Perhaps the most common theme among gamers is that we are all in a way all amateur game designers. Most us dream of creating a game from our own imagination or based on our own theories on game design, or simply concepts we think would make a great game. I don’t think I have ever met a gamer immune to this very natural instinct. That said I do believe that the only way to truly be a game designer is to experience the widest range of games possible. I firmly feel that there are certain games on the market today that are so unique and so expressive in terms of what can be done with game design that they absolutely must be played by all would be game designers. I would imagine there is a brick ton more then what is on this list, but if you have aspirations, this is probably not a bad place to start. Enjoy the list!

REX: Final Days of an Empire

There was a time when REX actually lived in my top 10 best games of all-time list and for good reason. It’s an amazing design. It’s effectively a remake of the classic DUNE which stands out as one of the very few games in recorded gaming history that was released in the 70’s and is still has a place in modern gaming. This should give you a pretty good clue about how distinct its design is, very few game designs can stand the test of time like this.

REX is a fantastic and very unique area control game with special powers, unique victory conditions and is infused with player interaction mind games as a non-mechanical, very natural, caveat that actually carries the game far beyond appearances or rulebooks. It is a unique blending of mechanics, theme and gameplay that draws out a very unique gaming experience you will not find in games often. I do believe it takes a very special lot to appreciate this game and I will admit that doing research to determine whether or not you will like this game is insufficient. In fact even playing it once or twice is insufficient. This is one of those games you will have to play 5 or 6 times before you you really recognize what its really about and why it is without question an objective work of genius… yes, I just turned an opinion and stated it as a fact, that’s how certain I am that like it or not, REX (aka DUNE) is a piece of board game design brilliance not to mention history, a true original among a flood of imitators and pretenders. I’m not surprised at all to see this game continue to get attention decades after release.

REX is definitely a must include for any board game design education, not only is it an amazing game to play it boasts a lot of great lessons for a would be game designer.

The Duke

I would argue that chess is a must play classic, a core concept game for basic board game design that every game designer should explore. To put it simply Duke is effectively an expansion for chess, or perhaps more accurately, chess 2nd edition. A game that arguably increases the complexity and challenge while maintaining that elegant simplicity of the classic. Duke turns things 3 dimensional mechanically creating a far wider and more intriguing gaming experience than the classic chess, more than that though while abstract as chess is, it oddly feels thematic. It has that Ancient Art of War feel to it, as if you are in a war tent playing a game with a fellow commander while you wait for the real battle to start. Its exercise for the brain and an absolute must play for would be game designers.

Duke has been reprinted in a few different ways but it never really caught on which I found strange given how purposefully unique it is. You don’t see it played anywhere and while I think it might be partially because it’s both an abstract game and a two player game making it kind of niche, being rather boring to look at probably doesn’t help much either. I mean we are talking wooden tiles here, not exactly a game with modern board game pazzas! But I would argue that if you released Chess today, no one would care to play that either for the same reason. To me The Duke Is an absolute must play if you plan to be a game designer if for no other reason than to show you just how much power couple of lines of rules can have. This is a perfect example of less is more design.

Star Trek: Fleet Captains

While there are a lot of different types of thematic games out there one could use as a way to exemplify and learn from on how theme and gameplay merging together is done right, to me, there is no game out there that does it with more precession than Star Trek: Fleet Captains. You often hear the term X or Y franchise in a box, well this is Star Trek in a box, but not just the shows but the very essence of the shows, movies and experience that is the Star Trek franchise.

This is a perfect combination of just the right mechanics, just the right art, just the right strategic flicks and pazzaz, fidly vs. functional and nerdy but not wordy design. It captures the very soul of Star Trek in a board game and if you are a proper trekie you will really get it when you play fleet captains. Which really brings the point home, there isn’t a card, miniature, tile, action or mechanic that doesn’t scream “STAR TREK” in this game. If you’re a Trekie this is an absolute must have, but if you’re a game designer trying to figure out how to bring theme to life in a board game, you won’t find very many examples that do it better than fleet captains. An absolute must play for game designers trying to get their head around how to infuse theme into their games.

