Postcard From Berlin: The Christmas Truce

Editor's Note: this article was originally published in 2007 on the now-defunct Boardgamenews.com website.

World War I was entering its first winter, as soldiers from both sides huddled together in the muddy trenches that lined the western front through Belgium and France. The “No Man’s Land” between them was already filled with bodies of the fallen, soon to be frozen because it was too dangerous to retrieve them for a proper burial. But that Christmas, something quite unexpected happened: the soldiers who had been trained to kill each other suddenly laid down their weapons…and played games.

I was unaware of this well-documented Christmas truce until a friend gave me a copy of the 2005 film, ”Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas).” The Oscar-nominated cinematic version of the story is depicted through the eyes of French, British and German soldiers, and is appropriately presented in three languages. Although it is a romanticized version of the actual events, its message made it a tradition in our household alongside some of the better-known holiday film classics. 

It's Alive!

In the architecture office, my colleagues would often use a curious phrase when making design decisions: "This is what the building wants to be."

Why the anthropomorphism?  I suppose it's quicker than saying, "This seems to me to be the project's most natural direction, based on previous design decisions."  And it sounds more emphatic, not to mention a tad romantic.  After all, there is a mysteriousness to creative thought and the amount of influence our unconscious intuition has on that process.

There are so many different directions a design of any kind can take. It is a tree of possibilities, and each branch offers a number of new, unique choices. And like those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books I enjoyed as a child, if one of those branches leads to an undesirable conclusion, it's simple to back up and follow a different branch.

Game design is no different.  There are so many options for a designer, and each one influences future decisions. At a certain point, I have an intuitive feel for "what the game wants to be," even if it has changed from my original vision.

And that may be the best answer yet for why I view my inanimate projects as if I had designed them to evolve on their own: it's an acknowledgement that, more often than not, the process takes me down paths that I could not see at the outset.  I began with a goal and a vision on how to get there, but in the process of writing rules outlines and flowcharts, of prototyping, testing and tweaking, the journey revealed other interesting paths that I simply could not resist.

It's experiencing the unexpected that make me feel less like I'm in control and more like I'm playing a game--the game of game design.

But I am in control, of course--at least to the point of making the final decisions, of choosing the next branches of the decision tree to climb, and finally declaring when I reach the top, "This is what the game wants to be!"

POSTCARD FROM BERLIN: I Got Rhythm

My latest article in the Postcard From Berlin series on Opinionated Gamers website describes by fascination with the rhythms of life.  I've enjoyed learning to play various percussion instruments over the past several years, and it is also interesting to look at the rhythm of boardgames and how that plays into our enjoyment of them.

Game Design Kit

German boardgames are naturally a favorite gift I’ve enjoyed giving to friends and family back in the United States. In addition to that, I used to design an original boardgame for my two nieces as a Christmas present every year.  It’s not easy to shop for them when we live an ocean away from each other, and this was a way I could give them something personal. I also did try to theme many of the games around activities they enjoyed.

When my designs began to get published, I gave them those as gifts. Now that they are older—and very creative—I thought I would instead give them the materials to be game designers themselves.

A year and one-half ago I sent them a “game design kit” with materials ordered from Spielmaterial.  They included a blank game box, a deck of blank cards, a blank fold-out game board, a 6-color die, one large pawn, 6 normal dice in 6 colors, and large and small wooden discs and “meeples” (human-shaped figures) in 6 colors.

Two New Games, Freshly Squeezed and Uncovered

Two new games that I've been working on for many years in various versions are finally being offered to the public.

Citrus has been announced as an October Essen release from dlp-games.  It was a pleasure to develop the game further with designer/publisher Reiner Stockhausen, and I'm excited to finally have one of my games illustration by Klemens Franz, who I met for the first time in Essen.  In fact, I showed the prototype to him there, and I owe it to him for recommending it to Reiner.

Artifact, which made it to the final round of 6 in the 2009 Hippodice Competition, will also debut in October in Essen, this time from White Goblin Games. This game has also had a long development time and was my first collaboration with friend Bernd Eisenstein.

Unfortunately, I won't be attending Essen as I'm spending the year with my family in North Carolina. But I'll be there "in spirit" with the release of Citrus and Artifact! The stories behind the development will be posted on BoardgamegeekNews in the next weeks as well as here on this blog.

"New" is the new "Nieuw"

Nieuw Amsterdam, my game released through Dutch publisher White Goblin Games last year, has now been picked up by a North American publisher.  Pandasaurus Games in the U.S. has put the game on crowdsourcing site Kickstarter which is the first time any of my games have been funded in this way. It is now over 400% funded with 12 days still to go, and that's without any huge benefits or stretch goals.  It's encouraging to see that the game's reputation speaks for itself, without any major gimmicks and extras. 

The biggest change is in the spelling of the game, with the Dutch "Nieuw" being replaced by the English "New."  Despite having a Dutch publisher for the original game, I was actually the one who insisted on using the original spelling of the colony, mainly because I liked the historical significance and thought that it would help the game stand out in Essen among hobbyists, where Latin names like Agricola and Alea Iacta Est are commonplace. I'm not at all bothered by the name change for the North American market, however, and am excited that the game will now have a wider distribution. If you are interested in the game, there are still 12 days left to pledge!  You can see my explanation of the game at Essen on BoardGameGeek.