Beautiful Boards

July 27, 2024 3:14 AM

Designers and artists are pushing the boundaries with some boardgames. Some wargames have beautiful boards. Some designs are beautiful and joyful. People make lists on Reddit and on BoardGameGeek. Some people design elegant boardgames.
posted by cupcakeninja (9 comments total)

There is something about a game that is well-designed graphically as well as mechanically that takes it into the next level. I recently picked up Illimat, which is a fairly basic card game with very nice graphics. It’s pleasurable on a number of levels.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:18 AM on July 27 [1 favorite]

I'm an enthusiast of pretty board games and I'm very, very tempted to nitpick some of the picks in these links. I'll suppress the negative comments and wholehearted assert that, among the games listed, I love and admire Canvas the most. The cards are beautiful, it's easy to play, and the mechanics are interesting and unique.

(But um actually, it doesn't have a beautiful board. It is played on a rolled up mat.)
posted by Pitachu at 6:30 AM on July 27 [1 favorite]

I was wondering if Everdell would be on the list. It's a very cute game and the three dimensional tree is a nice gimmick.

I would put Wingspan way above it for overall aesthetics, though. The board on Everdell is cluttered when you play, and you're constantly reading the fine print. With Wingspan IME, you spend must of your time staring at beautiful images. I've never wanted to play a card in Everdell because I love the art, but give me an indigo bunting . . . .

There is something about a game that is well-designed graphically as well as mechanically that takes it into the next level. I recently picked up Illimat, which is a fairly basic card game with very nice graphics. It’s pleasurable on a number of levels.

IIRC, Illimat literally started as a visual prop in a (Decembrists?) music video, and looked cool enough that a designer built rules around it.
posted by mark k at 6:39 AM on July 27 [5 favorites]

Upscale standard games (like those in the beautiful and joyful link) kind of piss me off, but I will not pretend that I don't Want Them. Well, maybe not the $29 Pick-Up-Sticks.
posted by fleacircus at 11:02 AM on July 27 [1 favorite]

From the 'Beautiful and Joyful' link: Lucite Jumbling Tower

Oh fuck off. Stop ripping off Jenga, and stop buying rip-offs of Jenga.

Jenga was first published in 1983. It is not a folk game, it is only 41 years old. Its creator, Leslie Scott, is still working. She is almost certainly the most successful female game designer of the last fifty years: Jenga has sold over 100 million copies--not including cheap rip-offs.

(Sidenote: 100m copies is an extraordinary number, not just for games but for any cultural artefact. The Great Gatsby? 30m. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours? 40m. The awareness and impact of games is massively understated.)

The other thing about Jenga, the other reason not to buy cheap knock-off copies, is that the official pieces are carefully engineered to be slightly different sizes. Some will slide out easier than others, and that's deliberate. If all the pieces are the same, it changes the dynamics of the tower and not in a good way. A pretty version is all very well, but if it breaks the gameplay then it's pointless.
posted by Hogshead at 1:32 PM on July 27 [2 favorites]

Eh, Jenga was proceeded in the West by Ta-la-radi, a slightly different game based on an African game.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:53 PM on July 27

You mean Ta-Ka-Radi? A couple of years ago I put some time into checking that out, and reached two main conclusions:
1. I couldn't find any references to, descriptions, photographs or examples of this native African stacking game.
2. The Pearson family say they found Ta-Ka-Radi in Ghana in the 1970s. The Scott family, who invented Jenga, were living in Ghana in 1974, and employed a local carpenter to make multiple sets of the game, which they called 'Takoradi Bricks' and gave to friends, local businesses and clubs. (Takoradi is Ghana's main port, where the carpenter was located.) I've seen photographs of one of these sets: it has the name 'Takoradi Bricks' on a plaque on the lid of the wooden box.

(References: 'About Jenga' by Leslie Scott, 2010; personal conversations with Leslie Scott 2018-2023)
posted by Hogshead at 5:30 AM on July 28 [2 favorites]

Yes, I meant Ta-Ka-Radi. I worked at a store that sold both over the course of the 80s, and Jenga was the second by at least a couple of years. That could have been an artifact of US distribution, but Jenga appeared later in that market, although acquisition by Hasbro meant that Jenga is the one people have heard of. Ta-Ka-Radi still seems to be sold by a small company trying for an “artisanal” market.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:43 AM on July 28

To get more back on track, I’ve been impressed by the physical presentation of the Wehrlegig Games products (Pax Pamir and John Country), and the rules are well-written, too.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:29 PM on July 28