Operation: Game Night
Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clay Gable get together to discuss the latest and greatest in board games in this weekly podcast. What's hot, what's hitting the table, featured discussions about board games and the board gaming culture, and the primary mission objective- to play more board games!
Operation: Game Night
Special Ops: Our Favorite Production Choices (ft. Vic from Games y Más)
We explore how production quality can elevate board games from good to unforgettable, joined by special guest Vic from Games Y Más Podcast.
• Game organizers that make setup and storage a delight, from Betrayal Legacy's intuitive system to Dead Reckoning's thematic compartments
• The unanimous defense of big boxes when they serve a purpose and enhance the experience
• Metal coins and premium components that create tactile satisfaction and immersion
• Player aids that eliminate confusion and streamline gameplay
• Production fails that remind us why organization matters
• Publishers consistently delivering exceptional production value
• The joy of little touches like the rotating board in Planet Unknown
Follow Vic at @GamesYMasPod on all social platforms for more board game insights, particularly if you're new to the hobby!
As always, come interact with us online, let us know if you have any feedback, and leave us a review/comment anywhere you get your favorite podcasts!
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Welcome to the Operation Game Night podcast. We are back and better than ever, and today we have a very special guest. He is vibrant, he is versatile, he is viv, vivacious, he's a little bit voluptuous. He's our very first very important person vip on the podcast since our reorg. It's vick from games. Emos podcast how you doing vick, how's it going?
Speaker 2:that was a lot of Vs. I like that, kingsville.
Speaker 3:Vixen.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Vixen.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, I'm very excited to be here, guys. Thank you guys for having me. I'm excited to talk with you guys. I'm just excited. I can't even speak right now because I'm so excited, right now.
Speaker 1:Excellent, we're excited to have a discussion with you, but I've got to introduce my other co-hosts. He's live streaming from his car. He looks a little bit like he's in the blair witch project. He's jared erickson. How you doing jared?
Speaker 4:what I do. What I do uh, yeah I, I was relegated to the vehicle today. I'm on 5G, so if you lose me, just know that I'll be driving to the next hot spot. Apologize for the sound difficulties today, but that's what we do on Operation Game Night. We have to be flexible. I don't get into my house till tomorrow, so be looking forward to the over the fence where I let you know all about my shenanigans in Virginia.
Speaker 1:So Did Adrian like relegate you to the car, like go sit in the car? Did she at least crack a window for you, or are you just like she told me?
Speaker 4:don't you dare turn on that AC. Yeah, and I will have to be very, you know, very brief. You know we got to be back in there, fight the good fight with the toddler, but I'm here for it.
Speaker 1:Excellent. Well, thank you for being here Joining me, as always. The other co-host, the co-captain of the ship, clayton gable how you doing clay, I'm doing good.
Speaker 3:I think it's only appropriate that today we're going to talk about how to have good productions and board games, as jared brings down our production about 10 notches oh my goodness it's only, it's only par for the course.
Speaker 1:It's okay yeah.
Speaker 4:I'm the anchor. I'm really the anchor here, and the anchor in the sense that I keep dragging us down and holding us back.
Speaker 1:You're the podcast anchor being. This whole podcast revolves around you, but today we're talking about our favorite production decisions in board games. Board games are more than rule books and fancy art. Sometimes it's a little bit of production that brings the experience together. So I want to kick it off Like production. Is everything else surrounding the actual game itself right? It could be the box, it could be the meeples, it could be a fun insert, it could be a player aid, it could be any sort of accoutrement that also comes with the game.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of games out there right now that are looking for those kind of gimmicks that make them stand out. Not all of these are gimmicks, but some of them might be a little gimmicky. But we're talking about some of our favorite production decisions by publishers, uh. So I want to kick it off. Let's do an easy one. Should we do an easy one first? Yeah, can we do like? Can we do like favorite? Uh, let's do favorite organizer tray. Oh, my god, I don't clay. I don't know how you envision this going, but I want to talk like organizers, because when you open that box, you got organizers underneath, especially in, like some of our fancier board games, our larger board games, board games with tons of minis. Whatever it is, you got to have that organizer in there that keeps everything nice and squared away. What are some good board games that have great?
Speaker 3:organizers, and this is, this is out of the box organizer. This is not this isn't aftermarket, etsy, this is a company. Yeah, the company decided they were going to pony up and give the the players, a good experience out of the box. That's right. Yeah, vic, do you have anything off the top? Because I got one I'm ready for if you need.
