GAMES AND GRUB

9:39 am - Wed, May 8, 2013

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Building a Better Interview

I first got to know Jamey Stegmaier though some mutual gaming friends and our old G&G site. His first Kickstarter game, produced with good friend Alan Stone, drew me in with a relatively original theme, creative pledge tiers, and a bold/confident money back guarantee.

As time passes, I become increasingly glad I got to know Jamey. His writings on the Stonemaier blog are insightful and informative, and, like most people in the industry, he’s simply a nice guy who exudes passion about all facets of gaming.

Now, Stonemaier is roughly one week away from bringing their second game, Euphoria: Build a better Dystopia to Kickstarter. And, in some of the precious little free time he has before hitting the launch button, Stegmaier sits down with us for a quick Q&A session, even turning the tables on us a few times to ask some questions of his own.



1) Thanks for doing this Q&A session with us. It seems you’ve taken a slightly different thematic approach this time, going from Winemaking to Dystopian Environment.

I know you’re a fan of books like 1984, Brave New World, Ready Player One, etc., but when did a love of that genre turn into a desire to create that world in board game form?

The theme may appear to be different, but I would argue that Viticulture is a dystopian game too. In Viticulture, you have between 3 and 6 workers at your disposal who work tirelessly throughout the year to do your every bidding, never arguing or questioning their circumstances. Sounds a little dystopian, doesn’t it? :)

It was actually that realization about Viticulture—and all worker-placement games—that made me rethink the mechanic. I love worker-placement, and I wanted to implement it in a way that makes sense thematically, right down to who the workers are and why they do whatever you want them to do. When I realized that a dystopia was the perfect thematic fit for them, I got really excited. Because as you said, I’m a huge fan of dystopian fiction. I find dystopian lit so immersive and engaging that it’s hard to put down. So I wanted to encapsulate that immersive experience in a board game.

What is one theme that you’d like to see in a game, and what’s one theme that you’ll never get tired of?

[I’m typically more of a mechanisms person than theme person, so I can’t really say a theme that makes a game an auto-buy for me. I tend to shy away from ubiquitous things like zombies, Space, Shipping in the Mediterranean, and Fantasy (like LotR or D&D) just because they’ve been done SO MUCH.

I’ve enjoyed abstract strategy and DBGs to some extent, but I think my favorite mechanism in games is Social Negotiation. I really enjoy when a game allows players to dictate what a resource is worth throughout the game rather than assigning a static, inflexible value to it)

2) Euphoria is listed as a Worker Placement game. (A cross between Alien Frontiers and Tzolk'in if I remember correctly). That gets my money right there; but, for players who don’t necessarily salivate over that type of game, what makes Euphoria more than just “Place Worker, Get Effect, lather/rinse/repeat” ?

Excellent question. Worker placement (with dice!) is a big part of the game, but if that’s not your cup of tea, I’ll highlight one of the other facets of Euphoria. At the beginning of the game, each player is dealt 4 recruit cards. They choose two and discard the rest. Each of the recruits in the game has a powerful special ability that will affect your overall strategy. I’d put them on par with any game where you choose a role or alien race at the beginning of the game. The element that’s different about Euphoria is that you immediately reveal one of those recruits as your “active” recruit, but you keep the other one hidden. You only get to use bonuses from active recruits, so one of your mid-level goals in the game is to activate your hidden recruit. However, other players may take actions in the game that move you closer to revealing your hidden recruit, and they don’t even realize it. So there’s this element of deception and deduction as you try to pawn off your recruit activation on other players…and in the meantime, you’re trying to figure out what types of hidden recruits other players have. The mechanic has hints of The Resistance in the way it works.

3) I really enjoy the art style in the game. In a previous interview with GoForth&Game, you cite an article from mutual friend Grant Rodiek about how designers and publishers need to tell an artist a story about the game and it’s world and let them run with it. What story did you tell Jacqui Davis to produce these great results?

Indeed, Grant has a great article about this. I told Jacqui the story of the world of Euphoria—of the Euphorians and their city of gold, of the Wastelanders and their patchwork, muddy society, and of the Subterrans, sneaking about in their underground steampunk world. She took my fairly detailed description of the world and made the board—the details on the board are phenomenal. For example, the Wastelanders are trying to tunnel into Euphoria to steal their electricity. If you look closely enough at that tunnel on the board, you’ll see that the person is stretching an extension cord from the Wastelands to Euphoria. It’s spot-on thematic, and it has that wisp of playfulness that we were going for.

I was equally amazed by what Jacqui created for the recruits. I sent her the full recruit prototypes via PDF. Names, abilities, allegiances—all information about them. The result is that each recruit’s ability is reflected in the art, making them much easier to use than if there were a disconnect between the two. Also, Jacqui took the information I gave her from those prototypes and the origin story, and she created styles of clothing for each faction. I remember being amazed when I read years ago that Peter Jackson brought on stylists to create unique styles of clothing for every clan and group in Middle Earth for the movies. Jacqui did the same thing for the factions in Euphoria—I’m in awe of her creativity.

4) One of the things your first campaign was known for was the innovative pledge tiers and money back guarantee. What great tiers can backers expect in Euphoria, will the money back guarantee be continued, and what exactly will you be using to toast backers this time (I’ve heard rumors of “the tears of our enemies”)

Ha ha…Tears of Our Enemies is actually Budweiser’s new summer Hefeweizen. It’s salty but good. For the backer toast, we’re going to have four different drinks, one from each faction in the game (assuming we hit a certain stretch goal). I’m thinking goldschlagger is a good fit for the golden opulence of the Euphorians. The Wastelanders grow citrus fruit, so maybe fuzzy navels? The underground Subterrans need something earthy. Maybe wine, since it’s often stored in caves. And the green Icarites and their mysterious Bliss…maybe Midori? What do you think?

