Showing posts with label Mint Works. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mint Works. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Minimalism can get in the way

I am a big fan of micro games. A lot of that comes from how, when I first started out, my game collection could fit into a backpack and most of my gaming was at coffee shops. Easy to transport and small footprint were a big deal for me.

Actually, I’ve come full circle a bit because, when I go to a gaming event these days, I just want to take a small courier bag of games with me. (Of course, that’s because I can count on other folks bringing huge bags of big games)

With game lines like the old Hip Pocket Games from Cheapass Games and Pack O Game and Button Shy’s Wallet Games, not to mention individual micro games like Love Letter, I can still get quite the variety in a small bag.

BUT I recently found myself thinking that minimalism can get in the way of teaching, particularly with non-gamers. What gets stripped out can become a barrier for entry.

(And, sweet Catan, it took me four paragraphs to get to the point I wanted to make. Cats alive, I can ramble!)

I’m not a big chrome or theme guy but there’s no denying that those are things that can help not just make a game pretty but easier to understand and play. And those are things that minimalist games, by their very nature, minimize. With some games, it almost seems like the designers assume players will already know core concepts so they can skip them. I have definitely read RPGs like that.

This occurred to me when I found myself comparing Mint Factory to Sticky Fingers, both very light and simple worker placement games. Mint Factory literally fits in a mint tin, which means that it fits in most pockets. Sticky Fingers, with a board and different decks of cards, requires an actual, if small, box.

That said, Mint Factory has a _slightly_ opaque flow of how you build things and the workers are also effectively money. Those are _very_ low barriers to entry and even a minimally experienced gamer should have no problems. But I don’t think it’s a good intro to concepts, just a very portable and very decent game.

Sticky Fingers, on the other hand, has a board which explicitly shows the flow of the game. It also has a very accessible theme. You are burglars who get to tools to steal loot to sell. It is more accessible by having a clear flow of actions and having a theme, bolstered by the art, that makes the actions easy to understand. 

I like both games but I’d rather teach Sticky Fingers to my parents or other folks who have no idea what worker placement is. (I am, of course, ignoring the fact that I’d really use Stone Age or Lords of Waterdeep (or even Agricola, which was my wife’s first worked placement game) )

I appreciate minimalism but sometimes it doesn’t help.

Monday, September 12, 2016

Mint Works - minimalism at work

The Kickstarter for Mint Works is almost at an end and it's been funded well and above the goal. Enough that a number of stretch goals have been met. When a game is that small, even a little bit extra can be a big expansion.

I've kept my eye on Mint Works ever since I first saw it as part of a PnP contest. I've been interested in micro games pretty much since I got into board games but Mint Works manages to be something different from other micro games I've seen.

It does that just by being a worker placement game and a pretty straight foward one at that. The actions are pretty simple. Get more workers, get building plans, building buildings from plans. Whoever gets seven points in buildings first wins.

The original version of the game consisted of two pages of cards, plus whatever tokens you used for workers. I know the Kickstarter version will have more cards but we are still talking tiny. Smaller than any other worker placement game I've come across.

One difference from most worker placement games I've seen is that you don't get your workers back. They as effectively currency and you need to get more through a very limited income or actions or buildings. Still, since everyone is competing for a limited pool of actions so the basic mechanic of worker placement holds true.

The placeholder for simplest worker placement game for me used to be Sticky Fingers. That's a game where you play rival thieves and you have to gather up tools, use those tools to steal stuff and then fence the stuff off for money which is called points in the game.

And I do like Sticky Fingers. While it is simple, it has enough tension and complexity to keep it interesting. However, what it is not is an engine builder. The board is effectively the engine and you are fighting to use it the most efficiently. 

Mint Works is in the running to be my new simplest worker placement game. It is honestly simpler and it is a worker placement game. And, as a micro game, it feels a different role as far as gaming needs are concerned.

And, unlike Sticky Fingers, Mint Works is an engine builder. The powers of the buildings give you are awfully simple but they are there. You definitely have to build up your infrastructure as well as going for points.,What I am uncertain of is how strong it's replay value is. The Kickstarter version, with more cards, does add promise for replay.

Mint Works is definitely a fascinating work of minimalism.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/200077/mint-works

Monday, August 29, 2016

Couple little PnP projects

I have found myself working on a couple of little Print and Play projects without even meaning to.

Some months ago, I took note of Mint Works when it was part of a Print and Play contest with the specific requirement that the game had to fit into a mint tin.

Mint Works stood out to me because it was a worker placement game, consisting of less than twenty cards and some tokens. I've seen a lot of micro games but this was the first worker placement micro game I'd seen.

It's now on Kickstarter so I decided to make a copy from the files from the contest in order to check it out. Got to check out the twin questions of fun and replayability.

I've also begun work on the B&W PnP version of Herbaceous, a game about drafting cards and collecting sets. The theme appeals to us and I'm going to try and color the cards by hand. Which might be silly  and might mean we might not try until after that Kickstarter is over but it will be fun.