Topic of the Week: OK. Who's the Best Designer?

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Been kind of circling around this one for a year. We’ve talked about most of the big designers either directly or as archetypes for another topic. Three things:

  1. If there are any designers you just want to talk about, who we haven’t yet, bring them up (Chudyk, Stegmeier, Eklund, Lang, Shem, Feld come to mind as some marquee names)
  2. How would you evaluate the best designer? What is your preferred definition for “best?”
  • Pinnacle of accomplishment: Whoever made the single best game, in your opinion?
  • Personal affinity: Slightly different from the above, but favorite rather than “best?”
  • Innovation: Whoever had the biggest impact on the industry, even if they didn’t perfect their own ideas? (e.g., Bauza, Vaccarino)
  • Consistency: Who hits it again and again with rarely a miss? (e.g., Lacerda, going by ratings)
  • Depth: Who has the largest body of high quality work? (e.g., Knizia, Rosenburg)
  • Breadth: Who can design a killer game, no matter what the concept or mechanic? (e.g., Knizia again, Chvatil, Cathala)
  • Popularity: You know. Awards. Bgg rankings. Sales. There’s something to be said for who is loved by the most people, even if it’s not necessarily you (e.g. Kramer, Teuber)
  • Anything else…
  1. Who’s your pick for best designer? Or who are your finalists?

(and here’s a list of a data crunched ranking, just to have the big names all there…)

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Here’s my kneejerk thoughts:

Consistency, Breadth, and Depth strike me as the most important. So, having a large quantity of sufficiently consistent games, while also proving you aren’t a one trick pony. And, for me, quality rests most heavily on interaction and elegance. I’m impressed by games that drive fascinating human to human interaction, competitive but not confrontational, and games with minimized rulesets where interaction, strategy, and tension organically emerge.

Then, to possibly contradict myself, these designers (in no order):

  • Knizia: You have to make 300 games to hit 30 classics. No, you don’t have to publish them all, which is Knizia’s folly, but any good designer needs to work out that many ideas. A big name for breadth and elegance, consistency may be in the eye of the beholder and corrupted by how much we see behind Knizia’s curtain compared to other 1-a-year designers.

  • Lehmann: A little weaker on breadth, but a truly elegant designer. I’m stunned by the amount of replay and the variety of engines that he has sprung out of a handful of mechanics. The balance and tension in his games are wound like a Swiss watch. Consistency is a little easier when you are skimping on breadth, but I have most all of his games and they each are precious.

  • Lacerda…aaaaa… I’m hesitant to put this one. Mark it a probationary entry. I haven’t played enough of his games yet. Yes, the manuals are complex, and yes, the bgg ratings are complex. But what I have found inside the boxes, like RFTG, resolves into a genius simplicity. Everything is logical, connected, balanced, intertwined. The emergent interactions, the trade-offs you didn’t realize you’d be making… so far I’ve been stunned by his designs in a way that is unlike anything else, unlike anything I could imagine, and yet so perfected. It’s a merger of quality interaction and dense but graspable puzzle.

And an honorable mention to Rosenberg who I think is a more personal pick. There’s a large body of quality work there, but the consistency, breadth, and elegance don’t always compete with the three bulleted names.

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Single best game award: Isaac Childres for Gloomhaven et al because that is just such a huge thing. Or possibly Eric Reuss for Spirit Island because it is my favorite game but I feel Gloomhaven is the greater accomplishment and more innovative compared to SI.

Most innovative: I want to go back and give that one to Richard Garfield for MtG because this has to be the single most influential game in modern boardgaming. I also want to mention Dávid Turczi because of the way he’s helped bring solo-modes to where they are and me being a solo player…

Personal Affinity: Uwe Rosenberg – I don’t even need to think about this. Maybe Bruno Cathala though I play his games less on average than all those Uwe games I love :slight_smile: I would have loved to give this to Cole Wehrle. I love his designs but I don’t get to play them as much, they are far more aspirational than all those Uwe games.

Depth: Uwe Rosenberg has so many good games. Sure he iterates on a couple of concepts. I don’t care. I know what I am getting when I buy one: a good game.

Largest body of work: I’d say despite all the misses this is Knizia. There are all the big and little card games, the push your luck games playing with the math, the tile layers, recently My City got into campaign stuff… cooperative, competitive… and he keeps putting things out. Not all equally great but there are enough gems that this cannot go to anyone else except the one that got away and retired →

Breadth: Chvaatil. That’s not even a competition. Too bad he seems to have retired. But his games range from Mage Knight, over Galaxy Trucker, Codenames, Through the Ages, Pictomania and Tash Kalar.

And because of this last list… the main trophy has to go to Chvaatil. The sheer breadth and variety of his designs together with their quality clearly says he’s the best. It helps that I have enjoyed a whole bunch of his games.

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Vlaada Chvatil is, IMO, the greatest board game designer (so far).

Full stop, go home, nothing else to see here.

