An Interview with Jamey Stegmaier—Designer of Viticulture

Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for us, Jamey. Could you tell us a little about yourself? I’m the co-founder of Stonemaier Games in St. Louis, along with my friend Alan Stone. I LOVE board games—I’ve been playing and designing board games since I was 8 years old (I’m a haggard, weather-worn 31 now). I’m an avid reader and writer; I play soccer, and I have two cats that keep me on my toes. They were not helpful in creating Viticulture.

What was your inspiration for creating your new game Viticulture?

A few factors played into the inspiration for creating Viticulture. I had a few key mechanics that I wanted to use in a game, and I was fascinated by both the romanticism and complexity of running a vineyard. So I combined the two into a vineyard in a box.

Would someone who didn’t like wine still find something to love about your game?

Oh, definitely. At heart, this is a worker-placement game with some hand management and production optimizing, so if you enjoy those mechanics... I also think that regardless of your interest in wine, people who enjoy the following elements of gaming will really enjoy Viticulture:

1. Scalability: Viticulture is a 2-6 person game. Depending on the number of players, different numbers of worker placement spots on the game board are available. Thus the game feels the same whether you’re playing with 2 players or a larger group.
2. Conflict Without Hostility: I designed the game so that people would walk away feeling elated, not frustrated. Thus you can’t block people in Viticulture unless you can actually take the action you’re claiming. There is conflict—after all, there are a limited number of spots on the board—but no hostility.
3. Flow: Have you ever played a game where you have to wait 10 minutes with nothing to do before it’s your turn? Viticulture is not one of those games. Players place workers one at a time (not all workers for one player, then all for the next), so you have a constant stream of choices to make.

Not really a question, but I’ve never seen a money-back guarantee on a Kickstarter board game before. That’s a great idea!

Thanks! My backers are placing their trust in me to create a great game (and they’re pledging funds so that my game can be a reality), so I want to reciprocate their trust and generosity by offering their money back if they return the game within a month of receiving it. It’s my way of standing behind the Viticulture experience I’m creating.

I noticed that 3 of your top 5 games are worker placement games. Do you like any other type of games or game mechanisms? Which ones?

Sure, definitely. Dominion (deckbuilding) is high on that list, as is Ra (auctioning). I also enjoy games that feature drafting, and I love the idea behind tile-placement games (but have yet to find one that completely fulfills what I want—I might have to design it myself).

What was your gateway game?

There have been a number of gateway games in my life, each to a new level of gaming. I’d say that the biggest gateways were chess, then Risk, then Settlers of Catan, then Agricola. And lots in between. I feel like every innovative game opens a new gate.

One-Word Answers:

Buffy or Angel?

Buffy

Coffee: Iced, hot, or neither?

Neither (I drink the occasional Frappucino, but that’s it)

Favorite author?

I’m an avid reader in a variety of genres, so this question is near impossible to answer. I’ll say that my favorite author right now is Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One.

Favorite place you’ve visited?

Man, you want a one-word answer for this? So many amazing places out there! I’m trying to decide between Stonehenge or Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. Stonehenge has been around for thousands of years, so it’s not going anywhere. Thus I’ll say Fallingwater, because it probably won’t last nearly as long.

The judges have decided to deduct 5 points for not keeping your answers to only one word. Nevertheless, thanks again for answering our questions!

Thank you! Your blog is one of the first gaming blogs I started reading, so it’s an honor to participate in an interview as a designer here.

Make sure you hit up Jamey's Kickstarter campaign for Viticulture. There are only four days left! And thanks for reading!

Kickstarter Odds and Ends

It seems like more and more often there are more and more games being brought to market through Kickstarter. Today I thought we'd take a quick peek at a few up-and-coming titles, and some that are giant successes already! The first is the quirky "Salmon Run" a modular board/deck builder that recreates the epic struggle of fish to make babies... Designed by Jesse Catron.

Airborne in Your Pocket which only has a few hours left, is flirting with the $100,000 mark! That's $70,000 OVER the funding goal! The game is a co-op tile=laying WWII action game. It looks fun, but a little pricey too.