Speaker 2:So the one that comes to my mind and for your listeners that have watched my podcast know that I'm a big Betrayal on the Hill Yep, big number one board game ever. Love it. They came out with one called Betrayal on the House Legacy Yep, now Legacy. When I opened that box up, everything was like good to go, like you're ready to go, right off the bat. Like they have it set up so you just literally take it off and you're ready to start playing. And even then, when, like you put it away, the tray itself, the box itself, is like this spot goes where all the tiles go, this is where all the cards go, goes where all the titles go, this is where all the cards go, this. And then so I, right off the bat, I was like, okay, wait for a show, because this, this game, like guides you on how to like put it away and how to take it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I thought, I thought that was beautiful, that legacy was great. I mean, first of all I'm playing betrayal and now I get to play legacy game, which I love. Campaign legacy games like can't sound like one of my favorite games to play. I love because it brings everyone back to the table to continue our story that we left off at um. But I thought that was genius. Even has like a section for your trash, like your like cards that you don't use anymore, like you place them in there now.
Speaker 1:So I was like, oh okay, they thought of everything on that, so for me it's gotta be like but and the more recent version of that is probably like arcs arcs did kind of a similar thing it comes in the campaign box, which is much larger, comes with two separate trays that are like your campaign trays that you can throw all your stuff in, put it away, pull it out again next week or whatever, to continue the story, correct clay?
Speaker 3:what you got. No, I think. I think, uh, that's kind of an interesting point bringing up a legacy game, because I think it's almost a requirement for legacy games to have that type of organization to kind of make it easy to get in and out of the games. I wanted to shout out I gave them some crap a couple weeks ago. Man, I'm losing track of time. It was a while ago. But final frontier shut down and merchants cove got all locked up.
Speaker 3:I ordered the big box for that. Eventually I was able to get it by paying for shipping again from quartermaster logistics. It came and this box is incredible. It has little game trays for each individual of like the 10 different factions you can play. Like all the components are right there and that. So to play the game you just pull out your little box components and then there's a box within the box. So you pull out the box with all the player stuff and then there's all the components for like just the game in general right underneath. So it makes it really easy to navigate a game that has a lot of different components because it's so asymmetric and has so much different stuff going on. So I thought that was a beautiful big box that they came out with and it is from the company. I know it's an upgrade. It wasn't like how Merchants Cove came, but they did make that and I think it's quite nice.
Speaker 4:And that's a collector's item now, because they don't exist anymore. It sounds like is that correct? Yeah, Eyes on this weekend. Also, maybe a little foreshadowing for over the fence, because I was up in new york, pennsylvania, this weekend.
Speaker 1:Why did you go up there?
Speaker 4:I don't know. Uh, long lost friend, maybe okay, maple donuts, they were up there.
Speaker 4:I mean, this box is massive. You could put a small dog in there and it would be fine, like it could be. It could be a, it could easily be a kennel. But yeah, the organization in there was was very nice. I liked it. But while you guys were talking I was thinking of dead reckoning. But while you guys were talking I was thinking of dead reckoning. I mean, yeah, not only is the organization good but like the artwork on the organization makes you feel like you're just, you know, you're getting out the casks from the center of the uh, of the of the battle warship as you're getting ready to go fly your or, you know, sail your pirate boat around the caribbean to go blast each other. So I was a huge fan of of dead reckoning until clay got rid of it. So rest in peace, dead reckoning. I'm just gonna keep bringing that up until he buys it again, oh my god.
Speaker 4:But not a fan, I was actually, as the resident party guy, I was actually thinking of Camel Up Like it's a very simple game and the box is probably bigger than it needs to be, but, just as Vic was saying, it tells you exactly where to put everything for a quick and easy setup takedown and that's one of your key items for yard sale in a game.
Speaker 2:Top shelf yard sale yeah.
Speaker 4:Is this 15 minutes or not? You can easily set up, uh, some of these big boy games if they, if they have the, the right know-how and you know a box specialist on the on the payroll, so you can tell a box, just love that, oh yeah yeah, uh, I was going to shout out any game where you can pull out individual trays for the individual players and just hand them to them.
Speaker 1:So, like your dice thrones, your, oh man, what was the one that I was just talking about the other day?
Speaker 3:Seven Wonders Architects.
Speaker 1:Seven Wonders Architects Stuff like that, where you can just pull out something that is self-contained, you hand it to a player and that is their whole setup. It makes it so easy, so fast, so fun.
Speaker 3:Dwellings of Eldervale too.
Speaker 1:That's sick.
