Top 10 Games for Aspiring Game Designers
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- čas přidán 1. 07. 2024
- Tom Vasel, Zee Garcia, and Mike DiLisio take a look at the games they would recommend you should try if you are an aspiring designer.
Intro - 00:00
Mike 10 - 07:09
Zee 10 - 09:41
Tom 10 - 13:11
Mike 9 - 15:58
Zee 9 - 18:25
Tom 9 - 21:48
Mike 8 - 25:06
Zee 8 - 27:33
Tom 8 - 31:04
Mike 7 - 35:00
Zee 7 - 37:07
Tom 7 - 39:36
Mike 6 - 42:00
Zee 6 - 44:23
Tom 6 - 46:47
Mike 5 - 48:56
Zee 5 - 51:07
Tom 5 - 53:52
Mike 4 - 58:30
Zee 4 - 1:00:16
Tom 4 - 1:02:16
Mike 3 - 1:05:15
Zee 3 - 1:07:45
Tom 3 - 1:11:10
Mike 2 - 1:13:25
Zee 2 - 1:16:04
Tom 2 - 1:17:57
Mike 1 - 1:20:35
Zee 1 - 1:22:52
Tom 1 - 1:25:31
People’s Choice - 1:27:55
Outro - 1:31:30
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BGG Link: boardgamegeek.com/boardgamede... - Hry
The different approaches to this list is why I really enjoy multiple reviewers in your videos.
Now make a top 10 for rulebook writers.
Split it into their top 5 best and 5 worst, things to do and things to avoid
Has this happened yet?
Artemis Project, Pandemic,
Moonshine Empire (version 02)
GMT games, most of there games really have good rulebooks.
Zee's reason and description of why he picked Scythe was very intelligent. The way he told it was excellent.
This is my favorite top 10 list yet from The Dice Tower. I think the big focus on philosophy of design and all three really explaining in depth shows so much passion and unique perspectives.
My 2 year old loves watching the top 10’s with me and she is always very concerned that Mike is the only one not wearing a hat in these videos- direct quote from my lunch table: “Zee has a hat, Tom Vasel has a hat, Mike doesn’t have a hat…” And I’m just sitting there amused that Tom is always referred to by his first and last name haha!
Loved this list! Keep up the awesome work!
#getmikeahat
Think we need to narrow Mike down to 10 modern classics. A definitive list from the 3 of you of the only 10 games that you think deserve the title of modern classic would be a great video 🙂
This was a great Top 10. As a designer I found the reasoning behind everyone's picks really fascinating. Awesome job all around!
One of the biggest surprises for me came from a “make a game small and still really good” and “distilling a mechanism” is Colt Super Express. What a 💎.
I really like the different choices. Great list. Just as a comment, Tom mentioned Sid Mier´s Civ. However, Sid Mier himself has said that boardgames were the inspiration to most of his games. Specifically, he mentioned Francis Tresham games, he give him credit for "civilization games" and "tech tree", and specifically gives an example that Sid´s Railroad Tycoon is inpired by Francis raild system (18xxs). :)
Funny sequence where Mike picks the Crew (which Tom loves), Zee picks Scythe (which Mike loves), and Tom picks Dvonn (which Zee loves).
I believe Tom likes Dvonn more than Zee.
Fantastic! Been waiting for this since it was announced. As a dork with a bunch of ideas, blank cards and Sharpies along w/a massive dose of Imposter Syndrome, I need all the help I can get.
Oh wow. I relate to this comment so much it actually kinda hurts.
@@Groovestonenz We'll share the pain together!
Thumb up for Zee's: Developers should be designers, and designers should be developers. It can help a lot if you consider the project as a whole when you work on the design, even production.
I was confused by that. I thought the the terms were synonymous. Should he have said publisher? Or are there 3? Which one is the original person, designer or developer.
Like others, this is my favorite list I've seen from y'all. It's not as "energetic" as others because you can't poke fun at each other since it's such a thinky topic but overall really enlightening discussion.