Heroes of Metro City - Another deck builder with a role-playing twist. Looks a bit like Dominion in spandex, with some fun superpower action tossed in.

Get Bit! Deluxe  Mayday Games is Kickstarting a new pirate themed version of their 2012 Origins award winner, with new graphics and dismemberment. And it comes in a nifty tin too!

There are just a few short hours left in the Resistance: Avalon campaign.

And don't forget, Mars Needs Mechanics! Nevermore games is still in the middle of their campaign for their second title. We interviewed designer Ben Rosset, and Nevermore games' co-founder Bryan Fischer, click their names to find out more about what's going on at Nevermore games!

And we watched Dice Hate Me Games' Great Heartland Hauling Co. roll in hitting their last stretch goal with seconds to spare! Read our interview with designer Jason Kotarski here!

So, what Kickstarter campaigns are you backing? Leave 'em in the comments!

Tooth & Nail: Factions

By Firestone A while back I wrote about my Love/Hate relationship with Kickstarter, and in that article I mentioned a project I was going to back on faith. Well Tooth & Nail: Factions is that game. Was it worth my backing dollars?

Well you’ll just have to read and find out…

The game is put out by Small Box Games, so it comes in a…small box. I like the size a lot, but there’s not a lot of room for expansions—if they make any. (Though it should be noted my copy is sleeved.) It plays 2-4 players, but based on the different rules for 3 and 4 players, it seems like it would just be way better with only 2—and I've only played 2-player so far...

So the game comes with ~200 glossy cards. They’re decent quality, though I would suggest sleeving them. The game is all cards, so you’re moving, turning, playing, holding, and shuffling them a lot. It’s not a deck-builder, so you won’t be handling them as much as you would in, say, Dominion, but still…

Those cards are divided into six Factions, each of which is designed to feel and play differently than the others, and Action Cards. Each Faction has five copies of six different troops. The game also comes with six oversized Faction cards that spell out each Faction’s unique in-game ability. My Kickstarted copy also came with six alternate Faction cards for more variety, and a Dogs of War variant that I have yet to try out.

I really like the artwork on the cards. It’s not super sharp, like some of the CCGs Fantasy Flight puts out (which I also like, btw). But this feels more raw and organic and earthy.

You’re trying to cause your opponent to run through his or her deck before you do: First person out of cards in their draw pile loses. So cards are life points, but they’re also your weapons to defeat your enemy.

The play area is divided into the War Zone and the Command Zone; when you play a troop card, you’ll play it down to one of those sections. The War Zone allows you to directly attack your opponent’s deck (but you ignore the special text on the troop card), or the Command Zone, where you don’t directly attack, but you will end up using the special text to affect things. The other important thing about the Command Zone is that at the beginning of your turn you’re able to draw one card for each card you have in your Command Zone.

You can either draw directly from your stack of cards, or you can draw an Action Card—a set of cards that are available to each player on his or her turn. You’ll need to use Action Cards to play cards down to the table, and to initiate an attack from the War Zone. One of my favorite aspects of the game is that the beginning of each turn forces you to make a tough decision about which type of cards you draw for that turn.

You don’t have to play an Action Card to activate a card in your Command Zone, but you have to discard the card after activation unless you have a copy of that exact card in your hand that you can discard. Sometimes losing that card is still a good choice; sometimes it isn’t… More tough choices.

The games last 15-30 minutes, and because of the variety of Factions (and 30 possible combinations of matchups), it’s easy to say, “Let’s play another quick game.”

Yes, there’s some luck of the draw, but I think each turn is more an exercise in playing what you have in the best way, rather than hoping you draw that one awesome card that’s in your deck. <cough-Magic-cough>

The Factions don’t feel completely different, but there’s definitely a different feel to each. The Enrodentia (rats) are weak, but have swarmish abilities. The Red Claws (dinosaurs) can take a beating (by pulling cards from their discard pile back into their draw deck). The Ostra Vultura (steampunk vultures!) mess with their opponent’s hand by forcing them to ditch cards, or by pulling cards from the opponent into the Vultura’s draw pile.