Speaker 2:Andromeda's Edge as well. Andromeda's Edge, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, I wanted to shout out Dice Throne, because their production is way over the top and you can buy the individual characters and stuff. But, like you've opened it up, the rulebook is right there for individual characters they're like you know their stat sheet and their like special moves and all that stuff and the game is so simple. You just like pick it up, you open the top and you're good to go. Uh, stuff like that I just I love so much. Um, and then recently I was uh punching my chrome edition of the uh thunder, uh thunder, road vendetta. Yes, oh man, it's got a game.
Speaker 1:Thunder Road Vendetta. Yes, oh man, it's got trays within trays within trays, all organized so smartly. And then the big box, the Chrome Edition, has a box extender. This is another production. I know this is not an organizer A box extender that lifts the lid just ever so much to be able to fit all the expansions and everything inside, stuff like that. It's so smart and just oh, it's so satisfying to slide that thing back on there with the box extender. All everything fits so nicely in there. Oh man, beautiful organization guys.
Speaker 3:So are we pro? Are we pro big box here? Because I feel like it's kind of a polarizing subject. I hear a lot of podcasts that like get a little pissy when there's a big box and they're like, well, now what do I do? I hope this box around the game nights. It's not even convenient anymore. I am, I love big boxes.
Speaker 2:No, I want go big or go home.
Speaker 3:Go big, go home, come on, that's right, if you make a big box for a game, I'm probably going to buy all the expansions just to fill it up. Travis has the Everdell.
Speaker 1:You got Everdell here, the Chrome Thunder Road, vendetta. I got these two Batman ones and a thousand more Batman boxes coming. I'm a big box boy. I'm more than happy to lug a box around to a game night, like I'm not the type of guy that's going to have a huge bag of board games right, like the all play board game bags that they sell. But if I'm gonna bring one game to game night, I don't mind lugging around a big box.
Speaker 4:I think I'm, I think I'm pro big box I think, as the self-proclaimed officer in charge of vibes on Operation Game Night, I have given the blessing to approve big boxes.
Speaker 3:The vibes are good on big boxes.
Speaker 4:As long as the artwork is good on the outside, vibes are good oh yeah, it's got to be eye-pleasing, for sure it's got to be eye-pleasing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can't be bad.
Speaker 1:Let's talk components like-pleasing. For sure it's got to be eye-pleasing. Let's talk components like individual components in a board game. Are there any that jump to mind? Where it's like, this is what a component should be for a board game. It can be bags, it can be chips, it can be coins, it can be whatever it is, but like individual components. What jumps to mind as like a top tier, top notch component and production decision?
Speaker 2:we're just, we're just going top shelf yard sale off segment right now, at this point are we commandeering uh? You guys taking no one of the segments that's why we had you on you're the expert right now top shelf or yard sale with operation game man, all right we talked that.
Speaker 1:We call that horizontal integration there you go, right, yes, oh, we just zippered so what you got for individual components that really stand out like what is something that you're like. This thing is beautiful. I love this individual component. Feels good, looks good it's, but it's hard.
Speaker 2:It's hard to narrow it down because I have so many. Um, I just recently got, uh, the fall of the mountain king and in the hall of the mountain king, okay, but I got the like the kickstarter edition. Um, I found it at a con, one of the conventions I want. I went and I got it. So they got the premium ones and, man, those like those like coins, those little gold coins I'm like it feels like I'm holding like aztec gold and I feel like I'm holding like some, like really nice some nice coins, everything's like and like.
Speaker 2:They show you a picture of like, a what it's like, a reference sheet of like. Hey, thank you for buying the kickstarter Kickstarter. You may notice some differences from our basic ones. Here are the differences and it shows the basics. And then your Kickstarter. I was like I'm so glad I got this Kickstarter box because I'd be so bored with these pieces. So now I have the metal pieces and whenever I have metal coins for resources are just, those are top tier for me.
Speaker 1:That's a top shelf right there for me, right you are talking our language because those metal coins are so satisfying I feel so good the weight feeling the weight of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, it's worth it I agree, um, but yeah, I would go in the hall of the mountain king and the fall of the mountain king. Uh, there was this other one that my friend introduced, but I can't think of it. You guys might even bring it up. I also had the Kickstarter edition, but the coins felt nice, even Andromeda's Edge, the Kickstarter, the all-in pledge, some of those resource tokens are really nice, especially the ice, little ice resources, or the cobalt he's like. It looked like little like gold bars kind of thing. Oh yeah, I thought I thought those are really good resources like, and it drives immersion.
Speaker 2:If you guys know me, I love immersion and so if I'm immersed into this board game and I have like like thematic components with it. I'm getting involved in this game, none of this cardboard cutout stuff, so I'm not a big guy.
Speaker 1:Jared, you got something that jumps to mind.
