YORKTON - Solo gaming is sort of a board game option of last resort.
One of the best aspects of board gaming is the camaraderie of getting together at a table with family and friends to toss a few dice, deal some cards or jump some checkers.
But in our busy worlds getting together for an evening can be a challenge, so solo games are an option.
Utopia Engine, a 2010 release from designer Nick Hayes, and its sequel Utopia Engine: Beast Hunter released in 2013 are a couple of choices worth a look.
To start with Utopia Engine is a free print-and-play dice game.
“You play an old artificer named Isodoros who is attempting to reconstruct the Utopia Engine, a fabled device from the distant past and possibly the only hope for averting the fast approaching Doomsday,” explains the boardgamegeek.com entry for the game. “You must recover the machine's six parts from six dangerous regions and assemble the Utopia Engine before the world ends. The game uses simple dice mechanics to simulate searching the wilderness, activating and assembling powerful artifacts, and combat with artifact weapons.”
Beast Hunter switches things up just a bit.
“In the game, you play as Mason the Hunter, a fugitive who has been falsely accused of murder. You are trying to gain refuge in a village for protection but the village elders require that you kill three beasts first. You have 14 days before the pursuing Blazing Star Regiment finds you and arrests you so you must kill the beasts before that time,” notes BGG.
“Each turn you must decide to either search for clues to find the terrible beasts, build towers to defend the village, build equipment, or rest to heal yourself. To win the game you must defeat all three monsters and gain the trust of the villagers so they will hide you from the Blazing Star Regiment.”
Now there are dozens, if not hundreds of print ‘n play games out there, but Utopia Engine remains one many seem to have on their ‘best of’ lists, so it seemed like a good idea to interview its creator via email.
Naturally the first question was to find out what Hayes himself plays.
“I am an avid gamer, both of tabletop games and digital games,” he offered. “Some of my favourite tabletop games are Wiz-War (5th Edition), Clank!, and Bunny Kingdom.”
So, from there what was the idea which led to creating UE?
“Utopia Engine started off as a modified version of the Thousand variant of House Numbers from Reiner Knizia's book Dice Games Properly Explained,” said Hayes. “From there I developed the setting and story, did a little artwork, and started a thread on Boardgamegeek.com to ask for play testers.”
In creating UE Hayes tried to keep the goal straight forward.
“I just wanted to develop a fun game and illustrate a retro-style adventure sheet,” he said. “There is something soothing about filling in little boxes with a pencil.
“Couple that with the nostalgic feel of black and white artwork from countless roleplaying game books and I find myself being transported back to middle school, buried in RPG supplements filling our character sheets or drawing maps.”
It's great creating a game but why give the creation to the world free?
“Back then, I liked offering all my games as PnP because it gave me immediate access to players,” said Hayes. “As long as I provided the instructions and everything needed to play, I could count on at least a handful of people trying out the game and providing feedback. That feedback has always been instrumental in fine tuning and polishing up my games.”
Chunky Fighters was the first game Hayes released as PnP, although it was not the first game he designed.
“Not counting games I designed as a child, I'd say my first game was Gauss' Law - an abstract strategy game about chaining bullet patterns from your pieces to flip over all your opponent's pieces,” said Hayes.
Today Hayes has a lengthy resume of games created. Where does UE rate in his mind?
“Utopia Engine is one of my favourites. I really love the setting and have often daydreamed of one day writing short stories or novellas about that world and its characters,” he said.
But, does it surprise Hayes the game is still being played? And making certain top-PnP style lists?
“I am glad that there are a lot of people out there still holding the torch for Utopia Engine,” he said. “Many of my other print-and-play games have fallen by the wayside since their release so it's awesome to see that at least one has withstood the test of time.”
Hayes also likes that the game seems a small part of something bigger.
“In my mind, the best part of Utopia Engine are the narrative elements that hint at a much larger world,” he said. “You encounter creatures with evocative names like Abyssal Leech and The Hollow Giant. You find legendary treasures like The Molten Shard and Shimmering Moonlace. In the rulebook you can find bits of story that expand on the background of your character Isodoros and the role he plays as the world comes to an end.”
In the end Hayes said he feels “Utopia Engine offers a compelling 30-45 minutes of decision making and dice rolling for someone who just wants to spend some quiet time pouring over a couple of beautifully illustrated adventure sheets with a pencil and eraser for an evening.”
And the games play in a somewhat familiar way.
“The great thing about Utopia Engine is that the mechanics aren't entirely unique,” said Hayes. “Good games are most often those that combine mechanics from other games in ways that a player can easily internalize. You really want a game's core mechanics to disappear so the player can spend time thinking about what they want to do next instead of trying to remember how to perform game actions.”
And what does Hayes think of the sequel Beast Hunter?
“Utopia Engine: Beast Hunter takes the core DNA of the original game but spends more time expanding combat instead of finding and activating artifacts,” he explained. “The game itself plays much quicker than the Utopia Engine, which can at times feel unfair, but that shorter game length was one of my goals for the sequel.
“For those interested in the setting, there is a lot in Beast Hunter to chew on.”
So years have passed, but might Hayes revisit to world of UE again?
“I've always wanted to release a third game in the series. I have piles and piles of notes and unfinished attempts, but for now it will have to wait until I have time to revisit the world of Utopia Engine. Someday!” he said.
