Reiner Knizia's Penguin

netherspirit · #1 March 3rd, 2007, 10:21 AM

I am a Knizia-ite and will play just about any game with his name on it (at least once). He makes so many games a year that there are bound to be flops (Atlanteon anyone?), but his successes are frequent enough to give me confidence in playing something with his name it.

That said, he has a new game coming out from Fantasy Flight Games (another name that I have high admiration for in board gaming). It seems that since March of the Penguins, penguins have become quite popular these days, just look at all the animated films featuring penguins. one of them even won an Oscar. There is another penguin game that is deviously simple and is a lot of fun called, Hey! That's My Fish, perhaps this one will be just as fun.

This seems like a light, and fun family game, or maybe even a beer and pretzels game? I'm thinking it could be a good opener, closer or filler to a game session, just like Hey is.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/penguin.html

Draconious · #2 March 3rd, 2007, 11:38 AM

What... no machine guns?

Alastair MacDirk · #3 March 3rd, 2007, 11:45 AM

Looks like it would be a great game to play with 6 year old kids....

InfinityMax · #4 March 3rd, 2007, 08:18 PM

I haven't played the Penguin game, or really even heard of it. However, I recently played Knights of Charlemagne, another Knizia game, and it was great. It's awesome with four people in two teams.

netherspirit · #5 March 3rd, 2007, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InfinityMax

I haven't played the Penguin game, or really even heard of it.

You haven't played it because its not out yet. You haven't heard of it because it was just announced recently.

I have Knights of Charlemagne but haven't played it yet. I have a few Knizia games...Through the Desert and Blue Moon City are my favorites of his. I haven't played Tigris and Euphretes (his best rated game on BGG) yet, but plan to get it soon.

Malechi · #6 March 3rd, 2007, 08:37 PM

I personally plan to stay away from any penguin related game simply due to the "Jump on the Bandwagon" of the current popularity of penguins in the media mentality ... It just reeks of copycat commercialism - a get it out there now production that would never have been given a second thought two years ago.

netherspirit · #7 March 3rd, 2007, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malechi

I personally plan to stay away from any penguin related game simply due to the "Jump on the Bandwagon" of the current popularity of penguins in the media mentality ... It just reeks of copycat commercialism - a get it out there now production that would never have been given a second thought two years ago.

Kind of like pirates?

atmospro · #8 March 4th, 2007, 01:10 AM

The game maybe very good, but like many of Knizia's games the publisher has tacked on a theme to sell mechanics with the current market flavour of the month theme. Oh and a big Knizia fan, too.

InfinityMax · #9 March 4th, 2007, 02:05 AM

Well, there you go, I guess that explains my ignorance on the topic.

Atmospro, you make a great point - with very few exceptions, Knizia games absolutely do not need themes. Knights of Charlemagne would work exactly the same with a specialized deck of cards and some generic scoring tiles. So would Dead Man's Treasure, Kingdoms, or a wide selection of his other games.

But then, Knizia made Maginor, and that has a great theme. I think the signature of a great theme is that it is reinforced by the rules, and in the case of Maginor, that's definitely true. Plus it's a great game. I have hundreds of games, but I've played Maginor more than 99% of them.

Euro games tend to have weak themes anyway, just as a rule. I just got a review copy of To Court the King, from Rio Grande, and it's just a dice-rolling game where you can pick up special cards that let you control your dice. Which means the theme is completely extraneous, and I'm not even sure why it's there at all.

atmospro · #10 March 4th, 2007, 02:33 AM

Last year or was it two years ago Alden (owner of BBG) had Knizia on his podcast for about a 2 hour interview. During that interview Knizia's stated that often publishers will call him looking for game with a specific theme or when he presents a game to a publisher they will look at ways of putting his game into a need theme, they currently are lacking on the store shelf. For example I remember he said that Through the Desert was about some thing entirely different when he conceived the game. On the other hand games such as LOTR were commissioned and so he developed the game based on that theme and story line. This was/is the best interview with a game designer I've ever heard.

The incite into how he designs was very candid. A typical Knizia day went something like thing. Start the morning by spending two hour talking to publishers, agents, etc about games. Then retire to the lab and spend the next six hour developing games, have a casual diner. After diner meet your buddies and play the game your are developing for three to fours. A rough life to say the least.