Brooks Barber

Oh shit I’d make this

I would make it more explicit, honestly. I think framing matters a ton. I would go one of two routes: a full-on recommended setup for a first play, or nothing and let them figure it out. If you go with the recommended setup, frame it with a why and not just a how.

We had a solid metal and cloth one growing up that I swear was 50 years old and still worked better than anything plastic.

But did you demo at the state fair between the sham wow and the Kirby vacuums?

Happy to be part of the “dry erase era” of Hollandspiele’s history!

Go get this very cool and very weird and very thought-provoking game! Limited print run in this one.

Many more to come!!

This is the kind of personalization you can only get with small batch print runs. An amazing little detail from someone putting in an incredible amount of thought to how each game presents itself.

Ironically, CEO is one position that GenAI could definitely replace right now

They definitely sell filler foam like this. You could buy it bigger and cut it down to size with an xacto knife or similar

Lizzie Component Creation YouTube video by Geoffrey Engelstein

I've been working on a free, open source (FOSS) virtual tabletop program aimed at designers (using Godot). Over the last few months I've been focusing on component creation.

I'm looking for feedback and collaborators - please consider joining the team!

youtu.be/f3gy7jlzHdk?...

This is GREAT news! Leder made the right choice here. Happy for Liz, Leder Games, and all the people who will get awesome games out of this.

I agree with his pushing back, not that mass is worse by being simpler.

Based on the context of his historical posts, I think Eric is pushing back against the opposite idea, that mass market games are not as good as "true" hobby games because they are simpler. Which I agree with. But the truth is every type of game has an audience, and pushing extremes is a trap.

Basically, players want the complexity of a game to be worth it. They want to be pulled along by the strength of a game's narrative arc as much as by its mechanical arc. This is true across historical and euro games both.

Games like John Company and Molly House have clear narrative structures and pointed arguments. Games like Nucleum and Ark Nova do not. But something like Hansa Teutonica or Nemesis or Spirit Island, while complex, still roots itself in a story players can latch onto.

My hypothesis here is that the real culprit in turning people off from complex games is the lack of reasonable narrative framing for those games. Historical games offer compelling stories, and well-designed games cement themselves in their narratives.

Cole makes a very important point. My only addition here would be that I personally believe what turns people off about the traditionally complex Euro-style games I think Eric is referencing here is not the complexity itself but the lack of connection players feel. Mini 🧵

Dan is making some of the most interesting games in the hobby. You should check this one out!

Very cool!

Looks like something out of Star Wars

I usually make lists in tiers based on what I perceive as fit and my preference, then I’ll just send pitches by tier. A tier could be 3 or 25 publishers.

Whoa, congrats!!

Thanks!!!

Exactly. The fact that he thinks he is doing the right thing doesn't have any bearing whatsoever on whether or not THEY are doing the right thing...

Thanks Zach! Looking forward to playing some games in person

Thank you!!

Thanks Taylor! I’ll surely miss your games and company at San Diego!

Thanks!!

Thanks! I appreciate that. Hoping to still make it to circle dc for one last stateside hoorah!