#matt leacock

[tattoos4mnd]

Pandemic Legacy - Season 1. Board game I’m currently playing with friends and inspired this piece. Artwork comes from game but no tracing, all drawn freehand and put together to make this.

[talenlee]

Game Pile: Knit Wit

Matt Leacock is a heck of a designer. Part of the time I think he’s a great example of how once you have a reputation, you can do pretty much anything that strikes you as interesting. This isn’t really fair – I don’t have a strong continuity between all of his games and don’t know the order they came, but typically, if I mention a Matt Leacock game, I feel the obvious examples of his work are the big, elaborate games that require a host of pieces and a lot of attention to get working. You make Forbidden Skies and Pandemic Legacy and you’re going to get a reputation. Even just Pandemic is a game that has a lot of systems relating to one another in a grinding network of operations.

Wanna see a Leacock game that’s stripped down to almost nothing?

Knit Wit is a small game. That’s a zone of storage that you could see including games like Scout and Just One, but also games with a large deck of cards like say, Star Realms or Middleware (which yes, I made). Normally a ‘small’ game means that the box is portable, you can chuck it in a bag and go, and maybe get the game started fast. Knit Wit is a game in that same general space, but it feels remarkably different in that it has a different flow to its, forgive the reference, play loop.

The core of Knit Wit is a set of pegs on string loops. You start the game by setting out loops, attaching a word to a loop, and then placing a marker within a loop in a space that holds no marker. When all the markers are placed, and all the loops have words attached to them, players grab their pencils and pads and start filling in a list of words that they think correctly reside within those sets of things that belong to those words.

It’s a venn diagram homework puzzle, as a board game.

The game is partially, a negotiation game. You present your entries to the table, and they can challenge any of your word choices, whether they properly or clearly represent the concept you’ve attached them to. You have ten seconds to make your case, and they can disagree with you and then there’s a vote. It’s also a game of displacement, where you’re trying to make sure the words you pick for each of the categories that overlap are different from player to player. If you and I both think that Brian Cox is the best word for Nerdy and Hot, then yeah, we both get our word excluded. It’s also a race, where the only tension getting your words done in a particular speed is that only the two to four fastest players are going to get to control when the writing stops. You fill out as many words as you can, you grab a button signifying bonus points, and when the last of those buttons is taken, everyone has to stop writing. And of course it’s also a a strategically hollow game where trying to win is going to ruin the experience.

It’s weird! In the context of this game, and games like it, you are trying to get the highest score. But in a purely mechanical sense, your optimal play pattern is to challenge every word for your opponents, and then vote against them, because if everyone does that, they won’t get any points and you can deprive all players of any points. In that case, then, the only mechanically differentiated points are the buttons you grab. This obviously sucks as a play pattern and it’s boring. The game is inviting you to come in and play an argument about the meanings and exclusions of particular types of set theory. Trying to win the game in terms of optimal strategy instead of playing with the game in terms of its conceptual space is going to make sure you have a lousy time.

What it lacks in mechanical sinew though it compensates for with an indulgent presentation. The box is a clamshell magnet-sealed structure with a cardboard sleeve. The string for your loops, the pegs, the markers, they’re all beautifully made and lovely to touch. The rulebook looks amazing – two crisp pages with beautifully presented, well laid-out play information that flows cleanly – and it even smells nice. There are wooden parts in this game, rather than plastic, and once you know how the game is played you can make your own version out of a variety of kitbashed components, for whatever aesthetic you favour.

It’s that construction that presents my biggest problem with Knit Wit as a game. Those pads are lovely, they look amazing, and the aesthetic is really cool, since it evokes a blackboard. The fonts? Beautiful!

It’s also black paper which you need white pencils to draw on.

White pencils that you probably don’t have at home. White pencils that are transported in a box, in shipping, to wherever you live. White pencils that you have to sharpen. White pencils that can, say, be broken all through the core of the pencil, and that means you don’t get to write nicely and clearly for your game. Whiteboard markers and littl rewriteable pieces of plastic would not look as nice. White pads that any pencil or pen would work on would not look as nice. Nothing would look as nice.

But they would be a little more convenient than these pencils.

You can blur through a round of Knit Wit very quickly if you’re trying to, and you shouldn’t be trying to. If you’re going to play it quickly and try to get high scores, you’re going to do it in a way that relies on playing round after round and aggregating them. The whole game’s system is about presenting yourself with a challenging word puzzle that you can then justify. It owns a lot in common with games like Scattergories, or Friend Of The Blog Just One, but instead of Just One’s collaborative ‘well you can do better’ scoring, Knit Wit is built to be a competitive environment for having arguments about definitions.

