MAKING THE PERFECT PARTY GAME
With Big Potato
HOW DO YOU MAKE THE PERFECT PARTY GAME? James Vaughan:
“When I start designing a game I always think about the games I really like playing. And I think about the sort of moments that they create around the table. Take any social deduction game where you’ve got sort of teams or factions, like Secret Hitler or The Resistance. You have that moment where you just know, you’re sure someone’s telling you the truth and you find out the end that someone’s been lying to you the entire time.
“And it’s like this real heartbreak moment of ‘I can’t believe you, I can’t believe I trusted you,’ and it’s moments like that that I really enjoy.”
HOW DO YOU MAKE THE PERFECT PARTY GAME? JV:
“In the more general sense, the perfect party game for me is just something that anyone can really play and learn and get into in less than five minutes. And it’s a game akin to [upcoming Pig Potato title] Mean Girls, scoring is kind of secondary. It’s never vindictive or has too much venom. It’s more of like a fun experience rather than a strategy sort of thing. I was once told that every game needs ‘a bit of luck, a bit of skill, and a bit of venom.’”
“I think every game you need that little bit of it. I think it’s important not to go overboard on it, but I think if you don’t have it again, sort of loses its bite. We definitely always try and add in a bit of a take that element to all of our games”
HOW DO YOU MAKE THE PERFECT PARTY GAME? JV:
“It’s a game where you don’t really have to concentrate too heavily on what your next move is or think about all the consequences that are going to come along with it. I think it has to be very fast paced, fun and lighthearted so you don’t have to get too wrapped up in what you’re doing. And I think it has to be full of a lot of reflex actions, just like doing something quickly, rather than really sitting down and considering what you’re doing.”
“If you’re doing badly a party game, you shouldn’t be feeling bad about it. You should be like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to try again. You should never be down on yourself in the same way you get with games like Monopoly where, if you’re doing badly, it’s the worst thing in the world. It’s so rubbish. But even if you lose a party game, you’ve still definitely enjoyed playing it. And there’s a high chance that you’ll say ‘let’s play again.’”
WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE PARTY GAME? JV:
“You know, Captain Sonar is actually quite high up there but, can’t say it’s my favorite one because I haven’t played it enough.
“My favourite party game that I play a lot. Which I’m really, really annoyed that I didn’t design and I really like, is The Mind. I’ve never played a game with so few cards and with such a simple concept that’s created such tense buildups around the gaming table and then such a funny climax when you muck it up. It’s annoying, because you’ve worked really hard to get as far as you did. But you’re still laughing. You know, someone puts that one card down and, suddenly everyone just screams out “no!”
“People say it’s not a game, which I almost think of as a strength to it. It approaches gaming as a whole at such a different angle to others. Some people just don’t get it, but if I were Wolfgang Warsch, I would take that as a compliment.”
“The other one is probably Coup. That’s the game I introduce to a lot of people who say they don’t like games or they don’t consider themselves a board gamer. I’ll show them Coup because it ticks a lot of boxes for me. The rounds are insanely short. There’s very little waiting your turn or like waiting around for it, but you will go, there’s always something to be doing. And there’s just so much venom in that game and I love it. I really like games where you can lie to someone’s face, and there will be situations where people are too scared to call you out, and you’ll never know quite what they were doing, I’m big fan of that.”