Speaker 4:Scythe was something that early in my game journey that I remember the minis on the Mech Warriors were just pretty dope. There's some angel-looking thing. If I can remember right, is that on Sythe, or is that? Am I mixing that up with something else?
Speaker 4:but if there's an angel, I'm not sure what you're talking about you you have to paint a more descript picture for me, because maybe he was looking, maybe he had wings, I don't know um, but I mean there was a guy with a bird on his arm like you're, you're like yeah oh yeah, maybe that like yeah, your character figures in there.
Speaker 4:Nice minis, yes yes, minis and characters and just this gothy looking you know, yeah, real mech. Uh, what do you call it? Steam hunky? Yeah, I loved it. But also on my trip up north I saw that Bitewing, those Bitewing boxes. I hope Clay talks about those. I'll just throw the bone over to you, clay, because Reiner Knizia Bitewing something or other, can you?
Speaker 3:tell me about those.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the sci-fi trilogy from BiteWing has been getting out the backers and produce a Reiner Canizia stuffy a plushie and I I have that now and that's amazing. Yeah, and and like all the deluxe components in in the bite wing, games are great. Bite wing in general has just been making some great productions. I love the feel of they're like in the ego game. They have these alliance tokens and things and they're all this like hefty, like almost poker, clay, clay, iron type feeling chips and it feels great. But I want to give a shout out real quick to a not sexy component that came to my mind when we were going to talk about this. I think we can all you know, probably agree, like you know the metal coins, you know that's, that's the sexy stuff. But in castles of burgundy deluxe edition there's one component that I think makes it soar above and that's that little grid that you can put down on top of your mat.
Speaker 3:That keeps all your tiles in place if they were to get bumped. And I'm just like man, that was such a clever decision to make that little grid, so that you know that's the worst when you're making a map out of tiles of any type and they get bumped a little bit. And now you're like, ah geez, I got to rearrange this every two seconds and they solved that on Castle of the Burger in Diesel Lux edition and I am very into that particular component.
Speaker 1:That's a great one, good call out. I was going to say any game that has, like the 3D printed buildings where, like a skyline is important to build. So, like I was thinking of Skyrise, I got that like mega kickstarter edition. It comes with, like each individual faction or, like you know, color that you're playing as has unique crafted buildings and they all look different. So, like your small buildings between all four factions, there's no duplicate buildings. The mediums there's no duplicates. Talls there's no duplicates. And then you have individual like uh, I I don't even know what they're called, but like the special ability buildings are all these like beautiful, large, crafted, like miniatures, and when you put it all out there on the table, you build this like 3d skyline that looks amazing and then, with like foundations of rome, you're putting those buildings out there and it just looks beautiful. Like stuff like that is just so immersive and, as an engineer, when you finish the game and you have this nice skyline that's going on, it's just so satisfying. I love that so much.
Speaker 3:Thanks, travis. I fear we might be coming off a little privileged because we're just shouting out all these Kickstarter versions. I know, can we give a little?
Speaker 2:ode to maybe because we're just shouting out all these.
Speaker 1:Kickstarter versions. I know Expensive games.
Speaker 3:Can we give a little ode to maybe a basic version of a game that does it well that you don't have to deluxe upgrade to get something awesome. Yeah, jared, what's up?
Speaker 4:I mean, I can't stop talking about Lost Risen Varnik, but the tablets, the arrowheads and the rubies in that game, that's a base level.
Speaker 4:And they just feel so good when you have those in your hands. I mean the meeples and you know, those are kind of maybe so-so, but those are, I'm always pleased to grab a tablet. Maybe everything else is kind of like so so, but those are, I'm always pleased to grab a tablet. Um, maybe everything else is kind of like meh, but uh, I do enjoy grabbing a tablet and an arrowhead. The arrowhead like it. It's three-dimensional, it's got that blue tinge. I love it.
Speaker 1:Um, that obviously sprung right to my mind, but everything else is kind of like meh shout out to our boy Paul Solomon and his honey buzz with the nice like jelly honey resources. Those things are satisfying. All the resources in that game are so satisfying to pick up and just play with because like the honey is like actually kind of squishy and like sticky. Oh man, those are so nice.
Speaker 2:What do you got? Well, first of all, Travis and Carly are destroying me in Lustren's Arnak on BGA right now. I had to throw that out right now.
Speaker 4:Oh Jared.
Speaker 2:It's good play with me.
Speaker 4:Yeah yeah, sorry, sorry. Jared and Carly are the other big military guy.
Speaker 2:I don't know how you got all the way to the top of that tempo already, man. I'm struggling over here with resources, but you got that to lockdown.
