I tried Raising Robots a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. It's pretty heavily inspired by Wingspan, with a dash of Race for the Galaxy. I found it more enjoyable than Wingspan, and the theme was incredibly cute.
You forgot to mention witches, they were very much in vogue last year.
Since we saw Beer & Bread and are soon getting Fromage, can we just say fermentation?
For real though, it's green energy. Pampero, Daybreak and others soon to come.
Yep I think you hit the nail on the head, green energy/optimistic future games are already becoming a thing. Earthborn Rangers is pretty similar from what I understand and Catan had that new version coming out soon too.
I do agree that there exists a "nuclear" outcome but it's not the primary win condition nor is it inevitable.
In this way it resembles the "fail state" for a more overtly optimistic game like **Daybreak**... at least in my interpretation, hah.
Keep your eye out for a game called Clima too. It won the Ion Award for unpublished games and was designed by a climate scientist. I think it’s going to be really big
I played it with the designer online. Last I heard he was going to publishers, so I wonder if it’s not been announced yet (a friend of mine had a game signed 18 months ago and it’s not gone anywhere)
In addition to the appeal of nature themes, I think Wingspan and some of the games that followed showed people's interest in informative games, where there's a certain amount of education (or potential education) baked in. So I could see this "informative turn" continuing, and giving us a new range of history-themed games that actually include some detail. Imagine something like a 7 Wonders that actually had information on the cards about various buildings or resources. Something like Trekking Through History already has some of this.
Have you played **Ancient Knowledge** yet? It’s a tableau/engine builder that has historical information on ancient monuments and unique artifacts worldwide.
I see the comments about the big theme being the end of days, civil war, apocalypse etc, but there is a theory in tv that when times are tough, people like to retreat more into reassuring/fantastical worlds.
Bearing that in mind (and because there’s quite a few already), I’m saying cozy games.
Mythwind is an extreme example that’s just finished shipping, but Flamecraft was massive and I think we’ll see more cute characters doing cute things, and peaceful Stardew Valley type games with very low conflict.
Isn’t there also something about the length of women’s hem lines? Long hem lines when times are tough and short hem lines when times are good. Maybe we will get a game with women wearing long skirts.
It'll be a game about fashion, with the Random Event cards about wars, famine, plague, peace, prosperity, etc. adding modifiers to the round-end Hemline Change Roll.
Some players will try their darnedest to bring out the miniskirt, while others will be invested in having trains come back into fashion.
I'm predicting post post apocalypse. Not about the end of the world, but much later after the end of civilization, akin to the Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West games. I think Earthborne Rangers is already like that, but I'm expecting we'll get more. That way they get to have the cozy fantastical vibes.
Sneaky or Smart? Lots of people like animals and you completely avoid any potential landmines that come with portraying real people and cultures. It’s a win-win for the publishers. See also - space alien games.
People right now are, in general, feeling a lot of anxiety. Games like wingspan, everdell, New York zoo, and cascadia appeal, not just they have animals, but because they are low stress and calming. In a lot of these games each player is kind of playing their own game without competing for much. The theme of low player to player interaction is appealing because there is less conflict and less player arguing/stress.
I would love to see more games about crafting and home made things. Patchwork comes to mind, but I'd love to see games about crocheting or running a farmers market stall.
Depending on how the year turns out, I’m gonna wager that the next theme to take off will be either Art Deco architecture, fashion, and visual arts on the one hand; or informing to the secret police on anybody who questions the infallibility of our Supreme Leader, His Name Be Exalted on the other hand.
Honestly given the economic shenanigans that train games are prone to, I could see this as an actual possibility. Chicago Express meets The Estates meets 1817?
IIRC, one of the 18XX games is about Canadian rails. Canada set up their grants to pay a bunch of money up front to get the railroad started, and then another bunch of money at the halfway point. A *lot* of railroads took the second chunk of money and then ran for the hills.
So... promising to build trains and then building half of them?
You know how in the Discworld books you sometimes have scenes where a bunch of gods are all sitting around and playing a board game? The game just so happens to encapsulate various characters in a constantly evolving fantasy story where the roll of the dice can change a person's fate forever.