I completely agree that MTG is essential for aspiring game designers. There is just so much material to learn from; the core resource mechanisms, the color pie system, the plethora of keywords and ways to integrate different functions into the game.
My top10 would also definitely include lords of waterdeep and clank legacy, but I would try to squeeze in codenames and vindication as well.
I mean, if one wants to learn how to make worker placement games, Lords of Waterdeep is the perfect place to start looking at it and the way resources can be basically anything if you give them meaning, reminds me of Everdell, where it is not a log, it is a twig, because the creatures are small enough that a twig is big enough for them.
Oof. You hate designers if you're recommending they play Vindication. ;)
I'd add Duel Masters-inspired Japanese TCGs to that. They not only addressed the handclogging problem of lands by making all cards multiuse(playable as lands or normal use like spells, monsters etc), they also elegantly use the cards themselves as damage trackers
I enjoyed this video immensely. Zee’s approach and thoughtfulness was most appreciated. Great one!
Gloomhaven jaws of the lion in regards to designing your game to be accessible to newcomers and guiding them into heavy rules and concepts.
In a meta consideration, a lot of FLGSs wouldn't exist without MtG/GamesWorkshop/D&D to prop up sales, so it really has subsidized the hobby as it's grown and helped ensure there is a space to explore board games in general.
what a fun list! Still learning about mechanisms here, so I really loved hearing about them in some of these well known games I've played, like yea, I DO know that mechanism
I really enjoy your top 10s, and this one was among the most interesting. Great picks!
Looking forward to the top 100 from the a-team!!!
Great idea for a top 10 list! Really interesting and thought provoking ideas. Thanks!
Extremely helpful. Thank you so much for doing this video ☺️ I’m working on my first design 🥰
Mike . . . played a fun game tonight, watching this video: Take a drink of your favorite “distillation” every time Mike uses the word “distillation”.
Thanks Mike! 🍺🤓👍🏼
One thing that is important about Magic is its precision in rules text. You learn how to read (and thus write) clear rules text by playing Magic, since almost every card has some text that explains its own rules. As a company, they have invested a lot to ensure that text is a good balance of clear and readable, even to do some legitimately insane things, like taking another person's turn for them.
By far my favorite contribution by Zee. His thoughts were very insightful.
Thank you for this video guys. Perfect timing for me.
This was so enjoyable to watch. Thank you!
Excellent list. While different approaches make some others top 10 confusing, here it was the best thing about it.
Hansa Teutonica would have been a nice choice for this list.
Doing so much with so few components and rules, I think it's pretty great.
You guys need to do the list of games that designers can learn from on what not to do. Top 10 Games That Do It Wrong kind of list.
This is the most interesting top 10 anyone has done. More like this please.
Mikes #9 for the Crew to give new designers a taste of a "flash in the pan" design lol
Lords Of Waterdeep is my go to game for an equally smooth & intense, visually as well as thematically satisfying gaming experience in 60 minutes. each game is a bit different and memorable. especially with the Skullport expansion adding the corruption system (not so the Undermountain, which doesn't add any depth/mechanic). huge upgrade to the basic game
Totally agree
I think Obsession would be a great game to play because of the sheer number of mechanics involved in the game And making them all work with strong theme in a cohesive manner. It's a brilliant design in my opinion. Great video!
I love Zees approach to the list
I think I might have taken the opposite of Mike's approach :D
My assumption: an aspiring designer who is willing to try games from such a list is familiar with the hobby and has seen a lot (most?) modern boardgame mechanisms in action.
So my list would be: here are 10 games with familiar mechanisms that put a really interesting mayor twist on them. AKA here are some ideas how one can take familiar things and make them unique, or here are some example for thinking outside of the box.
E.g. worker placement - raiders of the north sea (the place one down, pick one up approach, which adds quite a few nuances to the system, also workers are "shared" etc.).
