We are going to write about two designers today: Vital Lacerda, for those who love heavy strategy games; and Wolfgang Warsch, for those who prefer lighter games.
Aishwarya: Vital Lacerda
Some text before going into detail, these are entirely my views on the designer of some of the great games in my collection. This graphic designer by profession, and arguably one of the more successful game designers, has consistently exceeded expectations: Vital Lacerda is the one who I would like to write a wee bit about. He has been launching many imposing projects in the industry and I am proud to be an admirer of his works. While I had mixed feelings about the growing industry, my game life felt upgraded after adding such games to the shelf and got me hooked more into the hobby. His works are very thematic and grandiose, which shows his hard work and the research he puts in them. To mention a few that I have, The Gallerist, Lisboa, Vinhos deluxe, Kanban and CO2, make the better part of my collection.
My husband is not a gamer but an experienced player of some of the very heavy games. I wanted to show him Kanban, and, to my amazement his interest and energy level shot up high, which is rare as far as his way of gaming is concerned. He appreciated how thematic it was and was able to connect the same just-in-time manufacturing that they use in his work place. From then on, it became our family favourite and this is the only one comes to his mind whenever anyone asks him about the games he played. It is a such a complex one to get into, but a very interesting game.
The Gallerist is another heavy economic game, again entirely thematic about running your own art gallery with buying and selling famous works of arts. Vital introduced a solo mode gameplay which is being appreciated by many solo players even now- another platform that's shaping up. Though the box size scares away some of them, anyone who plays it, immediately gets latched on to it.
Lisboa is like the centrepiece and a passionate work of his. I
got to meet him at the Origins convention 2017 in Columbus, Ohio. He
was demoing Lisboa at the Eagle Gryphon Stall, and I sat down for a game
that took the whole afternoon. He was so enthusiastic to explain his
long awaited creation. I have attached a part of a recorded audio file
when he taught the game, with his permission. The game is about the
Great Earthquake that took place in 1755 in Lisbon and the high
officials of the country joining together to rebuild an even more
powerful regime. He features his country wherever possible, like how he
started with making the Portugal map for Martin Wallace's (Vital's
favourite designer) Age of Steam, available to download on
Boardgamegeek. Having gone to the convention and learning the game from
the designer himself is a unique experience. There are already a good number of interviews and videos about him online, so all that I would like to ask him is one quick question, if he reads this post at all. Vital, from the interviews, I reckon that you said you are a tough person to work with and are never satisfied so easily when resolving problems. Could you please share any of the overwhelming errors that you (or your team?) made, which had been a nightmare to solve? Thanks in advance 😀 And Congratulations on your successes with the Kickstarter projects and good luck with your upcoming On Mars. Looking forward to many many contributions from you in the future.
Diana: Wolfgang Warsch
Like most people, the first time I heard of Wolfgang Warsch was when I learned about The Mind. I was at the UK Games Expo with Chris in 2018, and a very friendly couple who travelled all the way from the US invited us to play The Mind with them. There were in fact a few other tables who had been playing The Mind nearby, and I heard occasional laughter and giggling followed by a lot of moaning and groaning, so I was super-intrigued. After the rules were explained to us, the first thought that came to my mind was, “What kind of game is that?!” Nobody was willing to play the first card. But then, it started to flow and perhaps it flowed a bit too fast, we didn't even make it to Level 3. We played a few times and started to complete higher levels, which was really odd, as nobody is allowed to talk but you just somehow get better at it over time. When we said goodbye to the couple, I immediately ordered a copy in German (which is all I could find at the time), but it was so good that I don't care!
The Quacks of Quedlinburg is another excellent game designed by Wolfgang. To be honest I don't usually like push-your-luck games, but this is the only one I own in the genre. So what is so special about it, apart from its eccentric name? Well, the reason why I don't usually play push-your-luck games is because the element of luck overpowers strategic thinking. In The Quacks of Quedlinburg, players can control the risk to a certain extent by building a bag of self-selected ingredients; if your potion has unfortunately exploded, the punishment is not particularly harsh either. You get to choose between VP and money/buying – the latter is not particularly useful later in the game when your bag has already got a lot of ingredients. Sure, you also lose the chance to throw the extra die, but only the player at the highest scoring space gets to throw it anyway. There is another great part of the design – the rat tails – a catch-up mechanism to help you feel better, if you have missed out on a couple of VPs from the extra die.
Wolfgang has designed three roll-and-write games so far. Brikks is a Tetris style game, which makes good use of the popular roll-and-write genre. Players can use energy bubbles to change the shape of the bricks; if you fill two or more rows at the same time, you get extra points as well. If there's room for improvement, I'd say that in real Tetris it felt good to “slide in” a brick by a last-minute manoeuvre, which is not possible in Brikks. And how can I ever forget Ganz schön clever (aka That's Pretty Clever)? Thanks to the digital version on iOS, I've actually played this game many more times than any other games of Wolfgang. An anecdotal story to show how addictive it is: Chris and I went to this zoo with a cafe with large windows through which you can watch the tigers walk around and nap etc. Guess what I was doing when everyone else was mesmerised by the tigers? 😉 But it's so difficult to get 300+! I also got the “sequel” - Doppelt so clever (Twice as Clever) - and am looking forward to trying it out.
As this is an honest review - not propaganda - I'll inevitably mention a game of his that I would personally give a miss: Illusion. I don't know how many people are good at comparing the percentages of colours - I wasn't good at it and found it a bit boring. (Can you imagine the Vikings comparing colours? Must stop making jokes about Vikings 😝) Perhaps it's more suitable as a children's game.
I recently played his cooperative game Fuji in which players throw dice to escape a volcanic eruption (not a suggested real life situation). It was good, but not great - too difficult for two players, because you have a neutral player who only gets in the way without making any contribution. It might be better with more players, but I feel like I have played better cooperative games. I really like the artwork though.
Wolfgang is really good at designing small/short games. Amongst the aforementioned games, there are two card games (The Mind and Illusion), and three roll-and-write games (Brikks, Ganz schön clever, Doppelt so clever). The rules of these games can usually be learnt within 5 minutes (might take a bit longer to learn The Quacks of Quedlinburg), which means they can adapt to different needs of the group – hard-core gamers can use them as nice little fillers; people who play games occasionally won't get intimidated by complex rules; as for a mixed group of gamers and non-gamers, it is a good way to convince non-gamers that gaming is fun! Wolfgang seems to have been very productive over this last year and I can't wait until his next project.
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