The Franz-Benno Delonge Approach
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I recently realized that while I wasn't noticing, a rather unique oeuvre from inventor Franz-Benno Delonge is slowly taking shape.
Two important words come to mind in describing his games: theme and nobility.
When Settlers of Catan appeared, it was quite a hit and remains so today. Why? One of many reasons is that it has simple mechanics, but also a theme that's so internally consistent that the game is very easily comprehended. Sadly few subsequent games have achieved this rare combination. But in the work of this inventor we can see someone working in the same vein.
To talk about nobility it helps to suggest a new definition for the term "family game". Usually it seems to mean "something only good for the kids to play". But I would like to refine this a bit and suggest it means something more, i.e. a game simultaneously enjoyable both by children and adults because both levels find it interesting, challenging and yet winnable. This seems to be a feature of all of this inventor's games. (Some other games, mostly of yesteryear, that seemed to have this quality were Midnight Party, Viva Pamplona, The Great Balloon Race, etc., but also Carcassonne.)
Of course such games should get bigger audiences than more complex ones like, say, Java, so why is there anything "noble" about making such a game? Simply because it is just this type of game in which children, parents and grandparents can all play together, which creates the most gaming fans, even more so than games which can be enjoyed only by children. It's my guess that just about every enthusiast using this database ultimately got started on the road here by being able in youth to play just such games. Thus games of this nature are not simply products, but creators of the game players of the future.
I haven't found out all that much about Dr. Delonge except that he seems to have been born in 1957, a good year for game inventors that he shares with Reiner Knizia and Michael Kiesling, and that he works as a bank director, but with the success of TransAmerica he may well have retired to invent full-time by now for all I know.
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1999 by Goldsieber
The first published game is a good example. The system is simple yet thematic and can be played quite competitively (e.g. monopolizing districts, timing moves) if desired. How to play competitively was a little bit opaque so perhaps it tilted a bit toward younger players. But the final state of the rules may lie at the door of the publisher. After all, optional rules are included, often a sign of disagreement within the team, especially for a first-time designer. On the other hand it certainly benefited from a lavish Goldsieber production.
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2001 by Winsome Games and later Winning Moves Deutschland
This one is even simpler and probably the inventor's best to date. It's easy for children to simply link up their cities while for adults there is a great opportunity to exercise their strategic intuition as they attempt to fathom what others are up to and how close they are to finishing. Playing the game one can kind of see some of the ways that historical railroads may have linked up. Many a morning I play a quick on-line game of this upon waking up to get the brain working.
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3.
Board Game: Hellas
[Average Rating:6.26 Overall Rank:1285]
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2002 by Kosmos
A two-player game of an expanding map and back-and-forth territorial domination among the Ancient Greeks. Simple and thematic, although objectionable to some since the reference is to war. This shows the inventor cares about his themes and would rather not change them even if the game might otherwise achieve higher sales.
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2002 by Ravensburger
This one I don't know, but feel I should be on the lookout for it. It seems to have found the least favor of all of them to date.
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2004 by Kosmos
Too new for me to have seen it, this game of expansion around a river including river alterations and presumably flooding could well be the best yet. The topic is entirely new and set in South America, an area rarely visited by games. It would be really great if games like this, which encompass the topic of slavery, would also take the time to somewhere in their materials address the matter in order to educate and inform.
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München
Germany
I disagree only in one point: The game desiger who has been a bank director but was able to retire because of his income on games is Reiner Knizia.
My profession is to be a judge. And although some people bought some copies of TransAmerica, I still have to go to the courthouse every day.
Franz-Benno Delonge
Bay Area
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Westborough
Massachusetts
I've been looking for Delonge's name on boxes since Big City, and the only game I've been disappointed by seems to be everyone else's favorite - TransAmerica. And to be fair, I don't mind TransAmerica - it's just the one I don't need to own.
I'm quite fond of all the rest - Big City being my favorite, but each of the others filling a niche. The dam building in Dos Rios is particularly brilliant - it's a mechanism I haven't seen before carried out flawlessy.
Remind me next time I'm coming out to CA and I'll bring Zahltag along...
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http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=cd8mj1%24r85%241%40news...
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Piossasco-Turin
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