Gordon Calleja - Unboxed: Board Game Experience and Design

Unboxed

Board Game Experience and Design

Gordon Calleja

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

2022 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

The MIT Press would like to thank the anonymous peer reviewers who provided comments on drafts of this book. The generous work of academic experts is essential for establishing the authority and quality of our publications. We acknowledge with gratitude the contributions of these otherwise uncredited readers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Calleja, Gordon, author.

Title: Unboxed : board game experience and design / Gordon Calleja.

Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021045981 | ISBN 9780262543958 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Board gamesDesign and construction. | Board gamesPsychological aspects.

Classification: LCC GV1312 .C35 2022 | DDC 794dc23/eng/20211020

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021045981

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List of Figures

Its raining sheep in The Settlers of Catan.

Journey as puzzle in Posthuman Saga.

Crossroads cards in Dead of Winter.

Taking an action in King of Tokyo.

Mechanics creating a sense of character in Fog of Love.

Resolving a crisis in Battlestar Galactica.

Negotiating which character will be fed to the zombies in Mall of Horror.

Hunting down gang bosses in Vengeance.

Cubes as props for fighters in Lords of Waterdeep.

Noncontinuous spatial relations in Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

Noncontinuous spatial relations in Gloom of Kilforth.

A tense dogfight in Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game.

Forms of scripted narrative delivery.

Fiction beats and narrative units.

Narrative involvement structure.

The board game narrative model.

Narrative structure in X-Wing.

Narrative structure in Tales of the Arabian Nights.

Narrative structure in Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective.

Narrative structure in Carcassonne.

Narrative structure in Vengeance.

Circus Maximus.

Dark Tower combines electronic and analog components.

Azuls tactile beauty.

Rising Suns miniatures.

Renatures aesthetic appeal.

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective.

Blending physical and fictional space in Captain Sonar.

The beauty of Wingspan.

The board game involvement model.

Jostling for power in Tigris and Euphrates.

It is rare that a project lasts so long, takes up so much of our time, and is yet a delight to shape into existence, as this book has. I had the pleasure of interviewing some of the brightest minds working in board games today. The resulting discussions were not only a gold mine in terms of building the perspectives, theories, and models contained in this book but also a source of great inspiration. I type the last words of this book burning with a desire to bring the game worlds clamoring for attention in my idea bank to life. My deepest gratitude goes to the game designers, board game critics, and industry figures who were generous enough to share their accumulated knowledge and insights. Without them this book could have not been possible.

A warm thank-you goes out to Noura Abdelhafidh for her love, support, and gorgeous drawings. I would also like to thank the team at Mighty Boards for making the sometimes-arduous process of publishing board games an absolute joy, particularly David Chircop and Mark Casha for their friendship and creative flair. My heartfelt thanks also goes out to Thomas Malaby and T. L. Taylor for the inspiring conversations and mentorship. I am particularly indebted to Daniel Vella for his unending patience in editing and discussing this work, and to Charalampos Apartoglou for his assistance in getting the book to the finish line. And finally, a special thanks to Ivan Callus for his lifelong mentorship, support, and friendship.

I dedicate this book to my father, Ray Calleja, who painted my earliest memories with the warmth of countless imaginary worlds.

The happiest moments of my childhood were spent in abandoned fortresses around Malta, slashing away at my father with a wooden sword. My swings were puny but purposeful. I was not merely pretending to hit my dad; I was trying to knock off hit points by getting past his guard to defeat whatever creature he was standing in for on my way to the next part of the quest he had designed for me that day. This wasnt idle play but an adventure structured according to mechanics that a five-year-old could follow. The fortresses and their overgrown grounds, ruined chambers, and cellars were transformed, in my imagination, into fantastical worlds inhabited by the characters my father created and acted out.

Back home, my imagination was structured by stricter rules. The gridded board covered in plastic that was the site of countless battles and sieges would be doodled on with chinagraph pencil to mark rivers, roads, and castle walls, and miniature trees and bushes would be placed on it to set the scene. Then came the exciting part. Dad would reach into his glass case crowded with painted lead miniatures and pick out two armies that would feature in the evenings battle. Accompanying all of this would be one of the many historical reference books that my dad used to guide him when painting miniatures. He would go on to set the scenario, giving a brief overview of the military units involved, assisted by the colorful illustrations in the reference books, and then explain the rules we would use to determine engagements. These rules were simple at first but grew in complexity when we shifted from skirmishes to regular formation battles and eventually sieges. As complexity rose, randomness decreased. These systems transformed the miniatures into clashing troops in my mind, with the more dramatic moments of the conflict, like a unit of cavalry charging down from a wooded hill onto my dads heavy infantry, firing my imagination with a vivacity that free-roaming fantasy could not come close to.

Noura Abdelhafidh. Ink on paper.

When I got the hang of these battle systems, Dad started giving me a particular scenario to simulate, giving me free rein with the troops in question and the relevant illustrated reference book. I would then go off and design a simple set of rules for us to use in our upcoming game. Fantasy scenarios were my favorite. The endless possibility that magic brought to the design space thrilled me to no end. I started designing systems for all sorts of games on my own, from bank robberies to nuclear wars. Soon enough, I moved on from individual, stand-alone scenarios to multipart campaigns.