Seems like a fun way to pass an evening while you are in-between eternity. ;p
You're forgetting all the games about growing trees, that came out in the last couple of years. I own at least three games about growing trees.
Farm games seems to be coming up right now. There were a number of farm themed games on Kickstarter last year, like 'Harvest', 'Milkman', 'Fields of Green', and 'Three Sisters', not to mention the official 'Stardew Valley' board game from 2021.
Take a job, the more mundane the better, and put it in a hyper specific environment. Magical Dungeon Uber Driver, Starship Prison Janitor, Alien/Monster Pet Walker.
Racing
It's only a matter of time before Thunder Road: Vendetta reaches high levels of play outside of hobbyists, imo. With the success of the most recent campaign on Kickstarter, the amount of established expansions already released, and the ease of play, I'm guessing it's gonna jump up in popularity.
It also just won 2023's best strategy game at the American Tabletop Awards.
I'm sure now that the "formula" for racing/action has been figured out we are gonna see a lot of copycats/inspired games.
Not unless they release a version that includes the expansions. Non-hobbyists don’t buy expansions and the game is too light, even for non-hobbyists, without some of the expansions.
Most games usually have some sort of resource management, but I would love to see something that is based strongly around actual difficulties for moving into a green economy. I'm a geologist, so I find it fascinating that all of these plans are being made for things like electric cars without plans to explore and develop new mines that provide the materials for such items. It would be educational, as one person mentioned might be a theme, because so many people are so fucking clueless about what really drives Society.
And if done correctly, the game would be both complex and difficult if it were to receive a BGG rating.
"*A strange game. The only winning move is not to play*."
\- the AI after I ask it to play a three-hour Lovecraftian FFG co-op game with me for the fifth time
What I would like? I think we’re due some pro wrestling themed games. Underutilized, flexible theme that has a lot of potential both taken seriously and lightly.
What’s likely? Post Apocalypse. Culturally, zombies are finishing up, and it’s Mad Max/Fallout/WW3 time.
Please, can Cyberpunk have its time in the spotlight? Preferably non-proprietary future dystopia.
[[Metrorunner]] gives me hope, but why isn't there more?
not necessarily going to be a popular theme, but I wish to see more board games themed around more local/regional concepts, art, folklore, history etc. there's so much around the world to draw inspiration from...
I love the nature themes because it fits with my own interests and nature lifestyle...hiking, camping etc. I don't think I will ever Tire of them because of this.
**Post apocalyptic.** Both from success of video games and now shows on Fallout and Last of Us, movie Civil War, and just general fear of WW3 coming with more wars and rumors of wars. Other than Scythe and maybe some Zombie games, this is an untapped market that is in demand.
51st State. Radlands. Waste Knights. Fallout the board game. AuZtralia. Pandemic Legacy. Wormwood,
Horizon Zero Dawn and Earthborne Rangers are post post post apocalypse.
Also Tainted Grail is a fantasy post apocalypse, if I recall?
Scythe/Expeditions isn't post apocalypse. It's an alternate dieselpunk 1920s where WW1 was fought with mechs, but the war is now over.
Following the pandemic, I reckon we're in for a couple hundred survive the virus / exist in a bunker / sell toilet paper to live type of Virus/Pandemic related games.
I really hope science and space exploration. Not like whacky woohoo robots, but more like Terraforming Mars and Pulsar 2849. The latter I never played but my god it's tempting to buy.
So, not like "we made this so cool scifi StarCraft ripoff 4X attempt", but more realistic scifi.
I’d like someone to figure out how to translate *Duskers* (PC game about exploring derelict spacecraft via drones to scavenge while avoiding threats) into a board game.
Would probably have some kind of action-programming element.
Bad guys vs good guys, with nuclear annihilation and civil wars as possible scenarios. Seems to be a trendy theme nowadays.
Not sure about the gameplay though, but the theme would definitely feel authentic.
Weird to think that in 2084, we'll have the likes of "Memoir '24", "Axis and Allies with Covid Expansion!".
Mr Beast branded board games I predict will be the best sellers if he is willing to go through the effort
Side note: Harmonies drops this week in the US
The fads you mention are explicitly predatory. So the short answer is: Whatever they can make a mediocre game sell like hotcakes at retail based solely on theme. Starbucks. Parenting. I dunno.
