GLA #16: Board game production
Many of us Geeks have their shelves filled with board games. Once the collection exceeds a certain size, one has a pretty nice basis to judge production quality. For example, compare the small cards in the original Ticket to Ride to the heavy character cards in Um Krone und Kragen (aka To Court The King). You can virtually feel the difference. Once the average Geek gets to this point, they will almost instantly start to get interested in board game production processes. How to develop a game from prototype status to a full release? What are the production steps required? What are the low-budget vs. the totally high-end, over-the-top games? Many, many questions...
Some answers provided in GeekListAggregator #16: Board game production.
GeekList #11505: The Most Overproduced Games Ever by Robert Martin
Robert points our attention to the games which are big.Their production has totally gone over the top. The notable first entry is Railroad Tycoon. Some may see this game as a lighter version of Age of Steam. However, Robert points us to the *real* weight of the game: 10 pounds. Which is probably excessively heavier than what we get with Age of Steam, right?! Okay, not funny? Well, there is a few interesting games mentioned, e.g. the most expensive board game as given by the Guiness Book of World Records plus some really expensive ones. And believe me, it *is* very high, as I previously thought the pricing for The Settlers of Catan 10th Anniversary 3-D Special Edition Chest Set was a little bit excessive...
GeekList #13264: Good Games – Cheaply Produced by Stuart Hill
Now, Stuart's list is almost completely the opposite: low-budget productions. The components look rather cheap but serve their purpose. Quite possibly, you will never hear dof these games (just as I did). This in itself should be enough reason to check it out (and prove me wrong...).
Geeklist #13619: Pimp My Game: Turning Substandard Game Pieces Into Star Performers by Chris Tannhauser
With those two lists above, we get a pretty good range of the spectrum. But what if a Geek is not happy with production quality? Examples to follow now: Chris Tannhauser describes himself as a fan of game bits and pieces. Actually, his original words add a little bit more juice to it. To put it in a nutshell, Chris has modified and improved many games by putting a lot of time and money into polishing the components, e.g. Fury of Dracula, Tigris & Euphrates, Citadels, Junta, etc. And I personally think, this investment has totally paid off. Also, other Geeks have subsequently added to the list. Pimp my game, baby...
GeekList #6558: Prototypes that never made it to full production by Scott -Pokey Pokey Pokey- Reed
Scott
We are now moving into the prototype category. Some games by non-professional designers sometimes never make it into the public. Some of these games might never have been submitted for publication, others might already have been rejected multiple times. We probably will not now which one is which, however, BoardGameGeek seems to contain quite a number of games that have never made their way into a bigger production at a small or large publisher. Scott has certainly compiled a not yet comprehensive list, so maybe we can all add to it...?!