Yeah, Mike’s list seems to be designed for someone who hasn’t played board games but wants to design a game and not someone who enjoys board games and wants to try to design their own.
Please, PLease, PLEase, PLEAse, PLEASe, PLEASE do the all* GIPF Series/Abstract day!
Love Letter has to be on this list. It's an example of a near perfect system. About the only edge case where the mechanics break down is when your opponent(s) play the 4 card and your only play is a 1 card, so you do nothing but discard it. Even then, technically you target yourself and name a card you don't have.
Love Letter is a great pick! It is still one of the best 18 card games out there and it blew minds when it came out
Wait there is a specific subgenre of 18card games? It looks like such an arbitrary number can you ezplain?
@@dago6410 It oddly is sort of a sub genre. Sheets of cards are often printed 18 cards to a sheet which is where the number comes from. The company ButtonShy specializes in these small games and has a massive library at this point.
@@3ddevine Oh, makes sense! The only one I know is tides of time (which would be a really fun game had it had like a 100+ cards and you chose X for each game :P in my opinion, and had like 5 replays in my experience before being nothing interesting any more)
;p
I own the typical ones of the GIPF series and DVONN is back and forth with TZARR, I like those both so much.
Thanks for a great show!
For this list I would probably put Stone Age, Dominion, For sale, Roborally, Magic, D&D, El Grande, Citadels, Euphrates & Tigris and Catan in the list, with Lords of waterdeep as an alternative for Stone Age and Deus as an honourable mention.
Why for sale? The way the auctions(turn based and blind bidding) interact to generate lots of depth?
I think that Magic: the Gathering should be played to learn what can be done with design space. To really understand that you would need to play a core set (but a version after the power 9 were removed) that doesn't utilise anything beyond the core design space. And then play several sets that really explore the extra design space. Jumping directly in to a version of the game that is using the extra design space means that you will most likely overlook what was added to the game and just how much space the simple starting design actually left to explore. Did all of those explorations result in good play experiences? No. But, I think, that most did. And they have been adding to it for nearly 30 years!
They did add a pseudo colour for colourless mana in one cycle. As far as I know it didn't stick around.
I think that chess gets overlooked as a very good example of complexity and depth not being the same thing. But then you really need to play a lot of chess to grok the depth so it probably isn't a good choice for this list.
And even those additions that don't "work out perfectly" actually do, because the design of the formats accounts for that. Every set has new mechanics that have a decreasing level of impact x permanence, which allows designers to keep it fresh without breaking the game. These new mechanics are:
- vital within that set (for the Limited format),
- usually impactful within Standard (the format that only runs recent sets),
- rarely relevant within Modern (the format that runs sets from 2003 onwards),
- once in a blue moon ripple into the Eternal formats (that run every set since Alpha).
And usually, when a mechanic does "work out perfectly", it becomes "evergreen", meaning it's now set-agnostic and can show up anywhere. So the core gameplay evolves very slowly and carefully as a result of a very active and bubbling surface of mechanics that come and go with every set.
@@voltcorp I did not use the phrase that you put in quotation marks. Please don't put words in to my mouth. The P word in particular has no place in a discussion about game design. It is the ultimate in objective words, and games are about having fun... which is entirely subjective.
And if you feel the need to defend everything that M:TG has done, I present to you: Stasis lock. The definition of a negative play. experience.
They did make mistakes along the way, but that doesn't make it worse as a game to learn from.
I'd add Duel Masters-inspired Japanese TCGs(especially Wixoss) and the new Digimon TCG to the MtG example
While Magic's decades-worth of combo materials, keywords, piggybacking, and other lessons are great, Duel Masters and its followers addressed the handclogging issue of lands by making all cards playable as resource. They also elegantly use the cards themselves as damage trackers. Clever product design
The new Digimon TCG, on the other hand, has a Patchwork-like resource system where the pricier the cards you pay, the more resources you give your opponent in the next turn
Also, Hex, Dodo, Bug, and many other modern abstracts might illustrate depth despite simplicity even better than chess
Tragic The Blathering 😂
Zee never misses
Great list.
