The cooperative universe of the Star Trek Federation is fertile ground for co-op game design. David E. Whitcher’s Star Trek: Five-Year Mission is thus the second Star Trek co-op of the ’10s, and a very different beast from Reiner Knizia’s Star Trek: Expeditions. Star Trek: Five-Year Mission by David E. Whitcher Publisher: Mayfair Games (2015)…
Case Study: Star Trek — Expeditions
Reiner Knizia is best known in the co-op field for Lord of the Rings (2000), the game that kicked off the co-op revolution of the ’00s and ’10s. However, he also produced a second co-op game a decade later, Star Trek: Expeditions. (As with the Lord of the Rings case study, we at one time…
Challenge Study: AuZtralia
This is a second look at challenge systems in competitive games with a survival focus, and also a second look at the designs of Martin Wallace, following The Witches case study. AuZtralia by Martin Wallace Publisher: Stronghold Games (2018) Cooperative Style: Survival-Focused Cooperation Play Style: Combat, Resource Management Overview Following the Restoratonist War, Cthulhu and…
Challenge Study: The Witches
Our model for cooperative games broadly divides their design up into three major parts: cooperative elements, challenge elements and (sometimes) adventure-game elements. These mechanical elements can also be used in other sorts of games. In particular, challenge systems can appear in fully competitive games, making them more unpredictable and also creating the possibility of survival-focused…
Case Study: 12 Realms
We played both well-known and less-known co-ops while preparing Meeples Together: they were both sources of inspiration. 12 Realms, which Shannon received as a review copy, was thus the game that introduced us to icon-cost tasks, though we didn’t nail them down as a design pattern until we played a few other games two years later!…
Interviews & Preorders
The Backerkit is now available for Meeples Together. If you supported us in the Kickstarter, you should already have received a link to finalize your purchase; if you missed the Kickstarter, this is your opportunity to preorder the book. Besides preordering Meeples Together, you can also order Gameplaywright’s entire library of excellent books on game design and…
Case Study: Pathfinder ACG
Our preorder page for Meeples Together will be available in the next few days, in case you missed the Kickstarter. We’ll send out an announcement when that occurs. In the mean time, here’s our newest case study, looking at one of the most popular games on the modern market. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game by Mike…
Case Study: Sub Terra
Our Kickstarter for Meeples Together ends this week, but we’ll be continuing to publish new case studies supplementing the book in the weeks and months to come. (We’ve got more than 50 additional case studies drafted, plus another handful planned.) Today’s talks about Sub Terra, one of the big co-op Kickstarters in recent years, and…
Team Study: Between Two Cities
Meeples Together (which is nearing the end of its funding on Kickstarter) covers a whole spectrum of cooperative games. “True co-ops” are the heart of the book, but it also discusses traitor games, overlord games, and even the more classic style of team games — because they can all offer interesting design lessons. Between Two…
Lost Study: Dungeons & Dragons
When we began work on Meeples Together, our scope was a bit larger: we briefly talked about all sorts of cooperative play. We’ve since focused Meeples Together on cooperative board games, with the plan to walk through other types of cooperative play in a follow-up volume. When we tightened up our scope, we cut two…