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.聽
In that聽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.聽
So recently, I came upon a relatively new abstract strategy offering in the game Astralis.聽
A bit of net searching and I found the game is from designer Phil Leduc, who happened to also have designed聽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 鈥榝eel鈥� that suggests it was created decades ago.聽
Astralis is a game with a futuristic theme of exploration, and I wanted to know more, so I contacted Leduc.聽
It turns out he has聽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.聽聽
Rather early on he developed an interest in board games.聽
鈥淔rom my pre-teens, I have loved solving puzzles and playing games,鈥� he said via email. 鈥淢y parents encouraged me and I enjoyed 鈥榮olving鈥� things.聽聽
鈥淚t 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.鈥澛�
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.聽
So how did Leduc make the leap?聽
鈥淲hen I first started to collect games on my meager salary, I looked for 鈥榖argain鈥� games,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his led me to reading about games in such books as Sid Sackson's聽A Gamut of Games. Here was a guy inventing simple paper and pencil games. I thought to myself, 鈥業 can do that鈥�."聽
But most games never make their designers a profit, and abstract strategy games less than the average.聽
鈥淚 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聽process,鈥� offered Leduc.聽鈥淭hanks to the web, I have been able to present my games. I do not think of my聽hobby as a money-maker."聽
Switching to Astralis I was curious about its evolution, and the reply suggests just how much work can go into a game鈥檚 development.聽
鈥淚 have for a long time wanted to design a galactic conquest game,鈥� began Leduc. Visitors to my site's home page may have noticed an entry titled 鈥楪alactic Convoy鈥� 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聽Oxymandia,聽a dice-less聽Risk-like game.聽聽
鈥淟ater, I tried again with a game called聽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聽Astralis.鈥澛�
What Leduc needed was a fresh approach and it finally emerged.聽
鈥淚 am always open to new ideas that may apply to game rules or mechanics,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 quietly read the abstract games forum on the BGG (Board Game Geek),聽and once in a while an idea or a request takes hold.聽 Recent readings brought a few ideas to light.聽聽
鈥淔irst, I play-tested聽Radius聽with Rey Alicea and liked his idea of moving and then placing stones adjacent to the moved stone.聽聽
鈥淧补谤迟颈蝉补苍蝉听产测听聽with its modified聽Amazons聽movement rule also stuck in my brain.聽聽
鈥淔inally, someone asked why there weren't any abstract games with outer space themes.聽 This was enough to get my creative juices flowing again.鈥澛�
From there it was some good old trial and error.聽
鈥淚 started by moving ships and dropping a planet in front of the moved ship,鈥� said Leduc.聽 鈥淪hips couldn't fly over any planets and planets聽could not be adjacent. The game turned out to be a race and maze game,聽more maze than race in the end. The planet scores were always very close and not deemed good enough.聽 Clearly, more work was needed.鈥澛�
So back to the development board Leduc went.聽
鈥淭he first change I made was to allow placing planets in any adjacent hex instead of only in front of the flight path,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his let the ships move down diagonals; but still, ships could not fly over planets. After a fitful night of sleep and聽thinking, I realized ships should be allowed to 鈥榝ly鈥� over friendly planets. This greatly improved聽mobility. But still, the scores were too close.聽聽
鈥淭his 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聽mind, but I hesitated聽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.鈥澛�
The next idea came from聽Go,聽the surrounding game.聽聽
鈥淐aptures of planets improved the variability in scores. Players could score 鈥榖ig鈥� once in a while by聽surrounding a聽planet with controlled聽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.聽
With these rules, I felt it was time to publish聽Astralis聽to my site and present it on BGG,鈥� said Leduc.聽
Stephen Tavener was kind enough to add聽Astralis聽to his Ai Ai game collection, he added.聽聽
鈥淚n 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,鈥� said Leduc. 鈥淯p to this time, players had to determine which hexes were contested and which聽were unexplored. With the addition of a new red contested tile, this is no longer the case.聽聽
鈥淭his, I believe, completes the design of聽Astralis聽(see聽鈥澛�
聽So聽what does Leduc see as聽the greatest challenge in its creation?聽聽
鈥淭here are three challenges that I contend with when developing games,鈥� he said.聽
鈥淟ack 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.聽
鈥淕raphics are also a challenge but Inkscape has turned out to be a great tool.聽 Developing a good look for a game can be time consuming.聽
鈥淏ut, my greatest challenge is writing. As a 鈥榤athematician鈥� 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.鈥澛�
So with Astralis offering something rather unique and recent,聽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?聽聽
鈥淚 am convinced that players want simple rules that lead to complexities in game play,鈥� he replied. 鈥淎stralis聽is basically a simple game of movement and placement with some localized housekeeping. Fortunately, computers can do the housekeeping for players.聽Astralis聽feels like an expansive game with plenty of opportunities to block and surprise your opponent with sweeping moves.聽聽
鈥淧lanet 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.聽聽
鈥淚n my opinion, games that require players to balance between offense and defense are best.鈥澛�
But, it his best design? If not, which game does he look at as his best?聽聽
鈥淭his is like asking someone which of his children he likes best,鈥� offered Leduc.鈥� I like all my games for one reason of another, but alright -- I'll talk about my favorites.聽聽
鈥淢urus Gallicus聽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.聽Advanced Murus Gallicus, with its catapults, is actually considered even better by some players!聽
鈥淢omentum聽is a great simple game with marbles flying around and off the board. The iggamecenter bot plays聽Momentum聽extremely well and players can get hooked on trying to beat the bot.聽
鈥淪iege Master聽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.聽SM聽is ideal for computer play.聽
鈥淒ot Dash聽is a聽fascinating five-in-a-row game聽with all its amazing escapes from defeat. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be an appetite for聽n-in-a-row games on the BGG.聽
Speaking of n-in-a-row games,聽Bagel,聽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.聽
鈥淔inally, I believe聽Astralis聽is right up there with聽Murus Gallicus,聽but only time will tell if the public sees what I see in the game.聽Astralis聽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,聽Astralis聽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.鈥�
