the game design of taskmaster: choosing the same thing as another contestant
While games typically reward players for making the most efficient choice to accomplish a goal, there are a few tasks in Taskmaster that penalise contestants for choosing to do the same thing as someone else. These tasks are interesting because…
the game design of taskmaster: fun to watch vs. fun to play
Let’s start with this statement: Taskmaster is not a game. It is a comedy panel television show, with a format that lends itself to incorporating game elements in the form of tasks. This means that the audience for Taskmaster is…
what root and other board games gain and lose in digital format
Modern board games suffer from the difficulty of onboarding new players. More often than not, players rely on one patient friend who has either played the game before or read all the rules prior to the gaming session. As the…
best of palace games escape rooms: houdini, roosevelt or edison?
Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to have played all of Palace Games’ in-person escape rooms. Located at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, Palace Games offers the trio of The Great Houdini Escape Room, The Roosevelt…
the attraction escape room is palace games’ storytelling gem: review
Palace Games’ new escape room, The Attraction, was a long time coming. When I booked it back in early 2020, I had no idea that a pandemic would postpone our date almost two years. But nonetheless, masked and equipped with…
don’t starve together, with a little help from my friends
I was introduced to the ominous ink-drawing world of Klei Entertainment’s Don’t Starve by two bona fide experts, who invited me into a custom server of Don’t Starve Together one lazy winter afternoon. Between them, my friends had more than 2,000 hours of…
the joy of watching untitled goose game: review
I’ve been going through a slump lately. So, when looking for a game to play (and later on which to do a game design review): something light, not too serious, without too much commitment, my gaze settled on the 2019…
the problem with cards against humanity
Cards Against Humanity is a social card game that was released in 2011, and became very popular as a staple party game. This is how the game developers describe it on their website: Basically, the person who asks the question…
3 time zones, 1 board game: gaming together in a time of social distancing
My first thought about playing a board game online was that it was never going to work. Nowadays, getting a group of friends together is almost impossible without weeks of notice, and even then, at least one person is bound…