Speaker 4:I tell you, I have like three games going on at all times of the day, so don't even worry about it.
Speaker 2:I do need to get your take on how you think Carly's playing, though, because I'm one of the big ones.
Speaker 4:Don't worry, we're going to play again. I'll re-invite everybody.
Speaker 2:Let's go, let's run it.
Speaker 2:I think to Clay's point about Basic. I'm not too much familiar with the Kickstarter versions of the Waking Realms games, but I bought Nemesisesis Basic and those components were amazing. The minis are amazing, the intruders are amazing. I just got Lords of Ragnarok, also from Awakened Realms. Again, minis are amazing. I don't think there's resources in that game, but in Nemesis we'll go back to Nemesis. The fire tokens are really nice. The noise markers are really nice.
Speaker 2:Um, and I didn't really get the kickstarter ones, but I reckon realms like likes to go over the top on their games a lot, a little bit too much um for for when it comes to like that basic, uh, agenda games, um, again, probably, this is this is my exception, but I mean I betrayal the basic versions of Betrayal. I think their components are nice. They're a little cut out board pieces, but I mean I like the little meeples and I guess that's just the exception of the little monster tokens you get. They're colorful, their art design is really nice. That's a very basic version as well. But I mean any game that has minis. That's a very basic version as well.
Speaker 2:Uh, but I mean any game that has minis. I'm I'm all for for it as well. I mean, I had one of my, one of my good friends that I've had on the pod. Uh, raul, he has the hot take that he prefers meatballs over minis. He doesn't want games with minis, he likes meatballs. And I was like you're wrong. You're wrong, sir minis all day. I need immersion. I don't need basic little guys that are like this.
Speaker 2:I need I need I need to know what my guy looks like. Exactly, a little bit exactly. I don't need poses. You know, if this guy's a space pirate, I need, I need to make him look like a space pirate. That's like doing a starfish pose.
Speaker 1:I don't, I don't need that play what you got for small box or uh.
Speaker 3:Baseline games yeah, I think that this is going to be a kind of an obscure game, but it's another production decision just on a basic game. It's called chuhan um by madigo, designed by tom layman. It's a like card shedding game meant for two players. There's a lot I don't like about the production. It comes in just like a normal, like you know, card game type box that you'd find like lost cities or something. But in addition to that and when you get it out, it has like a nice little dragon board that you keep track of your score and some like big chunky tiles for um player aids. But they also put in there just a tuck box that you could take the whole game in a tuck box if you wanted to.
Speaker 3:And I thought that was really clever because, you know, sometimes space matters you just want to throw something in the backpack. You don't want to stick the, even though it's not a big cardboard box. They put like all the stuff to track scores as cards and all the stuff to player aids and stuff as cards instead of the tiles. So you can just take all the cards, take those other ones, stick in the tuck box and you're good to go. So that was. That was a cool production decision by Madigo. I think that's who uh produce that game. But yeah, um, pretty sweet.
Speaker 1:And I was gonna. I was gonna to shout out Fantasy Flight Games and their Marvel Champions. It took me a long time to realize this, but when you get one of their big, let's say, you get the base set, the Marvel Champions base set, required for all players, regardless of how many expansions you want to go into. The base box has enough space to store the entire first wave of expansions and you can tuck them all in there. Right, it comes with a couple decks, pre-made, pre-loaded, all ready to go, but if you stand them up, you can fit the entire first wave in that core box and every one of their big box expansions. Big box expansions, they're like maybe one foot by one foot large. They're pretty manageable size boxes. Each of them has a divider in there that fits the entire next wave of expansions, because they do the big box. Then they do like I don't know, a couple of heroes or they'll do like a medium expansion that has like a scenario in there, but they are all sized to fit that entire wave of characters or expansions that come out.
Speaker 1:Um, and then I don't know if they meant to do this or not, but it comes with like a little piece of cardboard that kind of holds the. You know it holds all the cards from bouncing around or whatever. You can cut that up and it like perfectly makes dividers for the different releases in that wave of expansion. So I think that is. I don't know if they meant to do it that way, but that's how people do it like. I've seen it online people, you know, make dividers out of this thing, but it's so smart and it's like it's so economic in such a small box. I'm always really impressed by that stuff, for sure. What about um, like player aids, something that helps the player, either when they're setting it up or taking it down, or following the rules, or mid play, like something that just helps players. You got anything that springs to mind Production decision that helps players.
