140: Fancy components, how games delight and surprise us (guest: designer Chris Matthew)
Board games = cardboard. It's in the name of the material itself! But...what about An Age Contrived, a new Euro-style, action-programming strategy game designed by Chris Matthew of indie publisher Bellows Intent? It has magnetic bits, chunky Azul-style tiles, and in the Founder's and Collector's Editions, the player boards are set into solid metal frames. What? And you can shoot those tiles out with a spring/lever mechanism. Whaaaat? We had to bring Chris on to ask how he balanced the component "wow" factor with manufacturing affordability -- and as a big gamer himself, Chris wanted to talk…
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