The more that the board game industry grows each year, the more and more games are published and consumed. As that continues to be the case taking a look at some of the more well known and prolific game designers of the industry,
One such designer is Alexander Pfister. Pfister has made quite a few games to date, and has even made his first video game recently as of writing this. Some games people might know him from include but are not limited to CloudAge, Boonlake, Great Western Trail, Mombasa, Isle of Skye, and Skymines.
Looking back at many of these games there is a clear style Pfister has developed in a board game having many moving parts that are intricately woven, but all being based on one component in the majority of his games and that is cards. Cards are a core mechanism in many games, but Pfister takes that to a different level and makes using cards rewarding, more so than most games that utilize cards. This use of cards is so key to games designed by Pfister that it is easily recognizable in its execution.
Examples of this show up when you experience games like Boonlake and Cloudage, and many others designed by Pfister. Each card has a cost to play, each card has a benefit, you either pay cards or need to discard cards in order to play cards, and ultimately winds up providing victory points in some form. These victory points are the driving force of the games designed by Pfister and are how players achieve and solidify their victory. The victory points, the cards, the components all keep you engaged in a boardgame experience in ways that have you clamoring for the next card, for unlocking your next worker(meeple), for gaining an ongoing ability that strengthens your overall position in the game you’re playing.
What makes these great is when playing games over the past few years, I have personally played and gravitated towards more of these games designed by Pfister than I have many other games. That’s not to say that other designers are bad, or that other games are bad, far from it. What instead makes them stand out is that once you’ve played a game of his design, you find yourself wanting more. Wanting more gives people incentive to play more, and by playing more you get to discover and see the different strategies that overall are contained therein. What makes them even more enticing are also components, while not super deluxe, are not of bad quality, the theme doesn’t just get slapped on the games are in fact built with them in mind. One of my favorite games, CloudAge, is one of the most underrated Pfister games, has some of the best table presence in his catalog, fits this category and provides one of the most fun player boards I have experienced in a game.
Ultimately what makes a game designed by Alexander Pfister an instant attention grabber for me is that throughout his catalog of games there is enjoyable replayability, relative ease of access, beautiful themes that the games are designed with, and quality games/gameplay throughout the entire catalog. Of every Pfister I have had the opportunity to play, I have not had a miss and have enjoyed each one immensely. So go do yourself a favor and look up one of the above games and try it or buy it, don’t sleep on them any longer.
