Board Game Design Analysis

There are many aspects of design that must be considered when developing a board game; it’s essentially creating a new world. Qualities of the game itself are important. In particular, great games are balanced in a sense that they provide enough challenge to make playing enjoyable, and also provide adequate understanding of how to play. Board game design requires a balanced effort of both play dynamic and visual. Many game designers under estimate the importance of visuals, leaving them in the hands of the publishers. Although publishers main objective is to appeal to a mass market, certain design elements must be considered when finalizing visuals for a board game because of the effect it can have on the overall game. Visuals must be considered …show more content…
Although board game popularity is on the rise in America, majority of board games originate in Europe and are remanufactured for an Americanized version. The process of rebranding can lead to issues with original game dynamic because if game elements are changed. Dragons Gold is one of the more recent renditions. Bruno Faidutti is the French board game designer behind the 2001 sensation Dragons Gold (Figure 3). The game plays between three and six people. Each player controls a deck of four dragon hunter cards that are used to kill dragon cards and collect gold, silver, ruby and gems. When players kill a dragon card and collect it’s richest, they are then hidden from other players until the end of the game when points are configured. Points are earned by either collecting a significant amount of gold or silver pieces, or claiming the most of a certain gem …show more content…
“Our graphic designer is the voice of reason. We take his critiques more serious than any game testers because it’s his job to go over the rules and play by play to actually build and visualize this concept we have in our heads.” Issac and the PlaidHats studio have stressed many times in interviews and weekly podcasts the importance of visuals and how play dynamic and art must be in harmony to create a cohesive game. They are the masterminds behind Dead of Winter, a co-op game that play up to four and is based around a zombie apocalypse. Dead of Winter was designed piece by piece in house with the PlaidHats studio and has won numerous awards, including Dice Towers Best Game of the Year (Figure 5). It took the team at PlaidHats over 18 months to sign off on mass production of the game because of the abundance of elements needed. Dead of Winter contains a great deal of components from multiple boards and decks, to individual player stations and characters. Designing a game that requires so many components leaves no room for error because each item must cohesively work within the game. Having the game fully developed within the studio allowed for play testing with visuals, so a greater idea of what to except was