Introduction: How My Interests in Board Games and Music Resulted in a Board Game ABOUT Music

Come Together is the primary board recreation I’ve ever made. It is a medium-weight, worker-placement recreation (however with some twists as you’ll perceive from studying) with a music competition theme, and it was created along with Eilif Svensson and Åsmund Svensson from Chilifox Games. I’m very happy with the ultimate product, which can be launched at SPIEL ’22 in October. This is the story of how Come Together was made.

For about twelve years, I’ve been a interest board gamer, however I’ve been a music fanatic from a really younger age, and a few of my greatest experiences in life have been associated to music festivals, for instance, Groezrock in Belgium, the Slottsfjell Festival right here in Norway, and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark — the 2012 Muse live performance was epic! — to say just a few.

Coincidentally (however perhaps not surprisingly), I began doodling with the thought of constructing a board recreation with a music festival-related theme. That could be an ideal match, I assumed! I imagined a thematic Eurogame during which gamers would construct phases and tent camps as a substitute of church buildings and gardens (as in so many different video games), a recreation during which the assets have been artists and the viewers somewhat than wooden and grain! I used to be thrilled with the thought.

Thus, my journey into board recreation design started.

The First Prototype, and the Gathering of a Design Team

Believe it or not, at first I had no ambition of really publishing a board recreation! It was only a enjoyable concept that saved me occupied — and it did so for fairly some time. For weeks I may completely overlook concerning the design, however at different instances I might keep on the workplace after work, for hours, simply to be in a quiet atmosphere to work on the sport. On one such evening, every thing simply type of fell into place. I may lastly see the way it all would match collectively, and I noticed that I may do one thing extra with the thought.

I made a decision to make a prototype and name upon my good pals Eilif and Åsmund Svensson of Chillifox Games to ask whether or not they have been desirous about giving the sport a check run. Eilif is a acknowledged recreation designer behind Trails of Tucana, Santa Maria, The Magnificent, and extra, and the 2 brothers had nice success in 2021 with each Riverside and Doodle Dash, so in the event that they have been , perhaps this might flip into one thing extra than simply an thought…

Luckily, they each favored my thought! This was February 2021. In Norway, issues had opened up after the corona lockdown, and we managed to play a spherical in my lounge with a self-made recreation board, paper playing cards, and meeples and cash collected from different board video games — and antibac! Eilif and Åsmund favored it and determined the undertaking was price engaged on, and thus a design staff had been established.

Even although I knew the sport was removed from completed at this level, I had by no means imagined it will take about 35 prototypes, 14 months, and umpteen playtests earlier than we lastly may ship the completed recreation to the manufacturing unit for printing.

In the image beneath, you possibly can see how the sport has developed from my first prototype to about halfway via the method, then to the tip outcome.

Claim or Gain: The Core Mechanism and Player Interaction

When designing my first board recreation, I needed to make one thing that instantly would have caught my very own curiosity had I heard about it from some other place. I’m proud to announce that Come Together has grow to be such a recreation!

Personally, I get pleasure from enjoying a whole lot of several types of video games, however one core component that pulls me is participant interplay. When enjoying a recreation, I like that my actions affect my opponents’ selections and vice versa. This choice has nothing to do with being “imply”, however somewhat, with participant interplay creating an unpredictability that I like. instance of such interplay may be discovered within the Brass video games, during which a participant can construct a coal mine that permits one other participant to construct an business, which in the long run will grant each gamers factors!

Come Together is lighter than the Brass video games, however it shares the identical thought of mutually useful participant interplay. I can’t go into element right here, however one instance from Come Together is that both gamers declare sure assets (phases, tent camps, artists, or viewers) or they activate the spots the place these assets are gained. Thus, one dilemma is whether or not to declare or to achieve. The interplay in that is that when a participant prompts a employee spot, it’s activated for all the gamers who’re current at this spot. As such, one participant can piggyback on one other participant’s activation motion. Another dilemma is whether or not to put a employee to get what you want essentially the most or to put staff the place you’ll get essentially the most publicity, which you get from putting staff on the similar spot as different gamers. This core thought has been central to the sport from the start.

Some of the placement tiles the place gamers declare phases, artists, camps, and viewers

The Design Process, or the Importance of Bringing a Laser Printer on a Cabin Trip

Even although I had some expertise from playtesting and taking part in video games evolving from early prototypes to completed merchandise, being a first-time recreation designer, I had no expertise in utilizing superior enhancing purposes. For the primary prototypes, I used Paint. In addition to being very clumsy, one other draw back of this program is that every time I made a mistake, the one answer was to erase and begin over.

A breakthrough got here at a cabin journey in April 2021. Eilif, Åsmund, and I drove to a cabin in Kongsberg and spent a weekend there (away from children and work) to focus solely on the sport. We packed the automotive with linens, garments, potato chips, beer, my newly printed prototype — and, in fact, Eilif’s laser printer.

You might snicker about bringing a laser printer on a cabin journey, however I inform you, it got here in helpful! As we needed to edit the sport a number of instances through the weekend, I noticed how effectively Eilif may make prototypes with a whole lot of expertise and the correct enhancing instruments — and with the laser printer, we rapidly made new prototypes that we may play immediately. From then on, Eilif made the brand new prototypes.

