Ad blocker detected: Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker on our website.
Dutch version:
Van zondag 18 september tot en met zaterdag 24 september zal Bruno Faidutti, bekend van ondermeer Machiavelli, Mysterie van de abdij, Valley of the Mammoths en Spiel releases Lost Temple en Dragon's Gold in dit topic al jullie vragen beantwoorden.
1. Iedereen mag vragen stellen, maar doe dit wel in het Engels. Bruno spreekt geen Nederlands.
2. Nummer svp je vragen en houd rekening met de nummering van de vorige poster. Dat maakt het makkelijker voor Bruno om te antwoorden en voor jullie om te herleiden welk antwoord bij welke vraag hoort.
3. Overbodig om te melden, maar toch: uiteraard gelden alle huisregels over etiquette, respect, et cetera. Behandel hem als onze gast en zorg dat hij zich enorm welkom voelt… Maar dat kunnen we vast aan jullie overlaten, daar twijfelen wij niet aan
Vanaf nu kun je onderstaand je vragen posten!
English version:
From Sunday, September 18 until Saturday, September 24, Bruno Faidutti, famous for games as Machiavelli, Mysterie van de abdij, Valley of the Mammoths and Spiel releases Lost Temple and Dragon's Gold, will answer all your questions in this topic.
1. Everyone is allowed to ask Bruno some questions, but please do this in English, as Bruno doesn't speak Dutch.
2. Please number your questions and reckon with the numbering of your predecessor. This will make it easier for Bruno to answer, and for us, to find out which answer belongs to which question.
3. Needless to say, but... of course, all our houserules apply. Treat him with the utmost respect and make Bruno feel very welcome! However, we do know for sure that we can leave this all up to you
From now on you can start posting the questions you would like to ask him below!
Welcome. I'd first like to thank you not only for some great games but also for lots of interesting reads on your website and hope you keep up the good work on both fronts.
14. When I play your games (yesterday for example we had a hilarious 8-player game of Diamant, but in Citadels and in Dragons gold it's also very striking) I always recognize a lot of interaction and an effort to keep playing time and rules length reasonable. Would you ever consider making a complex game with less interaction?
15. When reading your website, I think you have a good view on the gaming business as a whole. Do you think there are enough new interesting and innovating mechanics at the moment or has everything been made before?
16. If you had the choice between playing 10 new games or playing 2 known good games 5 times, what would you choose?
1. What is, in your opinion, the best game you've created yourself and why?
My opinion on this can change, but at the moment I think it's Isla Dorada. It's hard to explain why, I just feel that it's exactly what I wanted it to be, challenging, agressive, simple. Most systems are not new, but the game feels fresh and new. Also, and it's important, it's usually impossible until the end to know who is really winning because of the secret goals, so everybody is in the game until the end. And the graphics are gorgeous, even when I'm not responsible for them.
2. I would love to know when and how you got the first idea of " Lets make a boardgame!!" ?
It was in the early eighties, for Baston, and it was almost made on order. It was the beginning of the boardgame and role playing games industry in France, and I happened to know people who were starting a company and wanted a complex simulation game with a light theme, so, together with Pierre Cléquin, we came up with Baston, a bar brwl simulation.
3. What is your favorite boardgame of this moment? (It cannot be one of your own , haha no offcourse it can!!)
I think my two favorite boardgames almost never changed - Cosmic Encounter and Ave Caesar.
4. Where do you get idea's for making games like Lost Temple, Dragon's Gold and The Dwarf King?
Mostly from playing other games. After all, Lost Temple is somethink like Citadels meets Candyland, Dragon's Gold is a fun way or reproducing the discussions in our very first D & D sessions in the eighties, and the Dwarf King is just my take on trick taking games. Most of my games can be seen as a different way of making some other game I liked, or didn't like.
5. And do you start with a theme or do you use a different method?
I've no definite method, and in fact I hate having a method. Sometimes I start with a theme idea, sometimes with a mechanism, sometimes with some component, there's absolutely no rule.
6. Which of your games do you think will still be played in 50 years?
I bet Citadels and Knightmare Chess, if any. These are not necessarily my favorites, but they seem to be the gamers' favorites.
7. How often do you play games? And how often do you play your own designs?
I try to have a game session every week, but most times it's only every two weeks or so. Usually it's more or less half playing my prototypes, or friends ones, half playing some other games, mostly new stuff. I'm always interested in discovering new games.
8. I gather you often design games together with other designers. How do these collaborations happen?
Once more, there's no rule. Sometimes I have an idea for a game and feel that I won't be able to finalize it by myself, so I call Bruno Cathala, or Serge Laget, or the friend I feel most likely to be interested in this given idea. Sometimes I receive a proposal by email from other designers who feel "blecked" with a design and ask me to have a fresh look at it and help them develop it. That's what happened with the game I'm working on at the moment, Indian Derby, who was originally designed by Brazilian authors André Zatz and Sergio Halaban.
