BLOG: Superdesigners!

I talked recently about Rising Sun, new design from Eric Lang, and what was said was: ‘There is no single rule that you could call not necessary. It’s super clean design.” I nodded. Games Eric designs lately are brilliantly clean. I had a pleasure and honor to work with him on our Secret-Not-Yet-Announced project and ‘scissors’ gesture, cutting stuff, and cleaning the ruleset was his main thing.

Eric ‘Razor Blade’ Lang, who cuts every damn rule, unless it is crucial for fun and gameplay.

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That immediately led me to think if other designers could have a fancy superheroes nicknames. Bruno Cathalha quickly came to my mind. Recently I got back to Yamatai, played 5 or 6 games of it and loved it as much, as I loved it the first time I played it. With the Five Tribes sitting on the shelf next to Yamatai, and one prototype I have played and will be released at some point in the future, I cannot help but call him Bruno ‘BrainSqueezer’ Cathala.

Puzzles he builds in his games are absolutely brilliant and – unfortunately – change me into slog player. There are so many options on the board to consider…

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The third designer that comes to my mind as a superhero is Brad Jr. Talton. His Millenium Blades was the biggest surprise in my gaming life ever. I mean, I never was so wrong about the game. I expected some awkward game about Magic: The Gathering. I got one of the most clever and thematic games ever designed. Funny enough, I felt the same with Pixel Tactics, which looked like a boring card game with too much text on the cards. Well, the game became one of my fav card games for two players after I played it. For both of these games, Brad created the amount of content that is ridiculous. Each time I meet Brad and each time he shows me new expansions, new cards, new promos, new games, I cannot help but say: Brad, I love you. You are crazy, BTW!”

For me, Brad Jr “Madman” Talton is one of the most creative people in the industry and his designs are absolutely stunning.

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What would our superdesigners team look like? Richard ‘GoldenTouch’ Garfield because almost each his design is turning into pure gold? Rob ‘Spark’ Daviou because his legacy concept changed the industry and started the story-driven revolution? Stefan ‘Grid’ Feld because each of his designs is a precise machine build with a lot of math and excel?

What are other very specific, characteristic features of famous designers? Give me more of such ideas! Give me your superdesigners! Who should join the team of RazorBlade, BrainSqueezer, Madman, GoldenTouch, Spark, and Grid?


Originally posted on BTTS Blog on BGG Forum: https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/75557/superdesigners

Welcome to PORTAL GAMES

We are bookworms. Movie maniacs. Story addicts. We grew up reading Tolkien, Howard, Herbert, Dick, Lem… We were watching Willow, Blade Runner, Never Ending Story, Robin Hood…

And yet, we don’t write books… we don’t make movies. We don’t make those things, because we make games. We make games that tell stories.