[Hmm, I’ll have to think about this one. Absinthe is also green and is a little more “mind bending” than Midori. Although they don’t have much power (in the amperage sense of the word], Electric Lemonade could be an interesting choice for the Wastelanders. I do like Goldschlager for the Euphorians though. Honestly, I just want to see your tolerance level after the inevitable thousands of backers make you drink all these things ;)]

My personal belief is if I’m going to put a project on Kickstarter, at least a few of the project levels have to engage backers in a way that goes well beyond a pre-order system. So just like with Viticulture, there are ways for backers to sponsor specific cards in the game. We’re going beyond that with the recruits, though. For the recruits cards, you can get your face and hair incorporated into the art on the card, and your first (or last) name can become the name of that recruit. I don’t have a “blogger,” recruit, but there is a scholar. How do you feel about having Eric the Scholar be a card in every copy of Euphoria ever printed?

[As long as I don’t have to be a Scholar AND a gentleman! I’m really hoping there’s an Arbiter or Censor role in the game, as I’m more of a Control/Resource Denial player at heart)

I think the most subtly innovative thing we’ve done with the pledge levels is that all shipping and customs is included in the $49 cost for the game for backers in the US, Canada, and the EU. We can do this thanks to our distribution system with Amazon fulfillment. No more extravagant costs for international backers.

And yes, we’re doing the money-back guarantee again. We believe in making high-quality games that people treasure, so we’re willing to stake our reputation on those games. As an exclusive perk to Kickstarter backers, if you decide to return Euphoria within the first month of receiving it, you can do so for a full refund, no questions asked.

5) You’ve put the game through the playtesting wringer, having over 60 blind playtesters from all over the world give feedback about the game over a course of many months.

How has the game changed from initial concept to near-final iteration? Also: Where’s your personal line between “connection to theme” and “cohesive mechanics?” 

I would say that the core of the game didn’t change at all during the 3 stages of blind playtesting, but the details changed quite a bit. Everything is much more balanced and streamlined, and the graphic design evolved quite a bit. A specific example of this streamlining is that in the first version of the game that playtesters saw, there was this elaborate chart on the board that explained how much it costs to retrieve workers from the board depending on the number of workers retrieved. It was this clunky, cumbersome chart that made sense thematically—retrieving and feeding more workers should cost you more food—but it added an unnecessary calculation to the game. So we streamlined it so that the number of workers you retrieve doesn’t matter. Now it works like a charm. We also added reference cards and secret agendas during the blind playtesting, both of which have proved to be really helpful.

I like the question about theme vs. mechanics. During the design process, there’s a tug of war between the two of them. An element of the game might start with the theme, then get matched with a mechanic, then the theme is brought back into it, and so on. But I believe that the end of that tug of war needs to be neither theme or mechanics—rather, it needs to be fun. If it’s not fun, the theme and mechanics don’t matter.

6) Finally, I know you write on the Stonemaier blog about playing all types of games (with Poker being a personal favorite). That said, what are your 5 favorite games, and did any of them influence the design of Euphoria (or future games from Stonemaier)? What, to you, makes a good game? 

Here’s my top 5 according to my collection list on BGG (and how each of them influenced the design of Euphoria):

1. Tzolk’in: This game makes my gamer endorphins go nuts. I love the complexity of the game and the ever-shifting nature of it. The elegant retrieve mechanism directly influenced Euphoria’s retrieve mechanism, and the tech tracks had a slight influence on the Euphorian allegiance tracks. Oh, and at the beginning of Tzolk’in you choose two of four starting tiles, just like how you choose two of four recruits at the beginning of Euphoria.
2. Agricola: I like how elegant interaction is in this game. We all want the stuff on the board—it’s all good stuff—but who will get to it first? Euphoria has elements of that in the commodity-gathering areas.
3. Pandemic: My favorite cooperative game so far. I like the brain-burn of Pandemic—I like the challenge of solving the game. Euphoria has a similar aspect in that you’re always trying to maximize opportunities. Also, the recruit/allegiance mechanic and the constructing markets mechanic leads to some cooperative play in Euphoria.
4. Viticulture: What can I say, I made a game I love to play! In many ways, Euphoria is what Viticulture is not. Viticulture has seasons and distinct rounds; Euphoria flows from turn to turn and never pauses for air. It’s hard to get victory points early on in Viticulture; in Euphoria, it’s harder to get them late in the game. Viticulture has rule subtleties that require the rulebook; in Euphoria, 99% of the game is on the board. I honestly enjoy both games despite their differences, though.
5. Libertalia: This role-selection game scales brilliantly from 2-6 players. Absolutely brilliantly. And it’s really easy to teach. Effective scaling and teachability were two things that were always on my mind when designing Euphoria.

(Honestly, the 5 spot was really difficult. Stone Age, Alien Frontiers, Dominion: Prosperity, and The Speicherstadt could have all gone in that spot.)

What about you, Eric? Would you mind sharing your current Top 5 list with the world?

[I don’t want to derail this interview or take focus away from your game, so I might have to make another article about this at some point. My Top5 is always in flux it seems, but I think my list right now would include, in no particular order:

Pandemic, Alien Frontiers, Cosmic Encounter, Innovation, and Dominion

There are always new games on which I become fixated for certain amounts of time though: I love ForSale, Great Heartland Hauling, Guildhall, SmashUp, King of Tokyo, etc. As long as someone is willing to play games with me or teach/ learn a new one… I don’t usually turn them down]

Once again, a HUGE thank you to Jamey for his time and efforts in answering our questions. Look for Euphoria on Kickstarter May 15^th,  and don’t be surprised if you see my name there as the first backer.

In the meantime, you can check out the Stonemaier Blog by clicking the link HERE