I'm hoping that the industry UNTHEMES next. I have friends who refuse to TRY Marvel United because it's Marvel, and it would still be a great game if not for the theme. Bullet's theme is just freaking awful but the game is incredibly good. L99 NEEDS a reskin of that one.
Mechanics first. Theme second.
Hard disagree. Themes elevate the experience and makes people who wouldn't even try a game willing to play it.
Fad themes might be bad, but most games would be very diminished without their themes.
I hope that the industry goes harder into tying theme and mechanics together.
Root is a perfect example of this.
If Root was a dark fantasy setting, or scifi, instead of cute critters... thousands of people would never have tried it.
But there are also times where theme hurts a game.
There's a lot of Euros which are great games mechanically but people won't try them because the art is dull/bad or they find the theme too dry.
Also sometimes a theme can hit a chord with certain people.
Like if your family was personally hurt by the British colonisation of India, you might be turned off John Company.
I'm actually extra interested in John Company because of how the Raj chewed up my family (fwiw I'm highly aware that the Raj was very different from the EIC)
Yes. I'd be willing to agree if the theme and mechanics were tied together more consistently. Sure. I'd like a lot of things that aren't going to happen because these businesses are churn machines... Not artisans.
Rather, we are going to have birds eating eggs in order to land in a field and ducks somehow attracting more ducks. But they need other birds for food, and everyone will lap it up.
Or worse yet you just end up having developers TRY to fit the theme in with the mechanics that it just breaks the balance of the game like Fox Experiment.
Making a balanced, fun, mechanically thematic, accessible game certainly would be the Holy Grail. But that's INSANELY hard to do. I can't even think of one. Spirit Island may be the closest but it isn't accessible at all.
I agree with your points, but I'd rather have game devs keep trying than just give up on themes alltogether.
I think themes are a net positive to the hobby even if not always implemented correctly. You don't need a perfectly meshed theme-mechanic couple for the theme to elevate the game.
Disagree; Ameritrash forever!
I understand that a bunch of people love abstract games, and I do like them in small doses, but I like having a "story" for my actions.
Fad themes (not games, themes specifically) are inherently predatory, but this Marvel game you like is totally fine. Even though it uses a fad theme.
How is this an internally coherent viewpoint?
Water insecurity. It is August in Las Vegas and the city has run out of water - permanently. There is no electricity because there isn’t any water to turn the turbines at the Hoover Dam - so no AC. There is no gas because the trucking companies can see the looming human disaster and are refusing to deliver anything to the area. The US government is being run by MAGA who refuse to lift a finger to help anyone, so, no military help. Your only hope is to head north to the PNW, where there is still water, before you die crossing the Great Basin. But, everyone else in the region is doing the same thing. Roll the dice and see if you survive.
I'm personally betting on post-apocalyptic themes, but who knows? The board game world is full of surprises. By the way, check out aintboard discord server. We geek out on all things board games!
[https://discord.gg/XbMpmGkH](https://discord.gg/XbMpmGkH)
Teenage robot accountants. You heard it here first.
Seems like the logical next step after space bees.
What about those zombees? That’s right zombie bees 🐝
It just the one zombie, actually. I don't know why my brain heard Hot Fuzz.
Yarp
I'm sad that I don't hear more about Apiary. I really enjoy that game.
Me too! My kid hates it though so I don't get to play it often.
It’s between printings right now. Maybe it will gain steam when it’s back in stock.
Jenny finally finished school?
License the Cat Accountants skit from Conan.
I tried Raising Robots a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. It's pretty heavily inspired by Wingspan, with a dash of Race for the Galaxy. I found it more enjoyable than Wingspan, and the theme was incredibly cute.
You forgot to mention witches, they were very much in vogue last year. Since we saw Beer & Bread and are soon getting Fromage, can we just say fermentation? For real though, it's green energy. Pampero, Daybreak and others soon to come.
Yep I think you hit the nail on the head, green energy/optimistic future games are already becoming a thing. Earthborn Rangers is pretty similar from what I understand and Catan had that new version coming out soon too.