One thing I think is missing is a solo game or focus on considering a solo experience. Scythe and Arkham Horror LCG can both fit, but the solo/autotoma experience was not pointed out in either.
Mike never over uses words or phrases.
Repetition is comedy.
I'm not sure that D&D would be my first choice for an RPG to teach the benefits of an RPG.
"There wasn't much mess." 🤣 👌
I think that Dominion should be played to learn about deck building. And then almost any other deck builder should be played to learn that you can actually do something with the mechanism.
Yeah, I think DnD is showing the creakiness in the design, and a lot of things I outright despise in games like Skyrim (levelling up, hit points, random encounters, encumbrance) are things that DnD introduced in to the wider designer lexicon. In terms of playing an RPG, I'd probably steer someone towards an experienced GM with a more cinematic system like Genesys, or the Storyteller System if they wanted something a bit more tightly defined but still reasonably flexible
another fantastic list. Concept of 504 is pretty wild, would like to at least see it. really want to try dvonn and chronicles of crime
I was surprised to not see Oath on anyone’s list. Even if the game is really complex, it is a great example of how to have a game that shapes itself in response to player choices over time. It also is a ‘legacy game’ done right in my opinion because you can play it infinitely!
I think it was just... kinda bad?
Tikal was a gateway for me, it certainly holds up and wasn’t based on one simple idea. It doesn’t feel dated at all, except the art because of course it’s an older game. It’s a classic that hasn’t ever been killed by anything else, at all. It didn’t have the major hype of recent games, but we’ve all spent money on the cult of new hyped games and played them once then regretted the purchase.
Glen More 2 Chronicles, Twillight Struggle, Imperial 2030, Caylus, Tzolkin and Inis.
There actually is a VERY good speech by marc rosewater about 25 years of Magic the Gathering and thoughts that went into the game design over all the years. It is extremely interesting from a game design standpoint.
1:28:27 I have been playing for a few years now, own aprox. ~70 games from silly child ones to more heavy ones like Terra Mystica, Bonfire and Stronghold but I have never played Catan, Agricola, Dominion nor MtG. Not sure why, I just didn't had a chance and I feel I haven't miss much so there is no pressure to catch up with those titles.
I feel like the DnD pick is great but I also think one need to look at the older edition to see how they got to the streamlined version.
Incan Gold, Jaipur, and For Sale. Simple gateway games that pack a lot of depth that could be beneficial to designers.
Working on making a game now and I can say Can't Stop was a big inspiration to me. I also recommend two books: Sid Sackson's Gamut of Games and Dice Games Properly Explained by Reiner Knizia.
Tikal is on my top ten of all time for me! Love that game!
Happy 504 was mention. I genuinely enjoy it even if it is a bit of a chore to play each time
My favorite knock-off of Magic was "Phart the Dispersing"!
I did consider all those mechanisms when I did Blood Rage Lite.
I agree with the originality of Pandemic, but I would go with Defenders of the Realm, as it fixed the issues I had with Pandemic (e.g., being too puzzle-y/predictable). So I think there's a lot more to learn from it.
I LOVE Godzilla Tokyo Clash. Whenever I've brought it out for players that like enjoy game design, they always comment on the cool decisions the designers made.
I agree with Zee on Tikal. I want more action point games!
Splendor and Splendor expansions are great for learning great mechanisms
Godzilla tokyo clash hell yeah! Great game but i definitely see his pov. Deserves expansions!
Tom's insistence that action points are a dated mechanism is as bizarre as always. Pandemic Legacy, Through the Ages, Pax Pamir 2nd edition, Sleeping Gods, Trickerion, etc. all feature action point mechanics and are pretty popular. No matter the mechanic very few reprints of 23 year old games are going to sell gang busters, because the market is obsessed with new games.
