The Game Designers

This is a documentary about board games, especially the design process. As a board game lover, it is really cool to see and understand how the games I play are designed. The movie also shows how much effort had to be made to bring the final game to the players. Beside the content, I find the music very fun and go along well with the scene. I also like the way the scenes are cut and the angles of the camera. The movie also have interviews with many famous designers like Antoine Bauza, Matt Leacock, Martin Wallace, v.v so the audiences understand more about being a board game designers, which is so informative. After all, this is an in-depth documentary that I think you would love to watch whether you are a board gamer or not. I hope that after watching this documentary, you will understand that board games are not just for kids and appreciate the games that you bring to the table everyday.

(I apologise in advance for my English!) This movie was a very emotional ride for me. Getting into modern boardgaming, I found out about a new universe of challenge, great experiences and new friends. Boardgames gave me a new way of spending quality time with people, and they showed me a new world of possibility. This documentary represented this for me. All the superstars of game design were there: Matt Leacock, Antoine Bauza, Eric Lang, Reiner Knitzia, Friedman Freise, and many more. This is a journey into the world of game design. Being a small-time game designer myself, I saw myself in many of the steps of game design. There's the passion for the medium, that drives the project. There's the struggle in finding the right mechanics and the even greater struggle in facing hard feedback or trying to salvage a broken game. There's the joy of seeing people smiling, gaming with an engine you thought and struggled with, yielding its results. The movie has this, and much more. It deals with three "stages" of game design. There's the beginner designer, trying to get a game engine to work and to take off. There's the experienced game designer, trying to get its game published for production. There's the master, with many games under his belt, and his approach to game design that's been refined and perfected in many years. The movie deals with the varied world of modern boardgaming: the impact of kickstarter in publishing, the advent of conventions and the explosion of nerd culture globally. We also get to visit the cradle of modern boardgaming, Germany. Kramer, Knitzia, Freise, Rosenberg are some of the big names that managed to make game design a living. They were the main contributors of the rise of eurogames, with focus on strategy, a solid economic engine and low conflict. If you've played some of those game you'll know the impact they had on the history of boardgames evolution. The documentary deals with a lot of topics, but at the end the message is simple: we love boardgames. We love to think about them, to play them, to invent them. I've never seen a hobby bringing people together more. After everything that's been done, we still do it, because it's fun. And I hope I'll be still playing them and enjoying them for years to come.

I strongly watching this documentary to anyone willing to design their own game, or just interested in the process. The material clearly states the most important (and often forgotten) golden rules of game design, and also illustrates why these are so important (and people like Matt Leacock, Reiner Knizia or Friedman Friese tell you that, so you should not ignore them!). The nice addition is the fact, that you follow the path of few designers. With that you can see the ups and downs of the design process and how to cope with some of the aspects. Last, but not least, the documentary is done in a great way - shots are awesome, interviews are interesting, and it is a pure pleasure to watch. Definitely recommend it!