Have you ever played a board game and thought, "I wonder who made this up"? Have you ever played a board game and thought, "I could make a game better than this"?
Where do all those new games that show up on the shelves each year actually come from?
Many come from the minds and imaginations of people who simply like to play games, says Greg Jones, a founder of the Board Game Designer's Guild of Utah, a group that encourages the creation of new board games.
Game design is not as easy as you might think, he says. Or, the design part might be easy, but actually getting a game published is the challenge. It's a very competitive business, he says.
Still, the Utah group has some success stories — several games that have been published and several that are pending.
It all started in January 2007. Jones knew a few people (he was one of them) who were interested in game design, and he thought it would be good to bring them all together.
"I assumed that groups like this existed everywhere," he says. "But a few days before we were going to meet for the first time, I thought I should see how it was all done. I searched and searched, and found that no one was doing game design on a local level. There's one big national meet but nothing else on a regular basis."
At the time, Jones worked for Game Night Games, a game store in Sugar House, which has been very supportive, he says, and has hosted most guild meetings. However, the December meeting will be at the Salt Lake City Library, 210 E. 400 South, on Tuesday, Dec. 8. The guild meets the second Tuesday of the month. For more information, visit its Web site at boardgamedesigners.com.
Through his work, Jones had met people in the game design and publishing business, and he also knew people who were interested in design. There are also several local designers who have previously had games published.
"So, we had a lot of ideas," Jones says. "But my philosophy is no one is going to pay you for an idea. They want the finished game."
Members of the guild make prototypes of their games and bring them to the meetings where other members play them and offer feedback. "At the meetings we talk about some aspect of design, but then we play and play." That's the only way to know if games are going to work, he says, by playing them.
At one national meeting Jones met a representative of Rio Grande Games, one of the major publishers of what are known in the trade as Euro games — those that involve strategy and have a high level of graphic design.
"I told him what we were doing, and he was very interested. He said Rio Grande would sponsor a contest and pick one game to publish. That lit a fire under us. Rio Grande wants to foster this kind of development in the U.S. In Europe the game culture is so strong," says Jones.
So, representatives of Rio Grande met with the guild last summer. "We presented them with 12 games," says Jones. After looking them over, "they told us that four were good enough to be published but that they could only take one at that time. But they are coming back next year."
The game they selected is called "Heavens of Olympus," designed by Mike Compton. Guild members also have some games pending publication with other companies, and they have games ready to enter into some of the big-game competitions in Europe, such as the Hippodice, held in Germany.
So, what exactly makes a good game? That's the question. Obviously, if it were easy, everyone could design a good game.
Basically, says Jones, "a good game accomplishes what it sets out to be."
"There are so many types of games," says Compton. "Some are designed for social interaction, some for deeper strategy. But a good game will keep you interested, will be fun the whole time. Monotony can outstay its welcome in a hurry."
Some games are designed for short play; others for longer. The key is being involved the whole time, says Jones. "A four-hour game can a success if it is engaging all the time."
Some games are built around luck; others around skill. Some people prefer one kind, some the other. Party games are all about social interaction.
And then you have to think about design, says Jones. "It has to be functional. But you don't want the design to get in the way. We spend a lot of time critiquing design. We have to fix things that are confusing." That's a big part of the game-design process, he says: play, revise; play, revise. Revise, revise, revise. "Sometimes you just take baby steps, but the effect is cumulative. Games aren't born, they evolve."
The graphics of a game should be like cinematography in a movie, says Compton. "If it's good enough, you don't think about it, but if it's bad, it gets in the way of the story."
Compton's "Heavens of Olympus" is built around a Greek theme. "Each player is an unknown god, building the universe. You get points for constellations and planets and such."
At a recent meeting of the guild, other members brought games to try out. Ryan Laukat has one called "Radio Active Cities." You build cities and try to persuade people to come live in them. Laukat is known for his design work and, in fact, has been the artist/designer for a couple of other games published by Rio Grande Games.
Max Barfuss has a game called "Sky Kingdoms," which has a similar universe-building theme. Zach Zullo, Scott Kramer and Dru Allred are all working on "The Hex Game."
Sandeep Kharkar is working on a card game called "The Queen's Garden," where some flowers grow, some wilt and you get points based on how the garden looks when the queen comes to inspect it.
Sean MacDonald, who has also had a couple of games published, is now working on one called "Pastiche," in which players collect palettes of colors for commissioned paintings. Phil Kilcrease has a two-player boxing game called "KO!"
It's just a lot of fun, says Jones. "It's not like anyone's ever going to get rich. It's not like these games will be like 'Monopoly.' But it is a creative outlet."
And it is getting attention. "A guy called last spring and wanted to come see what we are doing. He wanted to start a designers club. He later wrote a blog that was very flattering. He thought New York or Los Angeles would be the center of the game-design universe," says Jones. "He was shocked to find it in Salt Lake City. But we exist because no one told us we couldn't."
E-mail: carma@desnews.com