Hallelujah
Yes! Please do live abstract day! Please, please, please!!
Excellent video! But when Tom said that no game tried to emulate Powergrid, don´t you think Scoville did it? With the alternate player order every fase, and the auction at the beginning of every round?
Tom's number 5, probably the best written rule book of the bunch. Board games and designers could learn from that.
Boardgamers buy multiple games with horrible rulebooks, RPG'ers will spend one day at a convention standing in line for a new well-written rule book.
Chiming in from May 2024 - The Crew: Mission Deep Sea is still great! Not a flash in the pan, Mike. ;)
Zee didnˋt do that „woop-woop-woop“ sound since he mocked Samˋs choice of Vikings on the thematic games list back in the day, lol.
can we have a top 10 of Tom's ties? this one here could be easily my no. 1
Ack, I love deck-builders like Ascension, but not a fan of Dominion. My husband figured out how to mill the deck during our second play and though that card doesn't have to be included into every game, I still feel like Ascension is way more interesting, if only because there are more options right out the gate in card types without having to purchase expansions.
I assume a good designer designs games they would want to play themselves. Therefore, i'd advise to focus on the games they're interested to play.
Hey Tom, you would love Vindication; you take cubes and change them into other colored cubes! ;)
Scythe deserves to be in the list for world building but also as a masterclass in board design. Every single rule of the game is somehow represented on the game and player boards. And with all that content, they still managed to throw in Easter eggs.
What is that intro music called? Anyone know the artist or song? The one at the start during the countdown.
I'd add Duel Masters-inspired Japanese TCGs(especially Wixoss) and the new Digimon TCG to the MtG example
While Magic's decades-worth of combo materials, keywords, piggybacking, and other lessons are great, Duel Masters and its followers addressed the handclogging issue of lands by making all cards playable as resource. They also elegantly use the cards themselves as damage trackers. Clever product design
The new Digimon TCG, on the other hand, has a Patchwork-like resource system where the pricier the cards you pay, the more resources you give your opponent in the next turn
A deep critical analysis of certain non hobby games (chess, go, backgammon, poker, bridge) is also essential. Likewise Blackjack is even more distilled push your luck than can’t stop.
Although Modern Art showcases more kinds of auction, I'd argue that not only would For Sale be purer(since Modern Art also has majority control, stock ownership, and set collection), it also showcases how the nuances of one part can enrich another(in this case bidding on houses whose values depend on how you use them, as well as what other players' decisions would be)
On Tikal: I finally played it for the 1st time about a year ago and I found the game to be utterly brilliant. I was super excited to get the new printing with the resin pieces.
Sorry, disagree - good ideas, boring game!
I would love to buy the resin pieces to upgrade the original. It’s a great 2 player as well, a game I still think about strategies for when I’m falling asleep.
21:31 I don't think I've heard you make that sound since Monkey Lab hahaha!
This myth about race for the galaxy being hard to pick up needs to end, and anyone teaching it badly should just improve how to teach it. I've successfully taught it several times in under 10m and the iconography wasn't even a big deal (I would clear questions along the plays). And I've taught it to very casual players with the same success.
...unlike how I was taught the game, which took me several sessions to really grasp what I was doing due to several misconceptions about the 'flow' of the game.
It pains me to see such a great game being slowly phased out due to this myth.
My issue with Chronicles of Crime, which I've yet to play, is that it seems like the whole game could just be an app. What do the physical components bring to the experience compared to similar games that already exist completely as app only games? My best guess is that the physical components facilitate playing the game cooperatively, where syncing up the communal game interface just doesn't work smoothly over multiple screens or one big one. Otherwise there is the novelty/toy factor to it. I mean, I guess you can argue that's why people like to play physical games in general, even though you could play them on board game arena or something. Until I play it I just won't know, but I wish there was something about the physicality of the game that stood out to me as being integral to the experience.