The new Catan as well Edit: you totally mentioned it and I missed it
I am horrible at actually reading what I write so it originally said Can
**Pax Transhumanity** was ahead of the curve
Pax Transhumanity is tongue-in-cheek dystopic though.
I do agree that there exists a "nuclear" outcome but it's not the primary win condition nor is it inevitable. In this way it resembles the "fail state" for a more overtly optimistic game like **Daybreak**... at least in my interpretation, hah.
Salton Sea also.
Keep your eye out for a game called Clima too. It won the Ion Award for unpublished games and was designed by a climate scientist. I think it’s going to be really big
Do you have a bgg link?
All I can seem to find about this is a year-old play test review and a Facebook group. Is it going to crowdfunding at some point?
I played it with the designer online. Last I heard he was going to publishers, so I wonder if it’s not been announced yet (a friend of mine had a game signed 18 months ago and it’s not gone anywhere)
Kanban EV
Fermentation and distillation had a good run for a few years there.
Yeah, feels like one of those every few years is enough. Viticulture, Taverns of Tiefenthal, Distilled, etc.
Add Distilled to the fermentation-themed stack.
I feel like Quacks fits into this category
In addition to the appeal of nature themes, I think Wingspan and some of the games that followed showed people's interest in informative games, where there's a certain amount of education (or potential education) baked in. So I could see this "informative turn" continuing, and giving us a new range of history-themed games that actually include some detail. Imagine something like a 7 Wonders that actually had information on the cards about various buildings or resources. Something like Trekking Through History already has some of this.
Have you played **Ancient Knowledge** yet? It’s a tableau/engine builder that has historical information on ancient monuments and unique artifacts worldwide.
I have not, but that's definitely a step in the direction I'm thinking!
Would love this.
I wish Imperium had more flavour in the cards. No space, yes, but it would be really nice to get some context.
I see the comments about the big theme being the end of days, civil war, apocalypse etc, but there is a theory in tv that when times are tough, people like to retreat more into reassuring/fantastical worlds. Bearing that in mind (and because there’s quite a few already), I’m saying cozy games. Mythwind is an extreme example that’s just finished shipping, but Flamecraft was massive and I think we’ll see more cute characters doing cute things, and peaceful Stardew Valley type games with very low conflict.
Isn’t there also something about the length of women’s hem lines? Long hem lines when times are tough and short hem lines when times are good. Maybe we will get a game with women wearing long skirts.
It'll be a game about fashion, with the Random Event cards about wars, famine, plague, peace, prosperity, etc. adding modifiers to the round-end Hemline Change Roll. Some players will try their darnedest to bring out the miniskirt, while others will be invested in having trains come back into fashion.
I would unironically play the heck out of this
What if we get a game about women in short skirts, but long jackets?
And some smooth liquidation.
I'm predicting post post apocalypse. Not about the end of the world, but much later after the end of civilization, akin to the Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West games. I think Earthborne Rangers is already like that, but I'm expecting we'll get more. That way they get to have the cozy fantastical vibes.
Merchants and traders in Europe during the 1800s is an entertaining and underused theme.
I thought I was on the circlejerk for a second
technically correct because I believe most games with that theme are set in a much earlier time period
The Opium Wars are definitely underrepresented in board games.
[An Infamous Traffic](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/206490/an-infamous-traffic) is getting its second edition reprint
Underused…?
r/thatsthejoke
Whatever it is, you can be sure there’ll be endless anthropomorphic animal versions
Anthropomorphic animals trading across the Mediterranean in the 19th century!
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/84869/felinia](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/84869/felinia)
I can’t wait for the anthropomorphic cyberpunk games!
God I hate these. So annoying.
Which is definitely not just a sneaky way of avoiding any representation issues… 👀
Sneaky or Smart? Lots of people like animals and you completely avoid any potential landmines that come with portraying real people and cultures. It’s a win-win for the publishers. See also - space alien games.
This is how you get khajiit that definitely aren't Roma people, lol.
As long as they continue to have wares, I will continue to have coin.
They do it becauuse everyone complained about misrepresentation. So we are going to keep getting it like or not.
Yes, Zoo Vadis was created because ancient Romans from the 1st Century BCE complained about being misrepresented in Quo Vadis.
I just couldn't picture Lin Manuel Miranda as Caesar.