Galaxy Trucker

I think one element of board gaming most game designers actually fail to understand is that playing a board game isn’t just about the game, it’s also about the evening and the people you spend it with. Games are supposed to be fun, they should put a smile on your face and while I would argue that there is a time and place for “haha” funny, Galaxy Trucker is a great example of how to fuse fun “haha” funny and “fun game” into a single box, inside of a single product. Unlike party games that try to draw out fart humor, Galaxy Trucker creates laughs by creating memorable moments in game that has just enough strategy to attract board gamers, but not enough to discourage non gamers. It’s really a great example of how to blend the world of gamers, non-gamers and how to create a game that will enhance an evening without making it about only gaming.

While I have heard of people who don’t like Galaxy Trucker, in my personal experience every person I have ever introduced the game to has absolutely loved it. I think the brilliance in the design is not its mechanics, but its flip on a basic premise of gaming in general. One thing that Vlaada Chvatil is amazing at is looking at game design from a perspective of experience rather than gameplay. For example in Galaxy Trucker you build a ship in a timed phase creating a bit of a frantic panic, while in the execution phase players lose control almost entirely and just watch the game unfold. It’s a very unique gaming experience. You would be hard pressed to find a game on the market that comes even close to something like it. Being able to tap into that “spark”, that ability to see what others miss is what separates a brilliant game designer like Vlaada Chvatil and everyone else. Sure you might or might not appreciate Galaxy Trucker, but you can’t deny that it’s a truly unique design and if for no other reason than that, as a would be game designer you must check this game out.

Love Letter

Game design comes in all shapes and sizes, but I truly believe that if you want to be a great game designer you should be able to take a small amount of mechanics, a couple of lines of rules and create a sensational game. Another example of less is more design, Love letter is essentially a dozen cards and a couple of tokens, yet it creates a truly strategic, dynamic, thinky and fun gaming experience. I actually think that being able to create a game like Love Letter is a test to see if you will ever be a good game designer because if you can’t create magic simply, you’re not going to do it when creating a more complex game. That’s just the reality of it and I firmly believe that even the most complex games are actually nothing more than mini designs (mini games) put together to make a grander game. So the ability to create simply and intriguing mechanics is really an important skill to develop as a gamer designer. I have personally seen a lot of gamers design games and it’s always the same story. They create a lot of fancy components and art but in the end the game itself is a slog fest that suffers from too many mechanics, too many rules and way too much weight to be functional. The ability to simplify is what separates an amateur from a pro. Love Letter is a perfect example of that in action.

Le Havre

Le Havre is a stone cold classic Euro game that does something very few games are able to pull off. It creates a very deep, strategic, very heavy and very thinky game yet manages to do it using a rule system that can be explained in under 30 seconds. In Le Havre you can take one of two actions every turn. That’s it, that’s the entire game. Either you take some resources, or place a worker. That is the entirety of the rules explanation you need to give before starting the game, yet by the end of the game your brain will be fried as you try to navigate the two impossible strategic decisions that must be made to win.

It’s a perfect example of economic simulation done right as well and I think that more than the simplicity of the mechanic is the reason to study Le Harve as a game designer. Economic simulation and resource management is the one place I see a lot of game designs having immense problems. In fact for most games I have played, including most beloved classic Euro’s often praised for their brilliance for their resource management and economic simulations are almost always way too complex, way too fiddley and ultimately far too easily exploitable. Which is why so many of the Euro classic are what I call puzzle games, where they are good, until you solve the puzzle, at which point it’s just a matter of repeating the same actions each time you play. Puerto Rico comes to mind as a good example of a horribly failed resource management and economic system design. Sure the first few times you play your trying to figure out the puzzle, but once you have that aha moment every game of Puerto Rico you ever play in the future will be exactly the same. There is a definitive “best way”, “best moves” approach to the game.

