In this oportunity we interview one of the most prolific and successful designers in the last couple of years. His games are usually great gateways to the boardgame hobbie. Because of that is hard to find a game collection where his names don't appear
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Puedes leerla en español en Geek Out o en la versión en español de este mismo blog.
Today: Antoine Bauza
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Curriculum Vitae:
* Born the 25th of august of 1978 in Valencia.
* Studied chemistry, computing and video games.
* Apart from designing games he wrote comics and rol games.
* His game 7 Wonders was the first winner of the Kennerspiel des Jahres award (best game of the year for connoisseur players) in 2011, and also won 24 other awards.
* In 2013 won the Spiel des Jahres award (best game of the year for the family) with his game Hanabi.
Prominent games: Ghost Stories, 7 Wonders, Hanabi, Takenoko, Tokaido
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Matías: I read in previous interviews that you started designing games at the same time that you started playing them, How did you discovered and began to play modern games?
Antoine: I discovered modern games in 2003 while I was studying video games at the university. One teacher was into board games and made me want to play again (I was only playing video games and tabletop roleplaying games by then). I started my first design after that moment. When I finished my studies, I kept playing lots and lots of boardgames...
M: Which game or situation made you think “I should/could design my own game”?
A: When I like something, I usually want to do it, to try it my own way. I like comic books so I wrote comic book, I like video games, so I tried to design video games, I enjoyed board games, so I started designing board games. There was also somes games I played and made me think that I was able to make something better...
M: What is the best and worst part of being a game designer?
A: Best part : Doing a thing I love for a living.
Worst part : Turning a thing I love into a living.
M: It’s hard to keep loving what you do when you make it for a living, how do you manage that situation to keep enjoying designing games?
A: I'm now more selective of the game projects I work on. I try to design games with a specific feature, or games for kids. I also keep time to work on pen and paper roleplaying games. I need to find a fresh approach to keep the fun!
M: You like to play board and video games, in your opinion, what makes a game good?
A: A good game is a game which offers me a nice playing experience and an experience I can live several times. Fun and replay value are key.
M: Something that I found in some of your games is that they have different types of cards that earn points in different ways, almost as if they were several set collection games mixed in the same box (color cards in 7 Wonders, objectives in Takenoko, types of cards in Tokaido, sets of color meeples in Terror in Meeple City etc). Do you agree with this analysis?
A: That's true and that's because at the time I discovered modern board games, it was the reign of german board games with those kind of scoring. So (I guess) it's stayed somewhere in my mind and came out in several designs. It's funny because, in life, I'm not a collector guy but it's definitely a mechanism that a lot of people enjoy…
M: Do you have in mind the likes of people when you design games or do you think about what would you like?
A: In my opinion, game design is selfish : I design games I want to play. Then, if others players enjoy them too, I try to keep a very open mind to their feedback. A game designer must be a good listener, a good observant. Watching and reading people playing is very important in game design.
M: With that in mind, I read that you consider your games light or not too serious, but at the same time you like to play Through the Ages. Is there a motive for not designing more complex games?
A: I'm lazy. Complex games are long to design, long to playtest and very long to tune. And I'm only playing Through the Ages online, in which all lousy stuff (score keeping, component manipulation) are done by the software.
M: Since you say you're lazy, what ways did you found to optimize your game design process and make it easier or smoother? Do you have some tips?
A: You design games the way you are, I guess. I like my games simple, with a good flow, a good amount of narrative. Even if I'm lazy, I spend a lot of time on playtesting. It just mean that I need a lot of time to design a game... Playtesting is 90% of the work…
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M: What kind of experience do you try to generate to the players with your games?
A: I don't really think about the playing experience I want to offer when I start a new game. Usually I've got a story I want to tell. Telling this story requires a theme, some mechanism, some players and all of that together generate a playing experience…
M: There are very few cooperative games compared to the other kind of games, and most of them are very similar, but your cooperative games feel very different from one another and also from the ones of other designers, how do you do to find new ways to challenge the players?
A: I try to design very different games, cooperative or not. When I won't be able to do this anymore, I will stop design games and move on to another media. I don't think in terms of challenge, but in terms of stories. By telling a story a challenge naturally rise…
M: Coincidentally, this year two cooperative and “legacy” games were nominated for Spiel des Jahres, also Pandemic Legacy is the number one game in the BGG ranking, you like games that tell a long story in a campaign, why do you think this kind of mechanic is having so much success with the players and the critic?
A: Stories! Humanity enjoys and need stories. Legacy games manage to bring a neat playing experience with a full dose of storytelling (and those stories being different from one group to another) on the top. Perfect combo.
M: Legacy games seems like a perfect fit for your interests, would you like to design a Legacy game where you can develop a more complex story?
A: I'd love to but like I said before, I'm lazy, and designing a legacy game is a lot of work! I have a lot of respect and admiration for Rob Daviau and the designers who follow his steps.
M: What is your vision about the present of the games industry?
A: More players, mores games, more conventions, more designers. Golden Age maybe?!
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M: What do you think about the growth of the French board games industry in the last years? What do you think that makes them special?
A: You’re correct when you say that French (french speaking countries is more correct : France, Belgium, Switzerland) board games industry is rising. We have a strong art culture (comic books, children's books, painting) and many publishers managed to use this rich culture to make very good looking games on top of solid game design. Designers here learnt a lot from different board gaming cultures (USA, Germany) and built their owns vision of game design at the crossing.
M: What do you think the future of the industry would be like in a couple of years?
A: I don't really know and I don't really care... Living in the present!
M: Is there some game in the making that you could tell us something about?
A: I resumed my work on the next 7 Wonders expansion, codenames "Armada". Eric Lang and I are currently finishing to tune Victorian Masterminds, to be published in 2017 by Space Cowboys. I’m also working on a new cooperative game called "Oltréé!".