It’s a word game, but with a ten second timer, and with the puzzle being so difficult nobody should feel too bad about moving through things quickly.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[boardgoats]

Boardgames in the News: Role-playing Climate Resilience

It was nearly ten years ago that Stuart West, a Professor of Evolutionary Biology in the Department of Zoology, Oxford, used playing board games as a teaching tool to understand evolution and published his results in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature.1 Now, Matt Leacock‘s new game, Daybreak has been reviewed in the journal Science.2 – Image from amazon.com Matt Leacock is best known…

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 12.30

Beer Birthdays

None Known

Five Favorite Birthdays

Douglas Coupland; Canadian writer (1961)

Rudyard Kipling; English writer (1865)

Michael Nesmith; pop singer, songwriter (1942)

Patti Smith; poet, writer, rock singer (1946)

Fred Ward; actor (1942)

Famous Birthdays

Joseph Bologna; actor (1934)

Paul Bowles; writer (1910)

James Burrows; TV director (1940)

Alain Chapel; Nouvelle Cuisine chef (1937)

Skeeter Davis; singer (1931)

Bo Diddley; rock singer (1928)

Eliza Dushku; actor (1980)

Heidi Fleiss; prostitution madam (1965)

Sean Hannity; right-wing stooge and wingnut (1961)

LeBron James; Cleveland Cavaliers F (1984)

Davy Jones; English actor, pop singer (1945)

Sandy Koufax; Brooklyn/L.A. Dodgers P (1935)

Kristen Kreuk; Canadian actor (1982)

Matt Lauer; television journalist (1957)

Vincent Lopez; jazz bandleader (1895)

Jack Lord; actor (1920)

Jeff Lynne; pop singer, songwriter, music producer (1947)

Stephen Leacock; Canadian writer (1869)

John Milne; seismologist (1850)

Haley Paige; porn actor (1981)

Bert Parks; actor, television show host (1914)

Carol Reed; film director (1906)

Del Shannon; pop singer (1934)

Ryan Sheckler; skateboarder (1989)

Alfred E. Smith; politician (1873)

Paul Stookey; singer (1937)

Russ Tamblyn; actor (1934)

Tracey Ullman; English actor, singer (1959)

Tiger Woods; golfer (1975)

[reportwire]

A Brief History of Board Games

A Brief History of Board Games

When is losing together more fun than winning by yourself? In this premiere episode of Mental Floss’s new series, The History of Fun, we look for an answer. Matt Leacock, one of the world’s preeminent collaborative board game designers, weighs in. So does self-described board game nerd—and Mental Floss producer/host—Justin Dodd. Subscribe to the Mental Floss YouTube channel for more (history of)…

[tvjust]

Mom hid my game 2 day 49

Talisman: Digital Edition is a Strategy, Role-playing, Single and Multiplayer Board game developed and published by Nomad Games. With addictive gameplay, superb mechanics, and brilliant controls, Krosmaster Arena is the wonderful game to amuse. Krosmaster Arena includes key features such as Little Heroes, Create your Team, and Discover more Fighters, different Modes and more. Each fighter has its unique skills and abilities. Explore the game world, play with or against other players, earn experience points by completing levels and unlock other fighter heroes. The game includes four different modes such as Campaign mode, tournament mode, match mode, and dungeon mode. It has a set of levels and each level is more complex as compared to last one. There are tons of characters and you are able to create your own team and train them to dominate the battlefield. The game lets you challenge other players around the world in a board game and defeat them to show your strategies. It has both Single and Multiplayer modes. Krosmaster Arena mixes different elements such as Strategy, Role-playing, and Board Game created and published by Ankama Studio. With addictive gameplay, exciting features, different modes and superb visuals, Pandemic: The Board Game is the wonderful game to play and enjoy. Each card represents a city name and special event with multiple actions. There are two types of cards (Infection cards and Player cards), Six Research Stations, and four different colors of cubes for each player. The game has a massive network connecting with more than 48 cities on the Earth’s map. You must find the cures of the diseases with the help of the players and complete your goals before it’s too late. The game offers amazing gameplay, unlike others that are cooperative rather than competitive. It includes five playable characters such as medic, operation expert, researcher, scientist, and dispatcher, and lets you select your role and dive into the game world threatened by the terrible diseases. Gameplay revolves around four diseases which spread in the world. Pandemic: The Board Game is Tactics, Cooperative, and logistic Board game developed by Matt Leacock.

[tiny-design]

The cooperative nature of Forbidden Desert is balanced during play by a handful of major factors, but the biggest is that the larger the total number of players in the game (from 2 to 5), the more opportunities the game has to cause problems. While more players means that a greater amount of the map can be explored each round, after every turn each player must pick up a set number of cards from the Sandstorm deck, each of which can cause A) the amount of sand to increase in a specific location, B) increase the number of cards drawn each turn, or C) reduce the total water for players not hidden from the sun. All of these factors lead to a race against time and luck for all the players involved, and thus serves to keep the game consistent and balanced throughout no matter how many players are involved.

[bran-ridire]

Please be the start of a hype train, and not a quick nostalgia cash grab because Final Fantasy has taken your place as the number one MMO... which... I’m not gonna lie, if running dungeons wasn’t a requirement to progress the story I might jump over to FF myself.