9. Why did you start handing out your own prize?
I don't remember why, but it's always fun to make the selection and decide which game will get it. And it attracts audience for my website, which probvably helps to sell my games.
10. How many games are you developing at the moment? Do you focus on one idea at a time, and do you jump back and forth between ideas?
I usually jump back and fort a lot, but I've decided to slow down and spend less time designing games, so I've only two designs I'm working on at the moment, and two relatively light ones.
11. Days of Wonder published small expansions for Small World, based on entries from contests. Would you consider something like that for your games?
That's more or less how the expansion characters for Citadels were designed, most of them caming from a contest held by the German publisher. I have no objection in anyone designing an expansion for one of my games... as far as I like the result.
12. Have you ever designed a game that would take a couple of hours to play? If not, would you?
I did. I took part in the redesign of Warrior Knights, and two of my eraly designs, Valley of the Mammoths and Baston, are long games. At the moment, however, I'm more excited at the idea of designing light card games.
I would dream of designing a party game, like Taboo or The Big Idea, but I'm afraid it's much harder than it looks, or I'm really not good at that.
13. I read on your website that you are a Unicorn Hunter. What does Unicorn meat taste like? (and is this a theme for new game?)
This just mean that I wrote my PhD on the scientific debate of the existence of the Unicorn from the late middle ages to the XVIIth century. Unfortunately, I found out that unicorns don't exist, so I never caught one.
14. When I play your games (yesterday for example we had a hilarious 8-player game of Diamant, but in Citadels and in Dragons gold it's also very striking) I always recognize a lot of interaction and an effort to keep playing time and rules length reasonable. Would you ever consider making a complex game with less interaction?
I've nothing against complex games. Cosmic Encounter is my all time favorite, and it's extremely complex. On the other hand, I really dislike games with no direct and agressive interaction. So, a complex game, why not - I did, in fact, with Baston or Valley of the Mammoths - but a multiplayer solitaire, probably not, unless I have a really great idea.
15. When reading your website, I think you have a good view on the gaming business as a whole. Do you think there are enough new interesting and innovating mechanics at the moment or has everything been made before?
I don't know. By definition, you don't know about a new and innovative thing until it appears, so I really don't know if anything new will appear in the months. Not by me, at least.
16. If you had the choice between playing 10 new games or playing 2 known good games 5 times, what would you choose?
10 new games. I'm always intellectually interested in discovering new games. Sometimes reading the rules is even enough.
17. Which mechanics would you love to use in future games? Could you name 1 you have used already and 1 you haven't?
One I've already used : I'd like to make a game where rules are, at least in part, voted by the players, like it was the case in Democrazy. And one which has not been used, I want to make game entirely based on face down card swapping with the other players.
18. To what extent is creating board games a hobby or a secondary source of income (timewise and moneywise).
It takes me probably less time than my day job as a teacher, even as a part time teacher. Depending on the year, it brings me more or less as much money as my salary. I could probably do it full time if I had no family and if I was willing to live more modestly.
19. Who has been one of your 'heroes' in the board game designing industry?
Peter Olotka, Richard Garfield
20. Which games that are about to come out (both your own and others) are you most excited about?
I must admit I've not been that impressed with the prototypes from my friends I've played these last months, but I've played fewer than I used to. As for my own games, I'm very excited by Lost Temple - and curious to see how gamers will compare it with Citadels.
21. Are there any themes you would not make a game about?
All themes I don't like. I probably won't make a game about zombies or vampires, because I find these settings unstelling. Or if I would, it would be something very light.
22. A lot of your games have been cooperations with other game authors. Are there any authors that you have not yet worked with, but would really like to? And why him/her?
23. When designing a game in cooperation, do you prefer to work with someone who has a similar 'style' as yourself or with someone who has a very different style? (style meaning the type of game somebody usually designs - light vs heavy, guessing/bluffing vs calculating etc)
Hello Bruno, great to have you here. Over the years your games have given me plenty of good times, so thank you for making them.
24. For some reason I consider your 'style' as a somewhat 'lighter' and a bit more 'chaotic' than another favorite of mine, Martin Wallace. Both you and his games are always highly thematic, have plenty of player interaction, and always have a certain unpredictability in 'stuff that just happens'.
But when I look at the games you seem to prefer I doubt if you enjoy his games that much (well, not as much as I enjoy them anyway). So am I wrong and are there more differences than similaraties in gamestyles between you?
