Why make it a Minis game? For the looks!
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- čas přidán 30. 07. 2024
- In Episode 105 Part 4 the guys have been considering the fact that sometimes they need to decide whether a game should be a minis game, or a card game or something else. Well, Glenn does, Mike just makes it into a minis game anyway. But Mike still has good reasons for doing it, so what are those reasons? This part of the conversation is about the aesthetics and cinematography of the game, because that's the sort of thing that floats Mike's boat.
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Games as procedural art is one of my favourite reasons to play and make games, miniature or otherwise! The board state of Go after a match or the arrangement of tiles and cards once everything has played out has always struck me as a powerful image representing a moment frozen in time which also holds an inherent visual history of its creation.
Capturing moments from a wargame either by making a mental note of how cool it is, literally recording it with photography, or linguistically with an impassioned retelling of a cool sequence are all reasons I value the processes borne from playing a game.
That's cool and I love that games can provide so many ways for people to appreciate them. At the same time though, I enjoy the visual impact and performance aspect of seeing a band live, I don't think those visuals are part of the artform that is music though.
I think Mike is bang on about the co-creation element. Miniatures games pull players into creating the world and its stories. Other games do it too, but not to this extent.
I think there is a point which good gentleman touched on, which is that the 'cinematic visuals' of miniature games are emergent. The 'cinematographic story' is not only created in happenstance but also in the mind of the player. Miniatures games are to my mind about that act of creativity - when my models collides with this other thing I can see the epic Roger Deakin's style mise-en-scene, and it's 'king cool.
Been working on making a homemade wargame over the last few months.
I got to actually (alpha/beta) test out the game, and as crude as the "models" & "board" were, there is something to be said about how wonderful it is to be playing something YOU made.
Enjoying the conversations. Keep up the great work!
Designing is very addictive.
a card game that somehow allows you to use anything as a card would be awesome lol.
I have a topic for you: Why do you think Infinity and Malifaux have survived as miniatures games, while many others have fallen by the way side?
Ash talked a little about Infinity recently, and to me it's so interesting how both games have managed to last in a very competitive market dominated by the big boys, and what designers can take from their success?
For what it's worth, I think both games offer something unique gameplay wise, both games offer amazing models, and both games have interesting lore.
That and they didn't over expand and were happy in their lane!
ty
I don't know how true it is that independents don't survive, or fail to survive in the current market generally to be honest. I think its much more that all games have a natural cycle of being made, passing through popularity and support and then coming to rest. What's weird about minis games is that we expect and try to keep those games coming back over and over, we don't expect the same things of boardgames. Malifaux and Infinity have kept coming back because they've been constantly re-iterated, but I don't know that I wouldn't rather see more new core games from those same companies.
@@RuleofCarnageyes i agree - re iterating the core game is a better strategy than coming up with a new game.
I get what you mean about board games and people having unrealistic expectations for mini games, but on the other hand both Wyrd and Corvus Belli have done very well as companies and I think it's really interesting to examine what about their games allowed them to be viable businesses.
AND One additional Topic for you: -
Should Indie Miniature games aspire to run their own miniature lines? Is this the only way they can become businesses in the long term?
ty
I'll answer that one right away, I think absolutely not. Osprey doesn't run its own miniatures line, and was a very successful business for a long time before they even started having associated ranges. Miniature manufacturing brings in a whole host of problems and difficulty that, frankly, sinks as many companies as it helps. Particularly with the advent of 3D printing, I think there's much more to offer at much lower risk with things like sets of tokens, dials and cards for independents.