Speaker 2:Look, I know Clay hasn't played this game yet and you need to. But Civilution, civilution. Come on, clay, get on. You got to get on this game. Oh, my goodness, if you love Castle of Burgundy, my guy, you're gonna love this game. Alright, alright. But Sivolution gives you legit like a little booklet for each player that has all the icons on there, so you know you can reference it back to whatever icon. This is a very icon heavy game, so if you're not sure what this icon does, you have your little booklet reference sheet. You open it up and it tells you everything you need to know about that game. Um, I love solution. It's fun and I think that, yeah, the little reference sheet is very helpful. I don't ever have to ask a question of like what this does, because actually look at it and there you go. So you don't have to bother the game master, the owner of the the game, with questions. You can just. The game master will be like, just look at your booklet. I'm like okay, and then you're done. That's it so we'll just play.
Speaker 3:That's pretty nice. You might have me with the booklet, because hey, let's go, come on. The booklet in ARX that pretty much every player gets their own mini rule book in ARX too and that just makes it so much easier. It doesn't necessarily help with setup, but I mean, as you're playing 98 of the questions you might have, you can literally flip through a little three-page rule book and and get the answer to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, jared what you got.
Speaker 4:I was going to think about Reiner Knizia more and like Rebirth, but that's just because it's the simple mechanics of his games and like the icons just make it so easy to play a lot of his games and stuff. Yeah, but nothing else really springing to my mind. Clay, what's got wait? I was going to say we played the seven wonders.
Speaker 3:Oh, dual from the rings.
Speaker 4:Dual from middle earth. I mean any of those seven wonders, the iconography on those are very helpful and make it go very smooth. I hate to say BGA just makes everything that much better. But when?
Speaker 2:you play online.
Speaker 4:The computer just calculates everything for you anyway. That's why I like BGA.
Speaker 3:Clay what you got for player aids or something that helps players oh my gosh, I'm just lost in that cat's eyes behind you on that wonderland's war and I'm thinking of the flow chart for battle yes that just walks you through. Yeah, somebody bust who. Who won? How many madness chips did you draw? Boo boo, boo boo. And until you finish the flow chart, you're like all right, I know what I'm doing now and then you flip it over and it's like tea party phase.
Speaker 4:And you just run through it again. It's an engineer's wet dream, yep.
Speaker 2:Yep, You're going to love Civil Lucian. Clay man it guides. Oh, you're gonna love Civil Lucian. Clay man that guides you through that too as well. Alright, alright, alright, we gotta get him on. I gotta be your first playthrough. Alright, you gotta say that let's go.
Speaker 1:I was gonna take a different approach to it, but one of my great joys in the board gaming hobby is punching new board games. Like I just love punching things and putting things in sleeves and that's like so satisfying to me. Um, and when I was doing my thunder road vendetta punch, um, all of the individual cardboard things that you are punching out are labeled and it says like these are used for threats, these are used for blah, blah, blah, and you know exactly where they go in the organizer. And then there's a couple blank ones in there and it points at them and it says keep these as extras or invent your own threats or whatever. I think stuff like that is so smart. You're going to screen print this piece of cardboard anyways for people to punch out and then throw away. Put instructions in the margins and let people know what it is they're punching, because it's so overwhelming and a lot of these you know games are punching so many pieces and you pull them all out and like, let's say, they have baggies for all of them or whatever.
Speaker 1:I don't know what goes with what. I don't know where it goes in this organizer. Like stuff like that is just so satisfying when it has it labeled and you know where it goes. You know what resource it is or why it matters. Yeah, it's so. It makes it so much easier to like put it away and I'm less stressed about it. Definitely should we go the opposite direction, like what are some really big flops in production?
Speaker 1:oh, that's a hmm uh, because I'm gonna start yeah, go ahead kind of a I'm going to start, yeah, go ahead. Kind of a niche thing. Let me see if I oh, it's over my other shoulder Quest for the Lost Pixel. Okay, it's a card-based game. It's pretty niche. You buy this box and it's literally just cards rolling around in a box that are taped together with paper. Like you buy it and like it's like a maraca, like you shake that thing and it's just packs of cards that are banded with a little piece of paper that then you have to find a way to organize and that is so unsatisfying and so bad. And people like 3d print their own dividers and all that stuff. But like just core game. It's literally. I don't even think there's a rule book in there, I think it's literally just cards and it's like look up the rule book online.
Speaker 2:It's a great game, it's really cool, but man, that production just is so anti, anti-player, it's crazy yeah, oh my, I don't know if it's a fantasy flight, oh, it's fancy flight game, but I don't know if this is the uh, the game that I'm talking about, but uh, star wars, rebellion, or uh, the two-player game.