I'm not sure if I would agree with you - what I feel about Chronicles of Crime is that it honestly feels like an interface for a point and click style adventure but one that kind of combines smoothing out the game play with note taking. I don't think it could just be an app because I feel like the way that you place suspects in locations and draw up a list of pieces of evidence makes the whole experience more intuitive. I get where your concerns are coming from, an I think I can see some people having those after playing the game, but I'd not be one of them.
I would argue that there is a question of value in the supplemental cases as £4 for maybe 30-60mins of play feels expensive when you can get complete apps for less than that, but that's more of a business issue than a design one
It’s by FAR the most overrated game I’ve seen hyped. It’s so boring you think you’re doing something wrong or missing something. If it was all an app it would be found out instantly. This one is all style over substance and doesn’t nearly scratch the Clue itch.
23:27 when is the day of abstracts catch-up palooza?!
Great list and very interesting discussion. I'm wondering if For Sale would be a better choice than Modern Art for pure auction mechanic? 🤔
If I had to choose between the two games to actually play, it would be Modern Art over For Sale any day of the week. But that's just me.
Tbf Modern Art showcases more kinds of auction. Although I'd agree that not only For Sale would be purer(since Modern Art also has majority control, stock ownership, and set collection), it also showcases how the nuances of one part can enrich another(in this case bidding on houses whose values depend on how you use them, as well as what other players' decisions would be)
I like Lost Cities but the decision space is small.
That's the only one I really disagree with. Really enjoy these lists and the discussion.
One game I would add is CoraQuest. It is not known as a deep game, but how simple it is and easy to teach. Even kids 6 years old can play with adults, and 8 year old kids can play by themselves. Some games go for huge boxes, a thousand component and 100+ page rule books. But there is something about breaking the game down to the bare basics, so small and so simple that even young kids can play, while still deep enough that the adults can still have a good time. In fact I think for new boardgame designers, they should aim to make simpler games first. K.I.S.S.
Zee nailed it
Every time Mike says "Purest distillation", can be a drinking game 😂😂😂
I believe Coloretto is in print in Europe, but not in the USA
Has anyone made or found some variant rules to streamline Godzilla like Zee said it could do with? I looked at BGG, but it's pretty much just people creating new characters.
I feel like this list was the list Zee has been waiting 10 years for 🙂
The comment on Cosmic Encounter is why I like Illuminati so much. All the players can be involved in the important steps of all other players' turn so that, even if the VPP are not balanced, presuming the players choose to analyze the VPP properly, there will be no run away element. This is even more so than Cosmic Encounter.
I'm curious about the people's choice - it seems like this would be maybe the list with the widest range of titles, and possibly the winning game having a relatively smaller proportion of the vote, compared to say the voting for something like Top 10 roll and writes or Top 10 drafting games.
Definitely enjoyed the discussion, but the selections felt a bit like a Rorschach Test - the selections said as much about the panel as they did about the games themselves, and I feel like if a designer had a particular theme or mechanism in mind, they'd be better off starting with a top 10 of games in those areas so they could see what was out there already, and get a sense of what they felt worked and felt that didn't. It to me was more of an interesting video than a useful one (partly because the topic was too broad)
Wasn't the idea here basically to counter the "designers" on Kickstarter that indicate their game "makes gaming fun!" But, their game is just a Monopoly clone.
@@VaultBoy13 Not really, otherwise it would have concentrated more on the gateway titles. This was trying to be a bit of a primer for ones to get 'serious' game designers inspired
I absolutely loathe Can't Stop
The Crew - very good game!
Coaxing the muse
A lot of love for Mike this top 10. Deservedly so!
Top 10 Games with "Paste on Themes"!
Thanks for the list! Pandemic brought me back into board games, seeing a cooperative game.
We got 504 to our local gaming club when it was new. We still have 503 versions to try...
I can’t find clank! Acquisitions incorporated anymore here in nz