As a fan of Reiner Knizia games* and the Gipf series, I have no problems with the game being themeless. I was thinking the other day that I needed to get more Icehouse games to the table (piecepack to come, as I just made up a set last night.) I want to play Zendo more. I want to play homeworlds with a group of 6. Fortunately my lunch gaming partner is as keen on abstract luckless games as I am, so we get some of those to the table then. (We started work on our own icehouse game on Wednesday, no idea if it will progress to be a game worth publishing.) But you bring up a VERY good point Jorge. Presentation means a LOT to many gamers. They want to be presented with pretty pictures and a bit of story, even if some will claim it is pasted on, it seems to help sell the game. (In this usage "sell" can mean both $ and just getting someone to try it.) -Jason *Kidding, don't get your knickers in a twist. On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 4:19 PM, Jorge Arroyo <trozo@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I think this touches a problem that generic game systems such as Icehouse > and piecepack have. They're excellent tools for a game designer, but they > don't seem to have the same appeal to players. I'm thinking more and more > (and it's unrelated to the results of the competition) that once you set the > ideas for a game down, and find a set of core rules you're satisfied with, > then you're better off designing specific components and taking the design a > step further. In fact, I've been toying with different ideas since I > "finished" VF to take the game to another level, with specific components. > I've been thinking the same for some of my piecepack designs, but still > don't have anything really definitive... > > That's not to say there are no good icehouse games. There are excellent > games, but I find these games (with some exceptions) only scratch my inch > for luckless abstract play (games like Alien City, Pikeman, Martian Chess, > Homeworlds, etc... which I mostly do on SDG). When I play a game at home, I > find myself going more for thematic games... It's hard to do a thematic game > with abstract components, even though there are some in both game systems > that more or less manage to do it...