25. If you had to choose: What's more important to you in gaming quality : a (couple of) game session(s) with a lot of fun or a game that is 'timeless' enough to become a 'classic' (like Acquire for instance, not necessarily fun but classic anyway)
oh, and a couple more questions that popped up after I posted:
26. Obviously it's always hard to predict if a game will be 'a hit' or not. I still don't understand why Boomtown never became a hit for example. I know that you can get frustrated by bad or mediocre reviews and sales of games that you think are pretty good. ( I haven't played Isla Dorada or Red Planet yet, so I don't have an opinion of those two games that you're proud of, but haven't had the succes yet that you would like to see)
So here's my question: Did you ever have the 'this will be a hit for sure' feeling with a game? And were you right about it?
27. Besides luck, what do you think is the most important factor in a game becoming a bestseller? (which one is the most important: the gameplay, the look, replayability, distribution, marketing, reviews, prizes etc.?)
28. Since you published one of your early games with the now extinct publisher Ludodelire: I think Ludodelire put a lot of great titles on the market. (Formule De is a classic, Full Metal Planete has become a collectors item, Terrain Vague is a lot of fun).
So how come Ludodelire wasn't as succesfull as I think they should have been with all those great games?
22. A lot of your games have been cooperations with other game authors. Are there any authors that you have not yet worked with, but would really like to? And why him/her?
I'd love to work with Richard Garfield, or with James Ernest, on a game. I like their design style, and I think they are nice guys. Actually, we discussed a lot together when working on Stonehenge, but then each author made his own game.
23. When designing a game in cooperation, do you prefer to work with someone who has a similar 'style' as yourself or with someone who has a very different style? (style meaning the type of game somebody usually designs - light vs heavy, guessing/bluffing vs calculating etc)
I think most of my designs have been made with authors like Bruno Cathala, Serge Laget, Michael Schacht, Alan Moon, etc… who all make more ordered, less chaotic and zany designs than mine. There must be a reason. I happen to meet very often with Hervé Marly or Philippe des Pallières, who have a style somewhat similar with mine, and we never managed to make a game together.
24. For some reason I consider your 'style' as a somewhat 'lighter' and a bit more 'chaotic' than another favorite of mine, Martin Wallace. Both your and his games are always highly thematic, have plenty of player interaction, and always have a certain unpredictability in 'stuff that just happens'.
But when I look at the games you seem to prefer I doubt if you enjoy his games that much (well, not as much as I enjoy them anyway). So am I wrong and are there more differences than similaraties in gamestyles between you?
I like Martin Wallace a lot as a person, and I think that if we ever discuss politics or philosophy, we will probably agree on many points. I can see the common points between our design styles, but I also think there are strong differences. There is more complexity, more simulation and, most of all, more strategy in Martin's design, while my games tend to be lighter and more tactical. My favorite games by Martin are also the lighter ones - basic Age of Steam, Mordred, Ankh-Morpork - but even a "light" Wallace would be a "heavy" Faidutti.
25. If you had to choose: What's more important to you in gaming quality : a (couple of) game session(s) with a lot of fun or a game that is 'timeless' enough to become a 'classic' (like Acquire for instance, not necessarily fun but classic anyway)
Well, I don't like Acquire and never understood why it is a classic. I played it two or three times, and was at a complete loss, not understanding anything of what I had to do. There are other classics on which we could probably agree, such as Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride or Cosmic Encounter.
I would be proud of both, designing a game that is really fun for a few games, or a game that has enough depth and variety to become a classic. So, I can't really answer.
26. Obviously it's always hard to predict if a game will be 'a hit' or not. I still don't understand why Boomtown never became a hit for example. I know that you can get frustrated by bad or mediocre reviews and sales of games that you think are pretty good. ( I haven't played Isla Dorada or Red Planet yet, so I don't have an opinion of those two games that you're proud of, but haven't had the succes yet that you would like to see)
So here's my question: Did you ever have the 'this will be a hit for sure' feeling with a game? And were you right about it?
I had it a few times, and I was wrong... Last time was with Isla Dorada, which doesn't seem to sell that well.
27. Besides luck, what do you think is the most important factor in a game becoming a bestseller? (which one is the most important: the gameplay, the look, replayability, distribution, marketing, reviews, prizes etc.?)
I wish I knew... Ten years ago, the gameplay and replayability were probably paramount. Now, they are absolutely necessary, but there are so many good games that they are not enough, so lookn distribution, marketing, reviews and, most of all, luck are also required.
28. Since you published one of your early games with the now extinct publisher Ludodelire: I think Ludodelire put a lot of great titles on the market. (Formule De is a classic, Full Metal Planete has become a collectors item, Terrain Vague is a lot of fun).
So how come Ludodelire wasn't as succesfull as I think they should have been with all those great games?
There were marketing and financial issues, but in the end I think what killed Ludodelire was more the personal issues and the disagreement between the various people involved in the company.
, hope you enjoy this Q&A.
, haha no offcourse it can!!)