My one complaint is that sometimes the matchups seem to favor one side a bit. In one game my Pride Faction’s ability forced my opponent to remove his discards from the game, but he was playing the Vultura, and they don’t generally resurrect cards from their discard pile, so it didn’t really affect him. Meanwhile, his ability forced me to randomly discard a card from my hand. THAT WAS MUCH MORE USEFUL. But it could be that more experience will force me to be creative about what strengths I do have. It’s certainly not a deal-breaker at this point; it’s just something to be mindful of.

Overall, I’m liking Tooth and Nail: Factions quite a bit. And there are a few variations and expansions that I haven’t even touched yet, but I’m excited to give them a whirl!

This Kickstarter experience was great; I regret nothing. Thanks for reading!

The Great Heartland Hauling Co.—2 days and Counting...

With just over two days to go, The Great Heartland Hauling Co. is sitting at $25,000 on their Kickstarter campaign! They've already made enough to include an expansion, and cool wooden truck pieces, and they're only ~$2,000 away from adding the ability to play with 5 players, and a couple of extra Badlands cards to throw into the mix. If you're one of those people who waits until the last minute, we're nearly there! And if you'd like to read our interview with designer Jason Kotarski, click right here on this blue underlined area that you're reading right now. Thanks for reading!

Mars Needs Mechanics Hits Kickstarter!

Well if you joined us earlier this week for our interview with game designer Ben Rosset. You know that today is the day that the newest title from Nevermore Games - Mars Needs Mechanics - hits Kickstarter. You can check out and back the campaign RIGHT HERE! While you're there you can see a few different videos about the game including some gameplay demos.

You can see the full interview with Ben Rosset here.

They're up and running and off to a good start, best of luck guys!

Thanks for reading and have a great holiday weekend everyone!

Looney Labs Launches a Kickstarter!

A few days ago the folks over at Looney Labs, headed up by Andy Looney, launched a Kickstarter campaign for the deluxe edition of "Are You a Werewolf?" If you haven't played the original game, it's essentially a werewolf version of the classic party game "Mafia," but uses cards to assign roles instead of an Moderator-type person. The deluxe edition, is actually pretty clever. It uses those little picture viewers they try to sell you at every theme park in the world. So instead of being handed a card, that could be marked/nicked up, you grab a picture viewer, take a peek and see who you are. I imagine these picture viewers could get nicked up too, but I would think they would be more durable, and it's pretty much impossible for someone to "accidentally" look at another players role.

Personally, I'm a fan of the old school Mafia game, but this could be a cool way to facilitate a Mafia game, instead of the old "if I tap you on the head you're the Mafia..." routine.

You can check out the Kickstarter page RIGHT HERE.

And as always, thanks so much for reading our little blog, we truly appreciate your support!

Bring Your Goggles - Mars Needs Mechanics Trailer

In the sentiment of the day, we thought we'd post the Mars Needs Mechanics teaser trailer here for you to check out. It's chock full of really cool imagery and makes us pretty excited for the game!

If you haven't read it already you can check out our interview with MNM designer Ben Rosset right HERE!

http://vimeo.com/48074144

And backers...the title hits Kickstarter Aug. 31!

Mars Needs Mechanics--An Interview with Ben Rosset

Last week, game designer Ben Rosset took a few minutes to answer all the burning questions we had about himself, his new game Mars Needs Mechanics, and the meaning of life. How did you become interested in designing board games?

I always loved playing board games from a young age. In junior high school, I asked my teacher if I could design a board game about a book instead of doing a book report. She said yes, and the game was a big hit! More recently, though, I need to credit my good friend Mike Swiryn, an amazing designer. We had been hanging out and playing games quite a bit (this was about 4 years ago). Then one day, he said, “Dude, check this out. I designed a game!” And that was it. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to get into board game design. I went home that night and wrote down some rules for an idea I had, and I was on my way. I haven’t stopped since.

What sparked the vision for Mars Needs Mechanics?

My goal was to make an easy to learn Economics game where players could only indirectly control the market price of goods, and where players would have to predict the behavior of everyone else in order to be successful. That led to the “Sales Order Line,” the driving force behind Mars Needs Mechanics. It’s a unique timing mechanism for controlling the price of the game’s components (Boilers, Wire, Lenses, Piping, etc), and it's what makes the game hum. People really love it. Its something new, and it’s a very simple system.