In the 12 months following that weekend on the cabin, many of the work has been about adjusting and balancing the sport via quite a few playtesting periods. I can’t go into particulars about all of the rejected concepts, modifications, and completely different phases the sport has gone via, however whether it is of curiosity I can in all probability achieve this on a later event.

On common, a brand new prototype has been made virtually each tenth day. I’ve met with the opposite designers on an virtually weekly foundation, and we have now spoken on the cellphone or textual content messaged one another virtually each day. Often and really enthusiastically, Eilif would name me about new concepts for small modifications. Being the initiator of the sport, I’ve naturally been reluctant to many of those urged modifications, however as a rule, these modifications have been for the higher, and Eilif and Åsmund’s concepts have pushed the undertaking ahead and finally made the sport a lot better.

Two of the participant boards, which have uneven set-ups on the reverse facet

One of the issues I used to be most reluctant about was the participant depend. Eilif and Åsmund have insisted that each Chilifox recreation ought to be playable with as much as six gamers, whereas I used to be extra decided to make the design work solo. Trying to make a worker-placement recreation for 1-6 gamers is daring. Not solely did we wish the sport to help 1-6 gamers, however we additionally agreed that we needed the sport to really feel the identical and be roughly the identical size in any respect participant counts. Because of this, each time the three of us determined to make a change to the sport (regardless of how small), we additionally needed to check this modification at different participant counts to ensure it will not have some unintended scaling impacts on the sport. However, with ample dedication and repeated playtesting and a whole lot of good pals who have been keen to maintain enjoying our unfinished prototypes, we succeeded in making a recreation during which the variety of gamers have little impact on the time it takes to play.

Creating a World of Music

To create a recreation that works mechanically is one factor, however to create a recreation that additionally works thematically is one other. How we may create our personal “world of music” on this recreation was one thing that took a very long time.

From the start, it was vital that the theme of Come Together shine via within the mechanisms of the sport. None of us have been desirous about making a recreation that felt prefer it may have been performed with another theme. After all, if it had not been for the thematic inspiration, the sport would by no means have been designed within the first place!

After lengthy discussions, we agreed to set the competition within the late Sixties and selected design and band names thereafter. Inspired by artwork and music from this psychedelic interval, we got here up with 35 distinctive artist names representing the time interval of the sport and the designated genres of the completely different artists. Through particulars like these, I hope that Come Together will shine as a thematic Eurogame, and that gamers will really feel this once they play it. Hopefully, gamers will really feel that we have now created not solely a board recreation however our personal “world of music”, too!

What Have I Learned?

Finally, have I discovered something via creating my first board recreation?

For me, it has been simple to provide you with cool concepts, however including all of these concepts into an already established set of interlocking mechanisms in a means that doesn’t tilt the stability of the sport has confirmed to be way more troublesome than what I might have imagined.

Thus, one of the vital vital classes I’ve discovered is concerning the significance of working collectively and to by no means be too happy with one’s personal concepts when they don’t work or don’t make the sport higher as a complete. My preliminary thought might need been a great place to begin, however I now know that the sport would have come to nothing if it weren’t for my co-designers, Eilif and Åsmund. By working collectively, we have now managed to create a recreation that, hopefully, avid gamers and households alike will get pleasure from, like I’ve loved making and enjoying it!

Eilif’s lengthy expertise as a recreation designer has been priceless and helped us keep away from a whole lot of “detours” through the course of. Thanks to his expertise, he has rapidly provide you with options to many of the points we have now met through the check rounds, and Eilif and I’ve been in touch virtually each day during the last 12 months, discussing particulars concerning the recreation. While I typically have been reluctant about his concepts, which I think about has been irritating at instances, I acknowledge that Come Together wouldn’t have been a risk with out his professionalism, and I really am grateful to have him as a co-designer. Eilif was additionally answerable for writing the rulebook.

Åsmund is comparatively new to recreation design (with solely two video games behind him), and making this recreation accessible for each avid gamers and households alike is way because of his efforts. With much less expertise in heavier Eurogames, he has contributed with invaluable enter in terms of making the sport extra intuitive. His capability to see issues in another way and provide you with “loopy” concepts shouldn’t be underestimated both! With his experience in Sixties music, Åsmund has contributed invaluable info in terms of art work and band names for the playing cards and illustrations, along with his proofreading of the principles and a mind for particulars.

Finally, I’ve discovered how a lot enjoyable it may be to simply sit round a desk with good pals and see a recreation evolve from a multitude based mostly on a good suggestion to one thing the three of us actually are happy with. Hard work has paid off, and opening up the primary manufacturing copy of the sport was one of the vital thrilling experiences in my life, alongside the aforementioned Muse live performance. More than something, Come Together, to me, has been a ardour undertaking that I’ve labored with for nearly one-and-a-half years, and I’m so completely satisfied to see it come to life.

To everybody who has learn via this complete textual content, thanks a lot! I hope this learn has given you some attention-grabbing insights into the method of constructing a recreation for the primary time, and hopefully, in just a few months, we are able to all “come collectively” and have fun love, music, and the truth that we as soon as once more can meet one another and have a great time!

Vegard Eliassen Stillerud

On show at Gen Con 2022