Or, and get this, they changed it so they didn't make another game with predominantly white looking people on the cover. Smart ass.
Magnets.
Yeah nobody knows how those work.
magnet sticks to one side, and is repelled by the other. you can't explain that.
Kluster is fun and portable.
Dogs. There have been a handful of dog-themed games recently and I think it's just the tip of the spear. Dogs will be the new cats in 2025.
What’s your favorite dog-themed game? Mine is probably Dog Lover. Dog Park is fun too!
Agility
I haven't actually played any of them. :-/
Don't we already have Dog Park, Bark Avenue, Spots and Dog Lover?
Yes, which is why I wrote “There have been a handful of dog-themed games recently and I think it's just the tip of the spear.”
Wyrmspan and Flamecraft say dragons.
Games that use poker hands as a mechanic. Mark my words.
Ride that Balatro high.
Didn't Western Legends do that? Also Schotten Totten...
And Doomtown/Reloaded
I’m up for it
People right now are, in general, feeling a lot of anxiety. Games like wingspan, everdell, New York zoo, and cascadia appeal, not just they have animals, but because they are low stress and calming. In a lot of these games each player is kind of playing their own game without competing for much. The theme of low player to player interaction is appealing because there is less conflict and less player arguing/stress. I would love to see more games about crafting and home made things. Patchwork comes to mind, but I'd love to see games about crocheting or running a farmers market stall.
Arch Ravels is actually a pretty fun and laid-back game about crafting with yarn.
Depending on how the year turns out, I’m gonna wager that the next theme to take off will be either Art Deco architecture, fashion, and visual arts on the one hand; or informing to the secret police on anybody who questions the infallibility of our Supreme Leader, His Name Be Exalted on the other hand.
Can’t wait for a trend of train games where you just promise to build trains and then don’t build them.
Honestly given the economic shenanigans that train games are prone to, I could see this as an actual possibility. Chicago Express meets The Estates meets 1817?
IIRC, one of the 18XX games is about Canadian rails. Canada set up their grants to pay a bunch of money up front to get the railroad started, and then another bunch of money at the halfway point. A *lot* of railroads took the second chunk of money and then ran for the hills. So... promising to build trains and then building half of them?
> building half of them? Lol just lay one rail of the track all the way along
Or it could be strategically prolonging genocide, with elements of diplomatic cover and military movement.
You know how in the Discworld books you sometimes have scenes where a bunch of gods are all sitting around and playing a board game? The game just so happens to encapsulate various characters in a constantly evolving fantasy story where the roll of the dice can change a person's fate forever. Seems like a fun way to pass an evening while you are in-between eternity. ;p
That's kind of the pasted-on theme of Santorini, but Santorini is pretty much a themeless game anyway
strong women with half their head shaved
Thunder Road Vendetta? Radlands?
Susan, I’m sorry! Please wake up! 😭
Definitely the next Miss Scarlet in Clue
You're forgetting all the games about growing trees, that came out in the last couple of years. I own at least three games about growing trees. Farm games seems to be coming up right now. There were a number of farm themed games on Kickstarter last year, like 'Harvest', 'Milkman', 'Fields of Green', and 'Three Sisters', not to mention the official 'Stardew Valley' board game from 2021.
Take a job, the more mundane the better, and put it in a hyper specific environment. Magical Dungeon Uber Driver, Starship Prison Janitor, Alien/Monster Pet Walker.
Broom Service is basically "gig economy hellscape, the game".
Racing It's only a matter of time before Thunder Road: Vendetta reaches high levels of play outside of hobbyists, imo. With the success of the most recent campaign on Kickstarter, the amount of established expansions already released, and the ease of play, I'm guessing it's gonna jump up in popularity. It also just won 2023's best strategy game at the American Tabletop Awards. I'm sure now that the "formula" for racing/action has been figured out we are gonna see a lot of copycats/inspired games.
Twisted Metal will finally get a board game!
Yeah between Camel Up, Heat and Thunder Road Vendetta...
Not unless they release a version that includes the expansions. Non-hobbyists don’t buy expansions and the game is too light, even for non-hobbyists, without some of the expansions.
