Now letвЂ™s go back to the beginning and look at the post that originally inspired this look down the aesthetic rabbit hole. Nice Mat from FFG, deck holder and tokens from Buythesametoken As twitter user said recently вЂAesthetics do not cheapen depthвЂ™. Like it or not, and whatever you like or not, graphics & production are vital to your enjoyment of a game. However, each of those elements combine to make the game a real pleasure to look at, handle, and play. It didnвЂ™t need to include huge standees, chunky dice, and green energy cubes. Mechanically this is a relatively straightforward dice game, but the art, graphics, and production elevate it to a game that still sees play at my table. One of the first games I picked up was King of Tokyo. I am always wary of falling head over heels for the art of a game. This is not to say that my critical appraisal stops at the box art, but if a publisher has taken obvious care with the looks of a game in an effort to make the aesthetic more unusual, then maybe the mechanics will be similarly interesting. Escape the Dark Castle, Arkosa & Prisma Arena are all prime examples where I wanted to play the game because the art direction made it stand out. This has also inevitably led to new games looking much more appealing, something I applaud as it makes selling new people on the hobby, that much easier.ДЄlthough this may have lead to a rise of assessing games by looks first, something I am not 100% a fan of, the changes for the industry have been mostly positive, as diverse more diverse themes are explored through the medium of art & design.ДЇrom a critical perspective, I do admit finding myself drawn to games that stand out from the crowd in terms of art & design.

It was a way to get their game to market for cheap, but the market was a lot smaller back then.ДЄs time has passed the ability of manufacturers and the dreams of publishers have come closer and closer together, allowing for reprints of games from board game history that look, feel, and play better, even if the underlying mechanics are the same. When I got back into board games in the late 90s, I remember picking up several cheapass games that were very simply printed, mostly on light card stock in black & white. Simple cards and a board is a decision that some companies actually make, see SplotterвЂ™s Food Chain Magnate as a good example of this stripped back style. Now could you remove them and still play the game? Probably, but even a minimalist art style is a choice. Production is the physical components of the game, the board, cards, meeples, and other various tokens that go into our favourites.Д®very game combines these elements to make a whole, on top of the mechanics that make the game actually tick. Graphic design can crossover with the art side of things but is more to do with how the game is laid out, how information is conveyed to the players, and allows players to see the state of the game at a glance when done right.

Art is the images that portray different parts of the game from the cards to the box art. Does this new found desire to make games look good really come from a desire to hide the mediocrity of the design? It seems unlikely, but letвЂ™s take a moment to talk about the role of production decisions in games.ДЄs I understand it there are 3 different strings to the bow of how a game looks: art, graphic design, and production. People want to вЂblingвЂ™ out their favourite titles, making it uniquely вЂtheirвЂ™ copy of the game. The secondary market of accessories has seen an increase as the boardgame owning population grows. With thousands of games released a year, publishers are looking more and more towards the presentation of games to draw people in. There is no doubt that in the last decade the art direction, graphic and production design of games has come on leaps & bounds. Is this fascination (and drooling over) game auxiliaries such as storage boxes and fancy pieces another indication that the games themselves aren't all that good, on average?- Lewis Pulsipher So hot you could cook eggs on it.

Eye of the beholder