[gameosity]

Gameosity Reviews Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America

Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America is a new, compact version of the original Pandemic by Matt Leacock. In this smaller, streamlined form, can it still give you that essential Pandemic feel? Find out in Andrew's review of Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America!

https://is.gd/L1cUO3

[boardgaminggeek]

Teaching the co-op classic Pandemic today, let's save the world

[cinematografieliebhaber]

Pandemic - Ausnahmezustand von Matt Leacock und Tom Lehmann ist eine Erweiterung für das Brettspiel Pandemie, welches bei Asmodee Spiele erscheint. Pandemie ist kooperatives Spiel, bei dem die Spieler im Wettlauf gegen die Zeit, Heilmittel gegen vier schreckliche Seuchen finden müssen. Die Erweiterung bietet nun unter anderem 4 weitere, zum Teil kompatible Spielmodi an, um das Spiel noch spannender und abwechslungsreicher zu machen oder auch um den Schwierigkeitsgrad anpassen zu können.

[its-astrotea-love]

Game reserved at library finally came

How fitting

[whovian223]

Boardgame Geek Top 100 - Played or Play? 90-81

Boardgame Geek Top 100 - Played or Play? 90-81 @FFGames @EditionsMatagot @Zmangames_ @riograndegames @PlayRenegade @garphillgames @SpaceCowboysUS @NorthStarGames

With the previous post in this series doing so well, I guess I should do more of them and finish the job, eh?

Last week’s post was a lot of fun and I got some great feedback. Thanks to those of you who stopped by and left your thoughts.

This week (assuming I don’t do two posts a week) we’re going to be looking at #90-81 of the Boardgame Geek Top 100 and we’ll see just how many of them I’ve played…

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 12.30

Beer Birthdays

None Known

Five Favorite Birthdays

Douglas Coupland; Canadian writer (1961)

Rudyard Kipling; English writer (1865)

Michael Nesmith; pop singer, songwriter (1942)

Patti Smith; poet, writer, rock singer (1946)

Fred Ward; actor (1942)

Famous Birthdays

Joseph Bologna; actor (1934)

Paul Bowles; writer (1910)

James Burrows; TV director (1940)

Alain Chapel; Nouvelle Cuisine chef (1937)

Skeeter Davis; singer (1931)

Bo Diddley; rock singer (1928)

Eliza Dushku; actor (1980)

Heidi Fleiss; prostitution madam (1965)

Sean Hannity; right-wing stooge and wingnut (1961)

LeBron James; Cleveland Cavaliers F (1984)

Davy Jones; English actor, pop singer (1945)

Sandy Koufax; Brooklyn/L.A. Dodgers P (1935)

Kristen Kreuk; Canadian actor (1982)

Matt Lauer; television journalist (1957)

Vincent Lopez; jazz bandleader (1895)

Jack Lord; actor (1920)

Jeff Lynne; pop singer, songwriter, music producer (1947)

Stephen Leacock; Canadian writer (1869)

John Milne; seismologist (1850)

Haley Paige; porn actor (1981)

Bert Parks; actor, television show host (1914)

Carol Reed; film director (1906)

Del Shannon; pop singer (1934)

Ryan Sheckler; skateboarder (1989)

Alfred E. Smith; politician (1873)

Paul Stookey; singer (1937)

Russ Tamblyn; actor (1934)

Tracey Ullman; English actor, singer (1959)

Tiger Woods; golfer (1975)

[scottbcrowley2]

The game of real life: Matt Leacock discusses his 2008 board game Pandemic, its inspiration, sheltering in place - Thu, 09 Apr 2020 PST

For those wondering whether the police are pulling over civilians during the novel coronavirus, the answer is yes. While chatting with Matt Leacock, a highway patrolman stopped the creator of the popular board game Pandemic for using his cellphone while driving. No ticket was issued. The game of real life: Matt Leacock discusses his 2008 board game Pandemic, its inspiration, sheltering in place - Thu, 09 Apr 2020 PST

[intimate-mirror]

Today I finished reading Worth the Candle, up to the current chapter - 184 - anyways, and also Meeples Together.

Worth the Candle is a long fiction work playing on a genre I haven’t read in, as well as the way D&D and similar games work. It contains very inventive worldbuilding and well-controlled pacing. It also has a great diversity of distinctive personalities, and because the cast is pretty large that’s welcome. The tension and curiosity that it continues to create after the first few chapters feels earned, and the premise allows for meaning and real stakes to the conflicts. On the other hand, the premise itself despite being thematically resonant feels like too general an explanation for the story’s events. The main character is incredibly overpowered from the beginning, which makes it harder for me to feel invested in the team as a whole rather than in individual members and goals. Outside of a few scenes, the sexuality in the book (of which there was a decent amount) was off-putting to me, and I’d feel awkward recommending it to someone. The first chapter’s prose stopped me from reading it several times, but when I pushed through it I stopped noticing the  I still think it is very well put together, and 

Meeples Together is a non-fiction book about how current co-operative board games work, coming up with a vocabulary and structure to talk about them, discussing design options, creating a theory about how and why they work, and throughout the book pointing out promising unexplored directions in which to take the genre. It has lots of rather unhelpful diagrams, and I think it focuses heavily on about a dozen of cooperative games (especially Matt Leacock’s games) to the unfortunate exclusion of many others. Despite this, the framework of a challenge system it brings up is original and simultaneously general enough to encompass cooperative games and specific enough to constrain design. In other words, the structure of a challenge system which they present contains real informational content about existing successful cooperative games.