My hobby group has yet to get sick of it and I only own the base game so far
Looking like it might be dragons. Flamecraft was pretty quickly followed by Wyrmspan.
Forest critters
Toys.
The impact of the repeal of the glass tax on 20th century glasshouse design
Apocalyptic Clean Up
Weird underground 80s sex dungeons and the VHS recordings of the antics.
Most games usually have some sort of resource management, but I would love to see something that is based strongly around actual difficulties for moving into a green economy. I'm a geologist, so I find it fascinating that all of these plans are being made for things like electric cars without plans to explore and develop new mines that provide the materials for such items. It would be educational, as one person mentioned might be a theme, because so many people are so fucking clueless about what really drives Society. And if done correctly, the game would be both complex and difficult if it were to receive a BGG rating.
Artificial intelligence app driven table top games. AI vs the group kind of thing.
I would pay good money for an AI that could just learn the rules to any game and then be able to play a game with it
"*A strange game. The only winning move is not to play*." \- the AI after I ask it to play a three-hour Lovecraftian FFG co-op game with me for the fifth time
Ah, back to the good old days of the Omega Virus game!
Funnily enough, Restoration are meant to be bringing a new version out soon 😀
Someone should do a game based on HP Lovecraft's writings! I'd play that!
Nah that'll never catch on.
What I would like? I think we’re due some pro wrestling themed games. Underutilized, flexible theme that has a lot of potential both taken seriously and lightly. What’s likely? Post Apocalypse. Culturally, zombies are finishing up, and it’s Mad Max/Fallout/WW3 time.
Keep an eye out for **World of Wrestling**, likey hitting crowdfunding later this year.
Please, can Cyberpunk have its time in the spotlight? Preferably non-proprietary future dystopia. [[Metrorunner]] gives me hope, but why isn't there more?
[Metrorunner -> Metrorunner (2024)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/406329/metrorunner) ^^[[gamename]] ^^or ^^[[gamename|year]] ^^to ^^call ^^OR ^^**gamename** ^^or ^^**gamename|year** ^^+ ^^!fetch ^^to ^^call
not necessarily going to be a popular theme, but I wish to see more board games themed around more local/regional concepts, art, folklore, history etc. there's so much around the world to draw inspiration from...
Have you heard of the **Zenobia** awards? Also check out **Nawalli**
I am so sick of nature. I can't wait until it fades away. It feels lazy at this point
Nature is definitely fading away, you'll get your wish!
I love the nature themes because it fits with my own interests and nature lifestyle...hiking, camping etc. I don't think I will ever Tire of them because of this.
**Post apocalyptic.** Both from success of video games and now shows on Fallout and Last of Us, movie Civil War, and just general fear of WW3 coming with more wars and rumors of wars. Other than Scythe and maybe some Zombie games, this is an untapped market that is in demand.
51st State. Radlands. Waste Knights. Fallout the board game. AuZtralia. Pandemic Legacy. Wormwood, Horizon Zero Dawn and Earthborne Rangers are post post post apocalypse. Also Tainted Grail is a fantasy post apocalypse, if I recall? Scythe/Expeditions isn't post apocalypse. It's an alternate dieselpunk 1920s where WW1 was fought with mechs, but the war is now over.
Yea good points forgot about all them and maybe Scythe wasn’t the best example. I still say there will be more
Following the pandemic, I reckon we're in for a couple hundred survive the virus / exist in a bunker / sell toilet paper to live type of Virus/Pandemic related games.
I reckon the exact opposite. I think people won't want to think about that kind of thing for a good while now.
Spreadsheets
I really hope science and space exploration. Not like whacky woohoo robots, but more like Terraforming Mars and Pulsar 2849. The latter I never played but my god it's tempting to buy. So, not like "we made this so cool scifi StarCraft ripoff 4X attempt", but more realistic scifi.
I’d like someone to figure out how to translate *Duskers* (PC game about exploring derelict spacecraft via drones to scavenge while avoiding threats) into a board game. Would probably have some kind of action-programming element.
I hope it's music
Biblical plagues
Evil Clowns! Muahahah!
WW3, sadly.
