Why are modern board games so good?

Typical criteria

A modern board game must meet a few criteria. A comprehensive list is beyond the scope of this page. However, one can present some of them:

• No players must be out of the game early. All players must stand a chance, however small, to win the game till the very end.
• The game must last a reasonable amount of time. Family games typically last 45 minutes.
• Modern games are based on interesting mechanisms that keep players on the edge of their seats. Players face difficult decisions. Making the right ones is important to win.
• Modern games are fluid, with little downtime. To avoid any lengthy process, some games make everyone play simultaneously. For turn-based games, designers make sure that everyone is active even when it is not their turn to play
• Modern games benefit from quality work of illustrators which reinforce the theme

It is easy to see that a classic game like Monopoly hardly meets any of these criteria. By today’s standards, Monopoly would never be published.

Game designers and publishers

Modern board games are created by game designers. Some of them are professional like Reiner Knizia, Bruno Cathala, Michael Schacht.

Designing a game is not something easy: game designers must work within the requirements described in previous section.

The initial idea of a game may be thematic (like a game on the Titanic). It may also be a mechanics. In any case, a good game will eventually see theme and mechanics melt together which will result in a fun and immersive experience for the player.

Once game designers have designed a playable game, they must then play-test it. This phase is extremely important as this is the only way to see whether the intended ideas/feelings/rules work in practice. More often than not, the game does not work properly until a lot of tests are completed and adjustments made to the rules.

When a prototype is finally good enough, publishers have a look at it. Only a very small percentage of prototypes shown to publishers are actually published and this is the first job of the publisher: selecting good games.

Once a game has been accepted by a publisher, another lengthy process starts: play-testing some more to get rid of the slightest issues, choosing the right material within the budget, improving the ergonomics/fluidity, finding a theme (for games that don’t have one yet), illustrating it, and finally bringing it to the market.

All in all, the creation of a game always spans over a long period, very often 2-3 years.

Some have argued that game design is an art. It is at the very least a very creative process.