So, the Berkeley Breathed book and subsequent Disney film Mars Needs Moms didn't come into play? Or are you tired of being asked that?

No, Mars Needs Moms didn't come into play. To be honest, I didn't even know about that film (which I hear was a flop) before I named the game Mars Needs Mechanics. However, I did know about the 1967 film Mars Needs Women. It was more a play on that than the Disney film. And yes, people ask me this question a lot, but its ok...we invited the question when we decided on the name. If anything, its helped to spark a bit of interest in the game.

How did you land at Nevermore Games?

I was a slow-comer to social media, but I must credit Twitter here! Twitter recommended that I follow Nevermore Games. That’s how I first connected with them, about 3 weeks before PrezCon in February 2012. I met Bryan and John at PrezCon, they played the game, they loved it, and a week later they called me to say they wanted to publish it.

Mars Curiosity, legit, or TV studio production?

Legit all the way. I have faith that Curiosity is really on Mars. It would be too big of a production to fake it. They’d never keep everybody quiet. I’m now following the Curiosity Rover on Twitter, but I’m also following the Sarcastic Rover, a spoof of the real thing. They’re both great.

What are the top 5 games you're playing right now, and why?

With all the time we’ve been spending with Mars Needs Mechanics, I haven’t had much time to play other games. So I’ll give you three. First, I’m playing States: After the Fall. It’s an unpublished game by Mike Swiryn, Aaron Winkler, and David Golanty. I won’t give too much away about the game, but I know it's received tremendous feedback from publishers at conventions, and I suspect it will get picked up by a publisher very soon. After that, I’ll say For Sale, by Stefan Dorra. This is a game that has been on my list to try for quite a while, and I finally did a couple weeks ago. Short, simple, and addictive, I loved it right away. Third, Agricola is always on my list. Its still my favorite Euro game, and it's hard to imagine it ever getting knocked out of my top 5!

Is Mars Needs Mechanics your first game design, or are there others we should be checking out?

Its my first design that’s being published, but stay tuned. I’m working on others, and hope to be lucky enough to have more games published soon!

Other than "42," what is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?

Wow, this is a great interview! I’m quite confident that I will get closer to the answer to this as I get older, though I’m humble enough not to believe I’ll ever know it all. But for me, the meaning of life is to contribute as much as we can toward the increasing of peace and happiness, and as much as we can toward the cessation of suffering in the world.

Ok, the next 5 questions only require a one word response. The answer will explain it all!

Star Wars, or Trek?

Spaceballs

Favorite color?

Green

Marvel or DC?

DC (because I live there)

Aslan or Gandalf?

Aslan

Favorite pizza topping?

Artichokes

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Mars Needs Mechanics launches a Kickstarter campaign on midnight Aug. 31! As soon as we have a link, we'll post it here for you! But for now, click here if you want to check out Mars Needs Mechanics!

Our thanks goes out to Nevermore Games and Ben Rosset, you can follow them both on Twitter, @BenjaminRosset and @NevermoreGames. And of course we thank you, our readers, for your support!

The New Resistance Hits Kickstarter

Well, it's official. The "sequel" to The Resistance has a Arthurian theme—and it's now live on Kickstarter. A mere $20 gets you The Resistance: Avalon delivered to your door—plus whatever promos and stretch goals they come up with before the campaign ends in 22 days. One of the promos is a set of anime cards you can use to replace the character cards in the original game. Unfortunately, some of the characters are the stereotypical anime women with ridiculous proportions—like Dolly Parton in zero gravity. Also, one of the characters in the new version is Merlin, so if you're put off by any sort of "magic," you'll want to stick with the original game. A surprise announcement that coincided with this one was a 2nd edition of the original game, that features a larger box (so they can get the game into department stores), and upgraded components, such as a superfluous tableau for each player. The gameplay is completely unchanged, otherwise.

We're ridiculously excited for this game. What about you? Thoughts on the new direction? Thanks for reading!