Le Havre is not the world’s best game (though I love it), but it is definitely the world’s best example of economy simulation done right and for that reason anyone looking to understand how good economic design works, this is a fine example and a really good place to start thanks to its simplicity.

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island

Ok first I will admit this is not my favorite game. Generally I’m not a huge fan of cooperative games, but we aren’t here to discuss what I like, so much as we are here to discuss objectively good designs and Robinson Crusoe is certainly brilliant if anything. I honestly have a hard time describing it, other than to say if you want to become a game designer, you must play this game because if you do, becoming a game designer will be easier for you.

There are so many great lessons about how to do it right in this game in terms of timing of mechanics, creating tension, putting players to tough choices and just a staggering amount of dynamic replay ability inside what amounts to a static game. The manipulation of cards and effects, the sort of thematic link to effects and just general capturing of atmosphere are all exemplified in this design. If you’re a fan of cooperative games and plan to design cooperative games, Robinson Crusoe is an absolute must.

Twilight Imperium

Many aspiring game designers dream of creating an epic, that big box super game that just does everything. Well let me just tell you that after nearly 3 decades of board gaming I can count on one hand the amount of games (game designers) that have come out in that time, that managed to pull this off. Truth is that most big box epics are actually epic failures. There really are very few success stories in this area and while there are plenty of games that will try to wow you with miniatures and their sheet size, mechanically speak I have never played one that is even in the same league as Twilight Imperium. It is the best EPIC level game on the market today and it is so by a margin so wide, there is nothing to look at in the rear view mirror.

This complex beast of a game does exactly what you want an epic to do, wows the living shit out of you with immense attention to detail and an amazing level of balance given the sheer amount of complexity in the game. It’s a galactic civilization building game that brings to life the entire genre reminiscent of the 4x PC games of old like Masters of Orion and Galactic Civilization. If you plan on creating an epic, in particular a space epic, Twilight Imperium is an absolute must play. It is one of the best examples of Epic done right on the market today.

Shogun (Dirk Henn version)

I’m not a big Dirk Henn fan to be honest, with the exception of Shogun I don’t like any of his games, but with Shogun he really nailed it. Shogun aside from its German twin Wallenstein is a truly unique game with design elements that you will not find anywhere else before or since. The use of the Cube Tower as a combat resolution mechanic, the pre-planning action phase, the unique order of play sequence it all combined produces one of the most fascinatingly strategic and simultaneously infuriatingly chaotic games I know and god I love it for that very reason. For a game designer this is an absolute must experience as it will show you just how far out of the box you can go despite the constraints of design that we sometimes feel we exist in. It really shows how you can take something seemingly gimmicky and actually give it purpose and fit it into a game so that not only is it functional but oddly thematic. Dirk Henn really tapped into that “I’m a general giving orders” theme found in Shogun, while still remaining true to the Euro roots on which the game is based. I don’t know that Dirk Henn is a brilliant designer, but he definitely had a brilliant moment when he made this game. One of my all time favorites!

Ticket To Ride

Ok so this last one is a simple game, a classic at this point but it’s also an amazing lesson of mechanic theft done right. See in game design, most of the greatest games, the truly genius ones that seem to proliferate beyond the cult board gaming culture into the mainstream are buried in classic design that was simply stolen. Ticket to Ride is a perfect example of that. What you’re looking at here is Gin Rummy. It’s really that simple. The designer took an old classic card game, added a game board with train pieces for scoring and created one of the bestselling games of all time since Monopoly. Here is the thing… it’s an awesome game. I have played Gin Rummy, I hate it, I love this game. It’s the same mechanic. Can you explain that?

This is why you really need to play Ticket to Ride as a game designer, there is magic in there and deciphering and understanding what that magic is, is very important if you want to be successful as a game designer.