His worst games are better than most designer’s best games (Dungeon Pets or Bunny Bunny Moose Moose are both bangers). I think his only real dud is That’s a Question, but I chalk that up to somebody driving a dumptruck full of money up to his house and saying “Look, we really just want a better Cards Against Humanity…” and he did the best he could.

Gosh he’s good. Galaxy Trucker is stupid-good, Mage Knight is brilliant-good, Through the Ages is mind-melting-good… Tash-Kalar, or Codenames…

After Vlaada, then I don’t think there’s really a clear 2nd best. Uwe has only designed one game in his entire life (okay, two if you include Bohnanza), and sure, it’s a very good one trick he does… and Dr. K has too many games that are really bad for me to consider him a great designer (prolific, yes. And some of them are very good, but he makes so many that of course a few of them will be great… Ra and Tigers and Pots are both spectacular).

I like a bunch of Ryan Laukat’s work, and he has a very nice trajectory to his designs (he seems to be getting better each time he makes a new game… better art too).

Oh, no, sorry, I take it back. Number 2 goes to Wolfgang Warsch. Goddamn super-genius. Not as consistent as Vlaada, but so many really incredible (and simple!) designs. Illusion and The Fuzzies and Quacks of Quedlingburg all from the same mind? Damn fine work.

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Gaah. You all are making me want to give Chvatil a second look. My starting point:
Galaxy Trucker: Didn’t have fun. But it was all app play. I’ve been told to do it on the table.
Tash-Kalar: Too swingy. Even 2p, the board state changes so wildly between turns that it feels more like tug of war than a tile layer, and I’m after the latter.
TTA: Good on the app. Too long anywhere else. It feels repetitive and always leaves me wanting Nations. Third age anti-climax.
Dungeon Petz: It was enjoyable but left me in passive mode, I’d play if someone else wanted a game.
Codenames: Sheer genius.

But I’m wrong plenty often. The best games (and music) tend to be the ones that grow on you over time.

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This is very unfair. He’s designed at least three. Farming, Bohnanza (why wouldn’t you include it? It’s great), and Tetris.

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Shem and Sam are very very good. Right up there with the best, in my opinion.

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Let me start first with my semi-limited mileage here.

I have not played that many games from the most quoted designers that always get name-dropped in the forums. To go with @Acacia name drops,I have not played any Lacerda, and only one Uwe, Feld or Knizia games, and just two Stegmaier’s. Zero Cathala’s, Kramer or Teuber…

I will throw Martin Wallace in the mix. With Childres and Eric Reuss (thanks for the reminder @yashima) and Lang, all their games I have played have been great. Maybe I have been lucky to sidestep landmines there, but that’s my humble opinion.

I agree with @yashima again, a game like Spirit Island is too good not to mention his designer. Or the three versions of Gloomhaven. At least the two I have played (have not touched Frosthaven yet, still busy with the other two).

I am throwing a bone to Martin Wallace and Shem/Sam Phillips. Their games have character and are varied enough (at least thematically to me), and all I have played from them has been great fun.

I don’t know if I am barking at the wrong tree, but it is difficult to me to judge this. What has not been invented? There are games that look very original, but I can always relate them to some other game… I will not vote here.

The Garphil team has not released a game I played that I did not like. So Shem/Sam Philips for me here.

Knizia has a ton of games, but I cannot judge, as I only have played High Society (which I love). Again, I am abstaining here.

Chvatil gets the vote from me here. The variety of games and the good quality in general (Through the Ages, Codenames, Galaxy Truckers…) albeit, in a short period of time, gets it for me.

I’m probably wrong, but… popularity meaning who sells more… Matt Leacock should be there with Alan Moon. Who’s selling more numbers than Ticket to Ride or all the different versions of Pandemic? It is their games that are everywhere, just one step below the gazillion copies or Monopoly that abound in any boardgame section of a general store. Followed shortly by Chvatil. Codenames is everywhere as well…

I have to split the vote between Shem Philips and Martin Wallace, for their consistency. With honourable mentions to Reuss, Lang and Childres

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I often thought that Stefan Dorra is rather underrated and often unmentioned.

  • Consistency: - i have wondered about this a while ago and looked at my ratings. And it turns out that it was Matt Eklund who kept releasing bangers and never missed. Stationfall and Pax Transhumanity remains his best works. And it seems he did most of the heavy lifting in Pax Renaissance too.

  • Depth: Knizia, obviously. Chudyk trails behind very closely. In the final ranking, this puts Chudyk higher as he released fewer titles

  • Breadth: Chvatil. Easy. From Codenames to Mage Knight.

