minute games that I can teach to anyone, but can also play with anyone. I’ve played this with my non-gamer mom, and my hardcore gamer friends, and many in between. The beauty is that 1) it’s easy to learn for new gamers, 2) possesses enough depth that gamers can enjoy it, but 3) also has enough randomness and a forgiving strategic learning curve, so that new gamers will stand a chance against more experienced players, and 4) plays quickly enough that it never overstays its welcome.

Fog of war terrain system. With the randomised terrain set up, every game is different and forces you to make choices as you uncover your predefined play area and it encourages you to explore every inch of it.  

This is a fully tactile experience. No decks of cards to shuffle, no score tracks, no fiddly cubes, no confusing rules or nuances. Just a fluid set up, play and pack down experience with beautiful components.

We all like games with a wide variety of resources, but most board games or card games never seem to have all that many.  So let's do a comparison with popular games out there.

Judge Domino is a game in which players judge if toppling a line of dominoes will succeed or fail. Players take turns adding to the line, but to score points, you must make others think that the toppling will fail. Can you baffle other players' judgment?

've long been a fan of board games, I enjoy a game that fully occupies my mind, clearing out all the serious thoughts for a bit, while enjoying the company of good friends. Modern board games saw dramatic improvement in the 1990's with the rise of Eurogames, and I expect many people would be surprised if they haven't tried any of this new generation.

Factory FunNER is the sequel and a very solid improvement to Factory Fun. It uses hexes instead of squares to allow more creative building, and some subtle improvements to scoring, length, and machine placement rules really improve things.

Players try to build a village together. As the game goes on each player secretly chooses whether they want to go for a coop victory or a single-player win.

 Vision-based combat. The success of a ninja action is solely based on guards’ vision.

The author will offer presentation/game sessions on Tabletopia, in French and English. In addition, the game will be freely available for players on Tabletopia as soon as the written rules are available.

Months and a lot of play-testing later and we are excited to present The Big Lockdown, a tongue-in-cheek card game inspired by people’s experiences during the global pandemic.

(15x) ENJOYMENT: Forgettable Outstanding(10x) DEPTH (IN RELATION TO COMPLEXITY): Lacking Meaty (5x) LUCK FACTOR: All Luck All Skill (3x) REPLAYABILITY: Nil Limitless(10x) MECHANICS: Boring Interesting (4x) PLAYER INTERACTION: Low High (4x) PLAYER COUNT PERFORMANCE: Not Balanced Balanced (2x) GAME LENGTH: Too Short/Long Just Right (2x) CLARITY OF RULES: Mud Crystal (5x) COMPONENT QUALITY: Cheap World ClassINITIAL RATING (sum(Criteria Rating x Criteria Weight)/Total Weight) = 7.7

STATUS: Play

Ultimately, I’m an “are there tough decisions?” kind of gamer, and on that matter I’m torn. There are some turns and some positions and some situations that will play themselves. Sometimes obviously so, and sometimes after you think it out.

Gavin McGruddy of MyAutoma has uploaded a great browser-based demo of the Cascadia Solo Mode, so that you can try it out for yourself

Each player's portfolio will no doubt have overlaps with another player and navigating these conflicting and shared interests is half the fun!

This game comes with 12 sealed packages. Whoever loses in this ONE vs. MANY game gets to open one of the sealed packages. Inside will be new components, new abilities, and new rules that will help that side in future games

The European map has the same rules as the USA map, but the differences in geography create a different feel and strategy. There are fewer connections on the European map (70 lines for 39 countries vs 89 lines for 41 states). However, it is easier to get from one side of the map to the other on the Europe side. The max distance between any two countries is 6, vs a max distance of 10 on the USA map. So on Europe, it is easier to zigzag around the whole board, but harder to wiggle around in close quarters.

In a nutshell, the King's Keys deck started as an experiment to see what card games would be like if you rebuilt playing cards from the ground up. Instead of using ranks and suits, each card has a number (from one to four), one of four items, and one of four colors. The result is what I call a 4x4x4 deck where 64 playing cards each have a unique combination of these three parts.

Since games typically have perfect information, the outcome of the game is completely driven by the actions of the players.

12 Tenets of Board Game Design for Stonemaier Games