Board Games Can Help Kids Learn

I don't think this is a dangerous assumption. Especially not given some research I found at a usnews blog, which suggests that a game with a numeric line, such as in Chutes and Ladders, can help lower-income children to conceptualize numbers better. The research (more-so than the blog) is worth a look if you have a few minutes, and I am glad there is some conclusive evidence to support what I have assumed to be true, that board games rock and make life better. Still, the benefits of board games must far exceed the findings of the recent study. I would love to see some research about the social development of children who play board games instead of video games, such as their internal code of ethics or ability to empathize and cope with loss or victory. That doesn't mean I am necessarily a proponent of having your children play a recent Chutes and Ladders variant...Shoot'n Ladders: Frag Fest (Smirk and Dagger Games 2009):

Although I've played Shoot'n Ladders and it can be very fun...at least for an hour or so.

Premio Archimede Entered!

I am proud to say that I have officially entered the Premio Archimede game competition in Italy. I spent the last three weeks getting my prototype ready, and put it in the mail yesterday along with the entry fee (a not too steep 25 Euros + 10 dollars for mailing).

The actual judging isn't until October, so it will be a while before I find out how I did. The winner of best card game will have 1000 copies printed for free along with artwork, but even if I don't win I will still get a certificate as a "thank-you-for-entering." I don't necessarily have high-hopes for the contest, but I am excited to be a part of it, and I would like to be publicly tankful to God for, I believe, helping me to design the game, and ironing everything out for me so that it could be submitted on time.

The Great Board Game Mystery

What's is the biggest mystery in board games? No, not Mystery Express (and no, not Clue either), but something much bigger. We're talking BIG, like, who's face is on the front of St. Petersburg?!

The game rules indicate that the game takes place during the reign of Czar Peter (the Great) of Russia (Hence the name, St. Petersburg). Of course! The face on the box must be Peter the Great! Right?

Wrong! Well, sorta wrong.

The picture may represent Peter the Great, but the face is partly modeled after our mystery person, and I'm not talking about Col. Mustard.

Here is a good image of Peter the Great I found Online. Clearly, the hair is a match, and the eyebrows look good too, but is this is the same Peter that is on the front of the box? No!

But you might say, "This is a very young Peter the Great, surely the Peter on the box is just an older version of the man." You are right, of course, but here is another image of Peter, 20 years, and perhaps not a few military accomplishments later...

This mustache is a closer match than the teenage-stache of Peter the younger, but what about the hairstyle and the hard features? The actual Peter has a cleft chin and a long face. The artist did not just forget to add these details the box. No, this is clearly not our Peter.

But then....who is our Peter?! I will defer to the keen insight of the little boy Peter in the movie Finding Neverland, who, upon being asked if he was Peter Pan's namesake, shook his head and looked at Mr. Barrie (Johnny Depp's character and author of the play Peter Pan), and said, "but I'm not Peter Pan...he is!"

Little boy, you are right! No, our St. Petersburg Peter is not Mr. Barrie or Johnny Depp. Our Peter someone much more important and relevant to the game.

That's right, the man on the front of St. Petersburg is the author of the game, Michael Tummelhoffer.

But you may have trouble finding a picture of this mysterious man, because Michael Tummelhoffer is only a pseudonym. The real author is a man often shrouded in mystery: Hans Im Gluck lead designer Bernd Brunnhofer, pictured below...

Don't you see the resemblance!? No? Well, it might be a bit of a stretch, but just imagine Mr. Brunnhofer with a darker mustache, and no glasses, and a thick head of curly hair. Most of the facial features are a pretty good match, and the eyes and especially the chin are nearly identital.

And by the way, I can verify with certainty that Mr. Brunnhofer is the author of St. Petersburg, because I have met him. He was kind enough to allow me a picture with him when we visited the Hans Im Gluck headquarters in Munich two years ago.


Many thanks to Hans in Gluck and Bernd Brunnhofer for treating my friends and I to a fun evening of games, and for this fun mystery to unfold.

Game Used To Study Migrant Farmer Behavior

Thanks to a Tweet from SeizeYourTurn, I found this article which discusses a joint study of the behavior of migrant farmers in the amazon. The image is from the Arizona State University article.

What an awesome way to research decision making. Games such as this should be employed far more often than they are to get a better understanding of how and why people behave the way they do.

Practicing Board Game Artwork

I often read game design blogs that it is foolish and a waste of time to make your own artwork for games that you make, but for me, the artwork is just as important to the prototype as it is to the final game, and I simply can't make one without the other.

For that reason, I spend immense amounts of time on graphic programs trying to teach myself how to make better artwork, and as I learn new and better techniques, my artwork improves, and, I believe, the overall experience of my play testers improves as well.

The above picture is one of my latest attempts to discover some board game art secrets. I have been using Adobe Illustrator to do most of my drawings up to this point, but I wanted to take the graphics a step further (as I always do). I usually avoid by hand, but its important to the overall style of the game, and here, you will see a sign-post and flag associated with our forthcoming game. I drew these using chalk pastels, scanned them onto the computer, loaded them in Adobe Photoshop, erased the background, adjusted the levels, copied them into Illustrator, did an object trace, and placed them on the board.

Be sure to look for these objects on the board when the game finally comes out...