Speaker 2:That box, oh my god, there's so much like minis in there, but the way the box is set up, if I'm correct, is when you take it off, it's like those, like the box, that like it's like this, and it dies, dips and there's like little crevice and you got like the crevice underneath it and then like there's stuff, the minis, and I'm like, I'm like that's so annoying because it's like you just have to like open it up and yeah, organization, and then the car just go in the middle of the little crevice and yep, I think it just bounces everywhere. Just get there. Oh, that bugs that. So much.
Speaker 1:that's how the core box of wonderland's war is. Like you, you have to really everything underneath that like cardboard divider thing, cause there's so much stuff in that box, it's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. It's so annoying Cause, especially, yeah, if you have cards and minis, everything's just going to get jumbled up and now you're, now you're set up time, just got double Cause. Now you've got to reorganize everything. I don't like that, yeah.
Speaker 4:The thing about the minis are like you need to know where the minis go on the organizer, because sometimes they do not tell you where the mini is supposed to go and they are like very similar but they're not the same and they all let you like okay, we're, okay, I think it's this slot, but it's not, and but then it leads to inevitable lid lift and we all know that's one thing we can all agree on. That's not what we want, it's just that that is quite frustrating. But you know, inevitably there's maybe one mini that's just like really long, that one's easy to put back. You know it's long, but then yeah, the the other seven are just like very slight variations of like this. You know, middle sized warrior, yeah, angry looking thing.
Speaker 3:So that's painful. That's true, I wouldn't even thought about that. I was miserable with Marvel United when, when I had just all the boxes like all the different expansion boxes and I was trying to figure out where to put them all back in those things, and now they just all are thrown together in a big box and I'm like whatever, because the little insert wasn't doing much for me. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:Also. Yeah, jared, good point. I'm looking at you, seamon and Zombicide, because they have thousands of zombies in those boxes and no labels as to where they go. That stuff is so frustrating.
Speaker 2:RIP Seamon though.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, RIP.
Speaker 2:Asmode games.
Speaker 1:Let's finish on a high note and talk about something positive again Any honorable mentions, shoutouts for specific games or components that we did. And talk about something positive again Any honorable mentions, shoutouts for specific games or components that we did not talk about already. Vic oh.
Speaker 2:Okay, put it on the spot here what's a game? There's a game I don't know if it's Seasons. It's one of these games where it's a very, very dice heavy game but like the, the tray inside of it like organizes it for like all the trays, all the for like all of the individual like dices so they fit into their slots that were. Then I jumbled around. I'm also thinking of like formula D, the racing game that I have. It uses a bunch. It uses like a, from like a d4 to like a d60 die, but each in the middle of it has like a specific slot for each die. So it's like nice and organized, nice and tucked in.
Speaker 2:I like that because it's like that way your dice aren't rolling around in your box everywhere. I mean not going anywhere, but like just have them in a little neat little spot so you can like put them in there. Any game that has like dice, games that like allow you to like organize your dice and when you put it away, I think that's like really, instead of putting them in like a big bag or something like that. I know you guys love bags, but like I need oh yeah, I need to put my, my, my dice you know somewhere, so I can ease the axis and stuff like that. So, um, yeah, I think like seasons or like formula d has like some good little like pocket dice areas. You can put them in as well.
Speaker 4:So yeah, great shout out love it, jared, what you got I was just gonna shout out two quick ones uh, spots, the little wooden bones, and also, uh, for the dice miner, the mountain of dice. I love it. So those are my honorable mentions.
Speaker 1:And congratulations. You made it through the whole episode without mentioning Camelup's pyramid.
Speaker 2:Or the pop-up tree.
Speaker 1:I thought for sure that one was coming out, but congratulations.
Speaker 4:I mean, I mentioned the box, but I didn't mention the clicker. Wow, that was shame on me.
Speaker 3:Unbelievable.
Speaker 1:Clay what you got.
Speaker 3:Man, there's so many things I love about board games and I think for my high note finish, I just want to shout out a few publishers that I think I always rely on for a good production In the future. I'd like to do know top five list, like count down our favorite publishers. But now I'm just going to give shout outs to stonemaier. I think they always have a nice production. I'm really, as I talked about before, liking what bitewing does with their productions and all play. I I like what all play puts out as well.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, those are the big ones. If I see they see they're producing a game, I'm like, yeah, I'll probably get it. I know they're going to do it justice. I know Vic would have Awakened Realms probably up there, big Awakened Realms guy and my boys and my boys, yeah. But yeah, it's just, you know there's so many good games. I think that it really does matter. Like we have so many options. Like why would I sit down and play with something that's not well produced when there's so many games now that are and have good art and have nice components, have player aids?