M: Thank you very much for your time and answers!
Today: Antoine Bauza
Curriculum Vitae:
* Born the 25th of august of 1978 in Valencia.
* Studied chemistry, computing and video games.
* Apart from designing games he wrote comics and rol games.
* His game 7 Wonders was the first winner of the Kennerspiel des Jahres award (best game of the year for connoisseur players) in 2011, and also won 24 other awards.
* In 2013 won the Spiel des Jahres award (best game of the year for the family) with his game Hanabi.
Prominent games: Ghost Stories, 7 Wonders, Hanabi, Takenoko, Tokaido
Matías: I read in previous interviews that you started designing games at the same time that you started playing them, How did you discovered and began to play modern games?
Antoine: I discovered modern games in 2003 while I was studying video games at the university. One teacher was into board games and made me want to play again (I was only playing video games and tabletop roleplaying games by then). I started my first design after that moment. When I finished my studies, I kept playing lots and lots of boardgames...
M: Which game or situation made you think “I should/could design my own game”?
A: When I like something, I usually want to do it, to try it my own way. I like comic books so I wrote comic book, I like video games, so I tried to design video games, I enjoyed board games, so I started designing board games. There was also somes games I played and made me think that I was able to make something better...
M: What is the best and worst part of being a game designer?
A: Best part : Doing a thing I love for a living.
Worst part : Turning a thing I love into a living.
M: It’s hard to keep loving what you do when you make it for a living, how do you manage that situation to keep enjoying designing games?
A: I'm now more selective of the game projects I work on. I try to design games with a specific feature, or games for kids. I also keep time to work on pen and paper roleplaying games. I need to find a fresh approach to keep the fun!
M: You like to play board and video games, in your opinion, what makes a game good?
A: A good game is a game which offers me a nice playing experience and an experience I can live several times. Fun and replay value are key.
M: Something that I found in some of your games is that they have different types of cards that earn points in different ways, almost as if they were several set collection games mixed in the same box (color cards in 7 Wonders, objectives in Takenoko, types of cards in Tokaido, sets of color meeples in Terror in Meeple City etc). Do you agree with this analysis?
A: That's true and that's because at the time I discovered modern board games, it was the reign of german board games with those kind of scoring. So (I guess) it's stayed somewhere in my mind and came out in several designs. It's funny because, in life, I'm not a collector guy but it's definitely a mechanism that a lot of people enjoy…
M: Do you have in mind the likes of people when you design games or do you think about what would you like?
A: In my opinion, game design is selfish : I design games I want to play. Then, if others players enjoy them too, I try to keep a very open mind to their feedback. A game designer must be a good listener, a good observant. Watching and reading people playing is very important in game design.
M: With that in mind, I read that you consider your games light or not too serious, but at the same time you like to play Through the Ages. Is there a motive for not designing more complex games?
A: I'm lazy. Complex games are long to design, long to playtest and very long to tune. And I'm only playing Through the Ages online, in which all lousy stuff (score keeping, component manipulation) are done by the software.
M: Since you say you're lazy, what ways did you found to optimize your game design process and make it easier or smoother? Do you have some tips?
A: You design games the way you are, I guess. I like my games simple, with a good flow, a good amount of narrative. Even if I'm lazy, I spend a lot of time on playtesting. It just mean that I need a lot of time to design a game... Playtesting is 90% of the work…
M: What kind of experience do you try to generate to the players with your games?
A: I don't really think about the playing experience I want to offer when I start a new game. Usually I've got a story I want to tell. Telling this story requires a theme, some mechanism, some players and all of that together generate a playing experience…
M: There are very few cooperative games compared to the other kind of games, and most of them are very similar, but your cooperative games feel very different from one another and also from the ones of other designers, how do you do to find new ways to challenge the players?
A: I try to design very different games, cooperative or not. When I won't be able to do this anymore, I will stop design games and move on to another media. I don't think in terms of challenge, but in terms of stories. By telling a story a challenge naturally rise…
M: Coincidentally, this year two cooperative and “legacy” games were nominated for Spiel des Jahres, also Pandemic Legacy is the number one game in the BGG ranking, you like games that tell a long story in a campaign, why do you think this kind of mechanic is having so much success with the players and the critic?
A: Stories! Humanity enjoys and need stories. Legacy games manage to bring a neat playing experience with a full dose of storytelling (and those stories being different from one group to another) on the top. Perfect combo.
M: Legacy games seems like a perfect fit for your interests, would you like to design a Legacy game where you can develop a more complex story?
A: I'd love to but like I said before, I'm lazy, and designing a legacy game is a lot of work! I have a lot of respect and admiration for Rob Daviau and the designers who follow his steps.
M: What is your vision about the present of the games industry?
A: More players, mores games, more conventions, more designers. Golden Age maybe?!
M: What do you think about the growth of the French board games industry in the last years? What do you think that makes them special?
A: You’re correct when you say that French (french speaking countries is more correct : France, Belgium, Switzerland) board games industry is rising. We have a strong art culture (comic books, children's books, painting) and many publishers managed to use this rich culture to make very good looking games on top of solid game design. Designers here learnt a lot from different board gaming cultures (USA, Germany) and built their owns vision of game design at the crossing.
M: What do you think the future of the industry would be like in a couple of years?
A: I don't really know and I don't really care... Living in the present!
M: Is there some game in the making that you could tell us something about?
A: I resumed my work on the next 7 Wonders expansion, codenames "Armada". Eric Lang and I are currently finishing to tune Victorian Masterminds, to be published in 2017 by Space Cowboys. I’m also working on a new cooperative game called "Oltréé!".
M: Thank you very much for your time and answers!