Game Designer Interview: Bruno Cathala

The very gracious Bruno Cathala has been kind enough to answer some questions for me, and I’ve got the interview here for all of you to read. Mr. Cathala has designed a quite a few games, including Shadows over Camelot, Mr. Jack, Cyclades, Jamaica, and Dice Town, just to name a few. I’d like to thank him for taking the time to answer these questions.  Responses have been edited for formatting with Mr. Cathala’s permission.

I have listed you as one of my favorite designers simply because I like just about every game I’ve played that you have designed. However, all of your most famous works are group efforts. When working with other designers, do you find it difficult for your own “voice” to come out? What trademarks of yours should we look for in these group designs?

Working in collaboration is something always different depending on the one you are collaborating with! All designers have very strong… and very different personalities! Working with some of them, I have to adapt to the situation. But finally, it’s quite easy to work in collaboration. We don’t have exactly the same competencies and the same weaknesses. The most often, when we are facing a design problem, it’s not difficult to find a solution: we all know that there is a problem and that we have to find something to correct it. And the solution comes from the brainstorming. So it’s difficult to say what is the percentage of my “own voice” in such a working method! (At least I think it’s something like… 50%-50%!).

In fact, the most difficult thing is to know what to do when there is no problem! In this situation, you always have many ways to develop the initial idea. And it’s impossible to say if way number one is better than way number two. It’s just… different. In this case, we have to discuss to try to convince the other one to go into the direction we prefer… and we have to sometimes accept to go in the other way !

Now trademarks… well… hard to say… let’s say that I like to create systems in which you always are confronted to small but crucial choices…

One common thread I have noticed among your large-box games is that the theme always seems come first, sometimes even at the expense of more complex rules. Is this an accurate statement? How important do you think theme is to a game?

In all my designs, I would say that the theme came first in half of them. As a gamer I like when you are able to imagine you really live an epic adventure. That’s the reason why theme is so important for me. And when it’s possible, I prefer to avoid complex rule systems. Be sure that I could create more complex games, but my pleasure is to share my passion for games with the more players. And complex games are limited to hard core gamers. On the other hand, simpler systems could be boring very fast. So, I really try to create games somewhere in between these two extremities… taking care to have not-too-complex rules, but trying to keep some deepness to the game.

You’ve had some amazing productions from Days of Wonder, as well as great games published by Matagot, GameWorks, Hurrican, and Asmodee in more recent years. How do you go about finding a publisher for a game? Do you have one in mind when you design a game or is it more about who’s willing to do it?

When a prototype is finished, I present it to several publishers at the same time. Only publishers that I think could be interested by this design, because it could fit with their other games, and only publishers I would be happy to work with. And the first who gives a positive answer is THE publisher!

It has been a pleasure to work with the publishers you mentioned in your question, and I hope to have the opportunity to work with them again.

I would also be happy to have the opportunity to work with German and American publishers. But it’s more difficult because English is not as easy for me as French!

You’ve designed just about every type of game, including two-player, multiplayer, deduction, war, family, dice… When you first have an idea for a game, do you have in mind how “light” or “heavy” the game design will be?

How to say… the first idea gives the way. Some ideas need a light game; some others need a more heavy game. So I let ideas come, and then I try to make the game in connection with the idea.

On the same note, Cyclades recently entered the Top 100 on BoardGameGeek, and I’d like to congratulate you for that. It is truly an amazing game. Unfortunately, the other heavy war-themed game of yours, Senji, has not been as well-received. Can you talk a bit about your experiences with these two games?

I’m really happy with the success of Cyclades. The more I play this game, the more I like it. And this is still true today! It’s satisfying because we spent a lot of time to design it. We had decided to stay simple. With such a theme, it would have been easier to go into the complexity. So… it took us 3 years to find the good mix between richness and simplicity.

Concerning Senji, it’s true that the game has not been as well received. But you can notice that we also have big fans for it. I’m not really surprised. Senji introduces diplomacy mechanisms and it’s not so popular. Senji also includes much more subtleties, which are not in the rules themselves, but in the different way you can play it, depending on the personalities of the players. And players have to discover them game after game before having a real idea of what is Senji.

We are living in a world in which all is going so fast that now a game has to be fully understood, including subtleties, after only one game. If it’s not the case, the game will never be played again. No second chance.
It’s disappointing, but that’s it! Anyway, be sure that Senji is a game I’m really proud to have designed with Serge Laget!

We have just begun to integrate the Shadows over Camelot expansion Merlin’s Company into our games, and quite enjoy it, as well as the Mr. Jack Extension. I also have read what little information there is about the upcoming Cyclades and Dice Town expansions. What motivates you to create an expansion – is it usually at request of the publisher, or do you simply come up with ideas of your own later on? Could you possibly tell us a bit more about these upcoming expansions, or whether we’ll ever see an “extra quest” expansion for Shadows over Camelot?

Expansions I have worked on have never been request of the publisher. In all the games you mentioned, the story has been the same: we played the game so many times, even after its publication, that we just wanted, for ourselves, new way to play it! To “refresh” this game we loved so much!

Concerning Dice Town, the expansion will allow 2 to 6 players. On every location, the player with the majority will choose between the standard action (for example taking nuggets on the gold mine) and a second new action… and the second player will then apply the remaining action… You also will find some gangsters, with rewards… and the mythic Indian dice will be in the box!

Concerning Cyclades: You will find a new god, Hades, with armies and fleets of undead soldiers! You will find heroes, new mythological creatures, and a preliminary phase of free setup of the game!

I have found Mission: Red Planet and Jamaica to both be grossly underrated games on BoardGameGeek. Are there other games of yours you feel haven’t earned the time in the spotlight that they deserve?

I’m thinking about Kamon. It’s an abstract connection game, very easy to learn but very strategic. It has been published by Jactalea, a very small and not-well-known French publisher. It’s probably quite impossible to find it in US, but you can try it on iPhone and iPad devices.

2010 has seen you publishing some smaller games such as Sobek, Ostriches, and Mr. Jack Pocket, in contrast to the bigger releases by you and Ludovic Maublanc in 2009. What will we see from you in 2011?

2011… a lot of small and middle games…I don’t want to stay secret, but you know, publishers like to communicate by themselves at the “good” time… I just can say that you’ll find 2 expansions (Cyclades and Dice Town), but also a party game (Witty Pong), card game (in a box with sound), a board game with puzzle parts, and I hope other things that are not signed yet.

After looking through some of your older interviews (such as Tom Vasel’s from 2005), what do you think has changed in the past five years in gaming? Are you happy with the current trends? What’s the best new game (other than your own) you’ve played in the past few years?

During the 5 last years… it seems that all is going always faster. There are more and more new games. Too much for the market probably. You also have more and more small companies. With high quality games! That means the time that games have to make their own place is always smaller.

My best game will not be a surprise: It’s 7 Wonders by Antoine Bauza. At the beginning of last year I said that I thought that Antoine would be the designer of the year in 2010. And I think he is! Quite sure that 7 Wonders will get some awards… I also want to add one other game with 7 Wonders: it’s Small World, which is really one of my favorites and that I like to play with friends as well as on iPad!

Anything else you’d like to add?

I just want to wish a happy new year to all your readers!  I hope to come into a convention this year… let’s see!