Speaker 1:like, if you're gonna take the time to design a good game, you might as well, make the right decisions while you're producing it yeah, I mean, that's like the whole point, right, is you're trying to create a positive experience while interacting with a set of rules, right, and that those are not always in, you know, sync with one another. Sometimes they clash really hard. But that experience matters because if I pick a box off a shelf and there's stuff rolling around inside or like you got lid lift because not everything fits, or the iconography is bad and it's hard to navigate the rules via, you know the iconography. That stuff just clashes with your, with your experience, and you're less likely to go back to that game. And with thousands of games literally thousands of games coming out every single year, those little like clash points, they matter, yeah, but when you pull something out and you know it's got nice snapping magnets in the box and it unfolds and everything's organized and you know, you pick up the rule books and it's like that nice vinyl. Okay, oh man, like those games, just like they set the tone so early and you're more likely to have a positive experience.
Speaker 1:Um, my, my final shout outs was going to be the uh, um, what is it in western legends? The, uh, oh, the little tray, not the nuggets. Yes, yes, nuggets are great. But also the the market.
Speaker 2:What do you call?
Speaker 1:it the market, yeah, the market.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Organizes all the little miniature cards. You have all your categories right there, it's easy to see. And then, when you're done with the game, you just take that whole thing and you plop it down in the box and it's ready for next time, so long as you're not like jostling the box like crazy, but there's enough in there that it keeps it all nice and compact. Uh, and then I was also going to shout out chip theory. Uh, man, their productions are so over the top and ridiculous. It's uh going to be a small hint at our debrief that will come out next monday, but, um, I got a chip theory game that I want to talk to you guys about oh, it's so good a production on this thing is amazing.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to share this with you guys. But awesome chip theory always goes above and beyond. Their games are prohibitively expensive for some people. I understand that, uh, but man, their production is always way over the top and they want that game to sing the moment you get your hands on it to the moment you pack it away. And uh, yeah, they make some awesome choices, so nice. Anything else you guys want to talk about?
Speaker 3:Oh, uh, lazy Susan, in planet unknown, that you literally you could have played you. They could have made the game without it, but it makes it so much easier to use and I I have been thinking about it all day today and I don't know how I went through the whole episode and didn't bring it up. So, plan unknown, lazy susan how is planning on?
Speaker 2:by the way, I've never I've been wanting to play so badly.
Speaker 3:It's good, it's good, it's good. Good game, if you like, polyominoes and filling up a board and moving up tracks. It's fun Hitting tracks, hitting combos and filling up your board. I like it.
Speaker 1:Boards that are meant to rotate, ie fromage that rotate on that little spinner thing Steady.
Speaker 2:Steady, yes, steady.
Speaker 1:Steady, we could go all night on that, but for the sake of time, this has been an amazing discussion, vick, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, uh. Why don't you give a shout out to your channel, your instagram, tell people where they can find you on the internet?
Speaker 2:yeah, first of all, I will say thanks, yeah, thanks, guys, for having me on here. For anyone that's listening or watching on youtube, spotify, wherever you guys. First of all, you guys should be following operation game night. This is your first time listening to this episode. Give them a follow. These guys are amazing. I love listening to them. They're awesome, um, so go ahead and catch up on their episodes. Catch up to this episode and then you've done that. You can come over to my side of the corner here on games, a podcast that, yeah, we're dedicated to board games, video games, some pop culture things. We, yeah, we'd like to nerd out. We've had the guys here on operation game night, on our on our podcast, and we've always had a blast. We've Fun topics. I mean our this and that episode was so much fun, dude, that thing was like blast. We need to do like a part two for sure.
Speaker 2:Yes, we got to do a part and that was great. And, yeah, I love listening to you guys. You guys are amazing. But if you guys want to also get some more board game fixes, I like to cater more towards like the super beginner people that don't know board gaming, kind of guide them into the world of board gaming and stuff, and so, if that's up your alley, you can find us on all socials. We are on Facebook X, X, Tik, TOK, YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, I heart radio, all that stuff you can follow us at. We're at games in my spot. So, yeah, give us a follow if you'd like, but but first follow these guys. If you're not following them, you've got to follow them. Give them a like, give them a heart, give them all the comments, leave them a like and then you can follow us afterwards.
Speaker 2:But yeah very honored, thankful that we finally got to collab again on your guys' podcast and I had you guys on mine. I'm glad that we get to be on yours and so yeah, so thanks for the time. Absolutely Talk board games. Thank you for joining us Vic. Yeah.
Speaker 1:For operation game night. I have been Travis, he has been clay, he has been Jared. Hit us up in the comments and let us know what your favorite production choices are. And that's it. That's a wrap. Thank you.
