boardgaming in photos: Ponzi Scheme, Innovation, Attika, Sabah Honeymoon

I was back in my hometown Kota Kinabalu recently. I met up with an old friend, Nicholas, a classmate from secondary school, to play boardgames. After graduating from secondary school we lost touch for some time. I only found out he was into boardgaming a few years ago. Once in a while we meet when I'm back in KK. This was the first time we met up to actually play games. I brought my prototype of Pinocchio and I asked for his help to blind test it, i.e. he and his group read the rules by themselves to play the game, pretending I am not present. After the blind test, we played other games. One of them was Ponzi Scheme. I had played Ponzi Scheme before, but it had been quite some time so I had forgotten most of the rules. 

My impression from when I first played the game was the mechanisms were solid, but the game felt a little dull. Every turn, you must start a scheme, which will earn you some money, but you will commit to making a payout of a specific amount to your investors every few rounds. You must honour the payout if you can, because the moment anyone fails to do so, the game ends, and that player is automatically disqualified from winning. The other players compare points from their companies to see who wins. There are four types of companies. You can start a company each time you launch a scheme. Your first company of a type scores 1 point, the second scores 2 points, the third 3 points, and so on. So you want to have many companies of the same type. During the game you can buy companies from or sell them to other players. You send a private bid to an opponent who has a same company type as you. They must either sell their company to you at that price, or buy yours at that price. This mechanism can be a way to force someone to sell their company to you, or to buy your company. 

Having played the game again, my impression remains the same. The mechanism is pretty solid. I don't see this in other games, so it is unique. Unfortunately the game feels a little dry to me. The bland art makes the play experience less exciting. Other editions of the game look better. The theme of scamming people also makes me feel a little uncomfortable. 

There is a gamer group in Ara Damansara which meets regularly, and they share what they play. It always makes me happy to see other people playing my games, in this case Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. 

I played Attika with younger daughter Chen Rui. We are both quite familiar with the game by now so we do not need to do any rules revision. We bring out the game occasionally. In this particular game, I (green) attempted to connect the two temples in the early game. Now in Attika winning by connecting temples is not easy to do. It is difficult to execute and easy to defend against. However sometimes it is worth doing because you can force your opponent to make suboptimal moves to defend against such an attack. If you can disrupt the tempo of your opponent, that gives you an edge in efficiency.

My first attempt to connect the temples was blocked. I continued trying, picking a right moment to drop that new terrain tile at the top right. That terrain tile opened up a new opportunity.

I caught Chen Rui off guard. She had just placed several buildings on that terrain tile on the left, and she was short on resource cards in hand. I managed to place that one last tile to connect the two temples, and subsequently won the game. 

We played Innovation. Chen Rui had played this before but she had forgotten how to play. In recent weeks we played quite a lot of this, so by now she knows she game well. It took her many games to finally get her first victory. There were a few times she came close, but Innovation is a game with unexpected twists, and sometimes just one specific and timely card can turn the tide. When she eventually won her first game she was overjoyed. Since we played a two-player game, we rarely reached the 8th age. Most games ended around the 6th or 7th age. 

After many years, I still think Innovation is a splendid game. It feels like every other card is overpowered. Yet often they are only overpowered under certain situations. There can be sudden twists of fate. There is always some excitement about whether you will draw the next killer card. Building a strong and stable empire is important. It protects you from attack and allows you make use of other players' actions. However it does not guarantee points. Sometimes opportunities to score points (called achievements in Innovation) pop up, and you just have to grab them, even if it means sacrificing part of your empire. 

After this recent spurt of Innovation, I feel the game is quite luck-heavy. If you are unlucky and don't draw scoring cards, it can be very difficult to catch up. That can be frustrating. Sometimes you draw the perfect card for your situation and you'll score lots of points. Still, you can take solid steps to build your empire, and there are cards you can anticipate. You also need to digest the situation and find the best use of the cards you draw. There is still much you can do to keep improving your situation, and that's what makes you feel you have some control. Well, maybe when I play even more of the game I'll see more strategic aspects and I'll have an even better appreciation of strategies that reduce the dependence on luck. 

I recently shipped two cartons of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves to USA. A US-based retailer Portland Game Collective contacted me and they were interested to stock Ali Baba. This was my first time distributing the game to the US, so I was pretty excited. I hope the game does well and I'm glad to see it reach more gamers in America. 

My old boardgame kaki (fellow enthusiast / partner) Allen has moved to Singapore because of work. Three of us - Allen, Han and I - used to be referred to as the Midah Group. We played together regularly and we played a good variety of games. Now we are all in different places - Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Johor Bahru. We still meet up and play once in a while. Allen has been visiting some discount stores and he often found good deals. Not long ago he bought for me Ticket to Ride: Nederlands. Then recently he bought for me 7 Wonders Duel: Pantheon. Had I come across these expansions at regular prices, I probably would not have bought them. However when he found them at super deep discounts, I could not resist. I tell myself this must be fate, and who am I to defy fate. Pantheon was SGD3.00, which is less than MYR10! Normal price is about RM115. That's more than 90% off! 

This year, Gray from Kaki Tabletop has been hosting game nights at Xiao by Crustz. Mostly on Friday nights, 8pm - 11pm. These are public meetups. Entrance fee is RM35, which includes one drink. Sometimes there are themed nights. Sometimes he has local designers showcasing their games. I arranged with Gray to join one such session to demo Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. 

Xiao is a very nice place, comfy and classy. There was quite a crowd when I was there. In addition to boardgames, there were people doing roleplaying games. I taught players Ali Baba, and also managed to playtest several of my designs in progress. This one above is Sabah Honeymoon. 

Opportunities to observe others play my games are precious. Through observation I can learn a lot. One thing about Sabah Honeymoon is I definitely need to make the board bigger, at least double the size.

The presentation day for the game design competition organised by STTOS is 19 April. A few of my game designer friends are going to fly all the way to Kota Kinabalu to present their games (a 2.5-hour flight). I am a Sabahan myself but I won't be making the trip for the presentation. I will be doing my presentation online. Every contestant is only given 15 minutes to present. There won't be enough time to complete a full game. There are quite many participants, so I dare not have too high hopes. I am just happy that this competition gave me the inspiration and motivation to create a game about my home state Sabah. It was a fun and fulfilling experience. Also, I rarely design games with boards. For this competition I designed one with a board and that was an interesting aspect of game design to explore and learn.

In Sabah Honeymoon, you play a newlywed couple. You've agreed to go to Sabah for your honeymoon. However the two of you have different must-see attractions. You need to plan a trip where both of you get to go where you want, plus some other new experiences. In the photo above, the first card on the left is your honeymoon card. This is your secret objective. To win the game, you need to be first to plan an itinerary which covers all five destinations on your honeymoon card. Gameplay is simple. During the game you collect cards and then spend them to make bookings. You'll book flights, entry passes, overnight stays, boat trips and so on. Designing and crafting this game has been a happy journey in itself. Everything in the game reminds me of home.