Space-Biff! Space-Cast! Space-Cast! #31. An Undaunting Conversation
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Aug 23, 2023 Game designers Trevor Benjamin and David Thompson discuss WWII, historical game inclusions and omissions, authorial intent in board games. They also explore collaborating with other designers, family stories from WWII, reservations and considerations in designing a WWII game, sustainability in gaming, game development process with Tabletop Simulator, and whether board games can be considered art.
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Streamline Mechanisms To Improve Flow
- Simplify subsystems wherever possible to speed play and reduce cruft.
- Trevor replaced a complex suppression phase with a single flipped counter approach to streamline Undaunted's mechanics.
Stalingrad Was Planned As A Destructive Legacy
- Osprey originally wanted a destructive legacy Stalingrad with stickers and tearable components.
- Trevor and David developed it as a legacy concept but later pivoted to a resettable design swapping tiles instead of permanent destruction.
Resettable Legacy Requires Bigger Components
- Replacing stickers with alternate tiles preserves replayability but increases component count and box size.
- The resettable decision kept experience but required extra cards and tiles, forcing a much larger box.