  1. Who’s your pick for best designer? Or who are your finalists?
Rank Designer Comment
#1: Matt Eklund Like I said: this guy have never missed
#2: Splotter Spellen 3 of my Top 10 games came from them
#3: Cole Wehrle Special mention on how he singlehandedly resurrected Ameritrash after the decline of FFG (and I had major issues with some of their design philosophies)
#4: John Bohrer Cube Rails allowed me to play shared-incentive type games with a few pages of rules and quick duration.
#5: Carl Chudyk Best if I avoid his games that aren’t multi-use card games. Otherwise, he never missed. They are all bangers.
#6: Vlaada Chvátil It’s Vlaada, guys. Through the Ages is one of those “Cube Accounting” games that I love to play
#7: Amabel Holland Same with John Bohrer, but with a lower “batting average”
#8: Reiner Knizia He’s down here due to his “batting average” being lower that the others. But he is best when I bring his games to our games club and I know that I wont have an issue teaching them.
#9: Thomas Lehmann Card tableau guy that killed all of my desires to play these modern card tableaus.
#10: Stefan Dorra One of the best old school designers. I’d put him above all the others except for Knizia. Intrigue is such a dastardly game

Some designers could potentially be up here, but they only designed 2 player games. Rachel Simmons, designer of Napoleon’s Triumph, would be one of my best but the other 2 games were also 2 player heavy war games and I don’t have the time for them. Same with Kris Brum (YINSH, GIPF, et al)

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(Teuber is Catan, so…)

I can follow you on Wallace. I ding him for always publicly niggling his work but I’ve got a great respect for the Brass system (three, fourth on the way), Steam system (also three), London system (two), Acres system (three plus a third party copycat).

Am I missing any big Wallace designs? Anyway, I’m a fan.

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I cant imagine playing this on an app. Nowadays though, I opt for Fit to Print for a quicker experience

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Top of my head: Byzantium is perhaps my fave outside of the well-known ones.

EDIT: There’s Automobile, which captures the spirit of 18xx’s “train rush” concept with the tech-tree.
Liberte as well. Play it with the “take two cards” variant

Witches and Ankh-Morpork are comfort games that our club tends to like. Hit Z Road for a quick auction filler

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To my own surprise, I think I’m going to have to pick Carl Chudyk, just because he made my favourite game (Innovation). Certainly doesn’t win on breadth or consistency or volume.

Tied for second place are Cole Wehrle, the Splotter team, and Vlaada Chvatil. Love all of them for various reasons, though they each have their own flaws and limitations. Can’t really pick between them, these days.

Tied for third (fifth) are Tom Lehman and Jason Matthews, but just for Race for the Galaxy and Twilight Struggle, respectively. Not really been wowed by anything else from either of them, but those games alone put them above everyone else. (I say Jason Matthews, but I’m not sure if he or Ananda Gupta should be credited.)

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Georges. Xavier blanked Georges. Just walking by a shelf and saw Ginkgopolis and I can’t believe I forgot him. Yes, his pantheon is just four games strong but so is Lehmann’s, right? Roughly?

Troyes. Ginkgopolis. Carson City. Carnegie.

Every one is unlike any other game I’ve played (well, Carnegie felt like New Frontiers + Troyes). All have unique interaction, emergent gameplay, and dynamic puzzle.

He’s absolutely on my list.

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Next week: games that shouldn’t be out of print.

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Oooh, I completely missed Cole Wehrle… He’s got a few bangers as well… although I admit Oath left me a bit cold, I admire the effort and the concepts thrown in. Looking forward to play more of his games, like Pax Pamir 2 or Arcs. I will put it there with my pending list, or wanting to play more, like Stegmaier (although I still will not forgive his rose mechanic from Viticulture)

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Anno 1800 (although I have played it only online) and AuZtralia come to mind, and I played Age of Industry as well, which is very much like Brass.

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I did consider Chudyk but not having played his games enough…

Same for Tom Lehmann, the only game I have played significant amounts of is RftG which was mostly on the app. The more you play the more you forget though what a good and innovative design this is, because “just one more game” :slight_smile:

I wish I had played enough Splotter games to be able to include them in my considerations :slight_smile:

Matt Leacock is another designer I didn’t include in my shortlist above but what Pandemic did for cooperative games is also huge.

None of these guys have the breadth of Vlaada though and I feel like breadth and consistency within that breadth is what makes for “best designer ever” territory.

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Carnegie defo belongs in the same mechanism group as New Frontiers, Puerto Rico. The other are absolutely one of a kind. The French does love do their own thing :muscle::muscle:

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A really tough question!

I think Donald X Vacarino deserves a shout. Even if the only games he ever made were Dominion and Kingdom Builder that is some Aplus tier performance. But given how many games seamlessly absorb:

draw five cards play them, discard them, buy some cards, draw five more, if you can’t shuffle your discard pile and create a new draw pile

Into their game it’s insane to contemplate what influence has been made into boardgames as a whole.

I like Warsch for his eclectic approach to games. There must be something he’s tapped into that can be considered his core philosophy but it’s completely obscured by the variety of designs.

I think Kramer and Kiesling are great but you can see bits and bobs of their games across their range.

I like Knizia but every game I like I like it a little bit less than the real genius level (except maybe Ra). Knizia feels a bit like Nintendo to me - every game is in that 7-9 out of ten zone and there are umpteen of them every year.

Friedemann Friese is another funny one he’s like small indie guy who always makes something slightly wonky (except perhaps power grid?)

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