One the great things about playing board games, and having that interest evolve with a small group of liked minded people, to become a weekly review effort, is the chance to connect with game designers directly.
In that regard it helps of course to live in the Internet age where, thanks to an email, you can be corresponding with someone anywhere in the world in a flash.
So recently, I came upon a relatively new abstract strategy offering in the game Astralis.
A bit of net searching and I found the game is from designer Phil Leduc, who happened to also have designed Murus Gallicus back in 2009, and I reviewed a couple of years later. The game is excellent, with simple rules, easily assembled components and a ‘feel’ that suggests it was created decades ago.
Astralis is a game with a futuristic theme of exploration, and I wanted to know more, so I contacted Leduc.
It turns out he has always lived in New England, born and raised in Massachusetts and moved to Rhode Island, where he has resided with his wife for about 40 years.
Rather early on he developed an interest in board games.
“From my pre-teens, I have loved solving puzzles and playing games,” he said via email. “My parents encouraged me and I enjoyed ‘solving’ things.
“It wasn't until my twenties that I discovered Chess' depth, got hooked, and became serious about studying abstract games. I also started collecting games in general.”
But designing games is a different thing from playing. Trust me when I say our gamin group often talks about designing, but have dome no more than talk.
So how did Leduc make the leap?
“When I first started to collect games on my meager salary, I looked for ‘bargain’ games,” he said. “This led me to reading about games in such books as Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games. Here was a guy inventing simple paper and pencil games. I thought to myself, ‘I can do that’."
But most games never make their designers a profit, and abstract strategy games less than the average.
“I design games with the intention of bringing a challenge and enjoyment to my fellow gamers and for the pleasure of creating something through an evolutionary process,” offered Leduc. “Thanks to the web, I have been able to present my games. I do not think of my hobby as a money-maker."
Switching to Astralis I was curious about its evolution, and the reply suggests just how much work can go into a game’s development.
“I have for a long time wanted to design a galactic conquest game,” began Leduc. Visitors to my site's home page may have noticed an entry titled ‘Galactic Convoy’ that has not been linked to anywhere. This is a game I started working on in 2009. It was similar to R. Wayne Schmittberger's Oxymandia, a dice-less Risk-like game.
“Later, I tried again with a game called Galaxy-X, which was sort of a switching game where ships orbited planets and flew off to other planets. That one wasn't too good. These games led to Astralis.”
What Leduc needed was a fresh approach and it finally emerged.
“I am always open to new ideas that may apply to game rules or mechanics,” he said. “I quietly read the abstract games forum on the BGG (Board Game Geek), and once in a while an idea or a request takes hold. Recent readings brought a few ideas to light.
“First, I play-tested Radius with Rey Alicea and liked his idea of moving and then placing stones adjacent to the moved stone.
“Partisans by Luis Bolaños Mures with its modified Amazons movement rule also stuck in my brain.
“Finally, someone asked why there weren't any abstract games with outer space themes. This was enough to get my creative juices flowing again.”
From there it was some good old trial and error.
“I started by moving ships and dropping a planet in front of the moved ship,” said Leduc. “Ships couldn't fly over any planets and planets could not be adjacent. The game turned out to be a race and maze game, more maze than race in the end. The planet scores were always very close and not deemed good enough. Clearly, more work was needed.”
So back to the development board Leduc went.
“The first change I made was to allow placing planets in any adjacent hex instead of only in front of the flight path,” he said. “This let the ships move down diagonals; but still, ships could not fly over planets. After a fitful night of sleep and thinking, I realized ships should be allowed to ‘fly’ over friendly planets. This greatly improved mobility. But still, the scores were too close.
“This led to the use of zones of control, a wargame throwback. The scores became more varied. Great. But now there was a new problem. With no visual aids, counting the control hexes at the end of a game was difficult and annoying. Control tiles came to mind, but I hesitated to use control tiles during play and decided to use dice to keep track of controlled hexes. This wasn't too bad. But, for simplicity reasons, controlled hexes were being counted multiple times rather than just once. As a result, players were more likely to pack their planet close together and this affected ship mobility. At this point, I felt using tiles for control indicators was the best way to go.”
The next idea came from Go, the surrounding game.
“Captures of planets improved the variability in scores. Players could score ‘big’ once in a while by surrounding a planet with controlled hexes or score an extra point now and then by surrounding an unexplored hex. The latter is easier to achieve but the extra points come slowly.
With these rules, I felt it was time to publish Astralis to my site and present it on BGG,” said Leduc.
Stephen Tavener was kind enough to add Astralis to his Ai Ai game collection, he added.
“In the process of programming, Stephen used X's to indicate contested hexes, and it finally dawned on me that a new tile type was needed,” said Leduc. “Up to this time, players had to determine which hexes were contested and which were unexplored. With the addition of a new red contested tile, this is no longer the case.
“This, I believe, completes the design of Astralis (see https://sites.google.com/site/theowlsnest02/home)”
So what does Leduc see as the greatest challenge in its creation?
“There are three challenges that I contend with when developing games,” he said.
“Lack of sleep. It is very hard for me to turn off thinking about a game I am trying to create and the problems it presents. It feels great when you finally succeed in solving the problems. Designing a good game requires commitment and, at least for me, lack of sleep.
“Graphics are also a challenge but Inkscape has turned out to be a great tool. Developing a good look for a game can be time consuming.
“But, my greatest challenge is writing. As a ‘mathematician’ I want to be thorough which usually means redundancy for the sake of clarity. Game publishers and gamers want short, concise rules. I struggle to cull down my rules to something suitable for publication.”
So with Astralis offering something rather unique and recent, Murus Gallicus a classic feel with more than a decade of play, and numerous other games designed which one doe Leduc think is his best?
“I am convinced that players want simple rules that lead to complexities in game play,” he replied. “Astralis is basically a simple game of movement and placement with some localized housekeeping. Fortunately, computers can do the housekeeping for players. Astralis feels like an expansive game with plenty of opportunities to block and surprise your opponent with sweeping moves.
“Planet captures and bonuses are tempting and challenging to achieve. There is plenty to think about as you grab territory, block or trap your opponent, and worry about trapping yourself.
“In my opinion, games that require players to balance between offense and defense are best.”
But, it his best design? If not, which game does he look at as his best?
“This is like asking someone which of his children he likes best,” offered Leduc.” I like all my games for one reason of another, but alright -- I'll talk about my favorites.
“Murus Gallicus is my flagship blockade game and has a very good track record. It truly has simple rules and complex game play. It is quite scalable. Advanced Murus Gallicus, with its catapults, is actually considered even better by some players!
“Momentum is a great simple game with marbles flying around and off the board. The iggamecenter bot plays Momentum extremely well and players can get hooked on trying to beat the bot.
“Siege Master is also a great game of fortress enclosure that can be played on a multitude of maps or hex-hex boards. It is too bad, the game requires too much set up time and too many components when played on a board. SM is ideal for computer play.
“Dot Dash is a fascinating five-in-a-row game with all its amazing escapes from defeat. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be an appetite for n-in-a-row games on the BGG.
Speaking of n-in-a-row games, Bagel, my latest 3-in-a-row game with stone placement dependent on hex colors, is a good one. Again the balance between offense and defense is at play here.
“Finally, I believe Astralis is right up there with Murus Gallicus, but only time will tell if the public sees what I see in the game. Astralis is a fresh blend of game mechanisms presented with attractive graphics. How deep the game plays remains to be seen? If I am reading Ai Ai data properly, Astralis is an even game with equal chances for both players. Best of all, I really like the feel and theme of the game -- I hope players give a try.”