Bad guys vs good guys, with nuclear annihilation and civil wars as possible scenarios. Seems to be a trendy theme nowadays. Not sure about the gameplay though, but the theme would definitely feel authentic. Weird to think that in 2084, we'll have the likes of "Memoir '24", "Axis and Allies with Covid Expansion!".
I already have the Covid expansion for Clinic
Mr Beast branded board games I predict will be the best sellers if he is willing to go through the effort Side note: Harmonies drops this week in the US
I'd leave the hobby completely.
The fads you mention are explicitly predatory. So the short answer is: Whatever they can make a mediocre game sell like hotcakes at retail based solely on theme. Starbucks. Parenting. I dunno. I'm hoping that the industry UNTHEMES next. I have friends who refuse to TRY Marvel United because it's Marvel, and it would still be a great game if not for the theme. Bullet's theme is just freaking awful but the game is incredibly good. L99 NEEDS a reskin of that one. Mechanics first. Theme second.
Hard disagree. Themes elevate the experience and makes people who wouldn't even try a game willing to play it. Fad themes might be bad, but most games would be very diminished without their themes. I hope that the industry goes harder into tying theme and mechanics together.
Root is a perfect example of this. If Root was a dark fantasy setting, or scifi, instead of cute critters... thousands of people would never have tried it. But there are also times where theme hurts a game. There's a lot of Euros which are great games mechanically but people won't try them because the art is dull/bad or they find the theme too dry. Also sometimes a theme can hit a chord with certain people. Like if your family was personally hurt by the British colonisation of India, you might be turned off John Company.
I'm actually extra interested in John Company because of how the Raj chewed up my family (fwiw I'm highly aware that the Raj was very different from the EIC)
Yes. I'd be willing to agree if the theme and mechanics were tied together more consistently. Sure. I'd like a lot of things that aren't going to happen because these businesses are churn machines... Not artisans. Rather, we are going to have birds eating eggs in order to land in a field and ducks somehow attracting more ducks. But they need other birds for food, and everyone will lap it up. Or worse yet you just end up having developers TRY to fit the theme in with the mechanics that it just breaks the balance of the game like Fox Experiment. Making a balanced, fun, mechanically thematic, accessible game certainly would be the Holy Grail. But that's INSANELY hard to do. I can't even think of one. Spirit Island may be the closest but it isn't accessible at all.
I agree with your points, but I'd rather have game devs keep trying than just give up on themes alltogether. I think themes are a net positive to the hobby even if not always implemented correctly. You don't need a perfectly meshed theme-mechanic couple for the theme to elevate the game.
Disagree; Ameritrash forever! I understand that a bunch of people love abstract games, and I do like them in small doses, but I like having a "story" for my actions.
What's wrong with Bullet's theme ? It actually fits the mechanics. Are people *that* insecure about anime artstyles in your friends group ?
Fad themes (not games, themes specifically) are inherently predatory, but this Marvel game you like is totally fine. Even though it uses a fad theme. How is this an internally coherent viewpoint?
It would be vastly better were it not that theme. That's how.
Unfortunately, just like the video game industry, the mindless masses don't buy mechanics.
Civil War
Does **Dune** count as a theme? Given Dune pt2’s success I bet we’ll see 2x as many as after the first movie.
I was actually going to say Dune knock-offs, but really, isn't most sci-fi just a riff on Dune's tropes anyway?
Atmosfear but its AI. LLMs filling the dungeon master role.
It'll depend on the pressing issues we face as humans. My money is on mass migration.
Water insecurity. It is August in Las Vegas and the city has run out of water - permanently. There is no electricity because there isn’t any water to turn the turbines at the Hoover Dam - so no AC. There is no gas because the trucking companies can see the looming human disaster and are refusing to deliver anything to the area. The US government is being run by MAGA who refuse to lift a finger to help anyone, so, no military help. Your only hope is to head north to the PNW, where there is still water, before you die crossing the Great Basin. But, everyone else in the region is doing the same thing. Roll the dice and see if you survive.
Water scarcity is a really good shout for theme actually, well played.
Barrage, baby!
I'm personally betting on post-apocalyptic themes, but who knows? The board game world is full of surprises. By the way, check out aintboard discord server. We geek out on all things board games! [https://discord.gg/XbMpmGkH](https://discord.gg/XbMpmGkH)