Lots of cool Stuff

A brief analysis of projects received

In the last month we received almost 50 projects of board games to analyze. The creativity and engagement of Brazilian game designers is fantastic, and we are very proud to receive such interesting proposals.

In a couple of days we will contact the game designers to express our view about the projects. Until then, we share our first impressions about the themes, mechanics and other stuff in this process.

Hot themes

The success of Brazil: Imperial may have influenced the candidates: 25% of the projects deal with historical themes. Brazilian, Native American and Greek History was the most popular options, but we can find games about places and people around the world.

Jobs and work are a fundamental element of the modern world and because of that we find lots of games about professions: 20% of the projects invite the players to take a role in contemporary or old fashioned jobs.

In third place we have a tie: Sci-fi and Abstracts Strategy (each with 10%). Science fiction always has fans and never goes out of style. If you think about board games, many best sellers are sci-fi games like Terraforming Mars, Eclipse or Gaia Project. Abstract Strategy sounds a little bit strange in the beginning, but the popularity of games like Azul, Checkers and Go, makes this category a safe bet.

Components and mechanics

Cards are a hit among Brazilian Game Designers: 90% of the projects are using cards. In many cases, cards are the central component of the game and have an impact in the core mechanics. Hand management, deck building and area control are very popular in games with cards.

Another popular component is the set of dice (in general the regular six sided dice). Board games with dice used popular mechanics like worker placement, set collection and action points are the most common in games with dice.

Not so heavy, not so light

Gateway games a.k.a. familiar games are popular and we can find many options available to people interested in trying board games. Dixit, Uno and Risk are best sellers and probably an example of commercial success.

On the other hand, heavy games with a great amount of rules and high complexity have a loyal fanbase. Players dedicated to study, search and learn every aspect of the game and share their impressions in the internet’s forum.

Approximately 75% of the projects we received tried to avoid extremes. Medium complexity games is a tricky category and the game designer needs great talent and patience to develop a product interesting for a very discerning audience.

Next steps     

After an internal evaluation, we’ll talk with the game designers to learn more about the projects and eventually start a good partnership between new talents and Glyptodon Game Studio.

Do you have a game to show us? Access the link, fill the form and send your sell sheet to us. We are always in search of new games!