Game Designer/Publisher Interview: Sébastien Pauchon

Sébastien Pauchon is a relative newcomer to board game design, but he’s accomplished much in a short amount of time. His current accolades include a nomination for the Spiel des Jahres with Yspahan, three SdJ Recommendations (Metropolys, Jamaica, Jaipur), and most recently, Fairplay magazine’s “Card Game of the Year” for Jaipur.

He has also started his own publishing company, GameWorks, which in 2010 published Water Lily, Sobek, and just recently, Tikal II: the Lost Temple. Sébastien has been kind enough to respond to some questions for us. Responses have been edited with his permission.

Game Design

You’ve achieved a fair amount of success in a short amount of time, including a nomination for the Spiel des Jahres. How did you get started in board game design?

In 1998, a friend of mine approached me with game ideas he wanted to improve with the help of a specialist. I know how it sounds, so let me clarify the notion of “specialist.” At that time, I already was a dedicated player (I’ve always loved to play anything), but of very classical games: Chess, some Go and Xiang Qi, Mah Jong, Pictionary, Taboo, Trivial Pursuit.  Prior to that in high school: Risk and lots of Jass (the classic Swiss card game), and prior to that, Monopoly and Stratego. Well, you get the picture.

So I was considered an “expert” among my friends mainly because I just played anything, including some exotic games, and was definitely more interested than others in games in general. And since board games aren’t that widely spread here in Switzerland, it doesn’t need much to make you stand out (knowing how to play Xiang Qi and Go, and beating my mother-in-law at Scrabble was enough to do the trick). Plus, at that time, I was trying to become a professional pool player, which certainly is related to games.

Anyway, this friend of mine barges in, he himself not much of a player at all, but interested by the designing process. So we started meeting more-or-less weekly to talk about games. We did design an abstract which was almost okay but far from finished and another take on Hide and Seek, which could still become something one day. But the rest was just… hm, how shall I put it… rookie-ish? Basically, we reinvented the wheel, often going after the above-mentioned classics.

We did that for the better part of a year, after which we just didn’t have time anymore: I got more and more involved in pool and he was studying architecture. So that was chapter one, or rather, the prologue.

By the end of 2001, I literally stumbled on modern board games, as they seem to call them since Catan. The first one I played was Condottiere at my brother-in-law’s. He had bought it out of the blue at a small toy shop in Vevey, where we live, by Lake Geneva. What a shock! A card game with a board, and no dice, hooo, haaa!

A couple of weeks later, while shopping for a ski weekend with friends, I had a brilliant idea: let’s also buy a game on the spur of the moment, see what happens. So I went to the game section of the shop I was in, which was lousy, and picked the only game that could qualify as modern: Carcassonne. “Now what does this one say? Hmm, Spiel des Jahres (as a Swiss, I unsurprisingly do speak German), that sounds good.” Imagine, game of the year, that should be something, shouldn’t it? And off I am, with my Carcassonne box tucked under my arm.

We played more than ten games over the weekend, and I couldn’t believe it: again, a game that didn’t relate to anything I’d ever known till then. Was I discovering the 30-something-th game worth buying existing on the planet?

Well, hundreds of hours of web-surfing later, I realized what the modern game industry really was, and best of all, I knew there were hundreds of ripe games out there, just waiting to be plucked… yummy!

For various reasons, among which more time spent with my family –our daughter was turning 1 at that time– I put a halt to my pool “career” in 2002, after writing an extensive book on the subject, of course in French, which you can see here (www.lebillard.ch). After that, I had no clue…

So 2002-2003 were the years I did become a game “expert” (after all). As I was waiting for my next career idea to show up, I caught up with a bunch of role-playing friends who were also eager to discover new board games. These were indeed intensive gaming years, and I just never tired of discovering yet another great new game. By new I mean new to me, remember I had a lot of catching up to do…

One thing I’ve also done since I was 20 is sporadically working as a freelance graphic designer, beginning with the design of snowboards with a friend who was a professional in the field. This was the reason I thought I could handle the writing and the illustrating of my book on pool, and later also gave me the confidence to publish games.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself: in 2003 I started having game ideas of my own. The creativity had always been there, as told above, but I was certainly lacking the game knowledge. But after playing all these (often great) games, I definitely had a better understanding of what a good game could be. So I started designing some stuff around Catan, Citadels, and other games I liked (and still do, by the way). I eventually had some real ideas of my own, of which I submitted Sirius to the French International Designers’ Contest of Boulogne-Billancourt (Paris). The game didn’t win, but got into the final 20. I was rather pleased and thought, well, maybe I should go to the award ceremony held in Paris. I didn’t know it then but it sure was the best idea I’d had in a while.

That year, Serge Laget and Bruno Cathala were awarded with their game Du Balais!, which was published later (Wicked Witches Way in English). And that’s how I met these two fine gentlemen, as well as the whole team of the Boulogne-Billancourt Ludotheque, who are the greatest people in the world to share a game with.

In early 2005 I got a request from the Swiss Museum of Games (www.museedujeu.com) to organize a game designing workshop over a weekend. I of course said yes, and had the idea to invite Bruno to host it with me, as he doesn’t live that far from us and sure was more seasoned than I was. He agreed, and that gave us the opportunity to get to know each other and become friends.

After that, things unexpectedly sped up and got kind of wild. Bruno had me invited to Faidutti’s Ludopathic Gathering in France, where I met many established designers, among whom for instance Jens-Peter Schliemann, who told me I should definitely take part in the Göttingen Designers’ meeting later that year. I also met David Pernot, a friend of Cyril Demaegd (head of Ystari) who played my Calife et Marchands and told me I should quickly send it to Cyril. Cyril liked it a lot and it became Yspahan.

Summer 2005, I did go to Göttingen and that also was a good decision, since I received the scholarship for rookie designer, which is great as it gives you the opportunity to spend a week with several publishers in Germany (Ravensburger, Hans-im-Glück, Zoch, for instance). Fall 2005, Calife et Marchands was awarded at the Boulogne contest.

Along with the Swiss Museum, we organized the first Swiss designers’ meeting in September, during which Assura, our future first client, gets in touch to have us create a couple of games for them.

2006 Yspahan is released, and I am again awarded in Boulogne, this time for Oklahoma (which will become Metropolys). Together with Malcolm, we found GameWorks during the summer and in November, we release our first contract game, Animalia, followed in 2007 by Jamaica. That summer of 2007, Yspahan is nominated to the Spiel, but Zooloretto is too strong and after so much hope there is indeed a bit of a deception, but being nominated with your first game sure is a thrill!

Later, Metropolys, Jamaica and Jaipur all made it on the Spiel’s recommendation list, which is neat, and 2010 we released our first three games from “outsiders”, meaning, not originally designed by Malcolm or me: Water Lily, Sobek, Tikal II.

And that more-or-less sums it up… Don’t worry; I’ll try to be shorter answering the next questions.

On Bruno Faidutti’s website, he compares the style of your games to that of Reiner Knizia’s.

Yes I know, very flattering actually.

Do you think this is accurate?

Well, if he did get that feeling playing Yspahan and/or Metropolys, then it has to be accurate on these games.

But I can’t really compare myself to Reiner. I mean, look at his work! Okay, not all his games are great, okay, often the theme is a bit thin, and the game maybe dry. Okay this, okay that, blah blah blah… but hey, you have to recognize a genius when you see one. The sheer quantity of ideas is phenomenal, many of those being brilliant. And when you look at all his games you might like or even love (everybody will have his own list), it is just amazing.

The only small comparison I can see is a rather mechanical approach rather than a thematic one. But that is only true if we assume it also is Reiner’s approach.

How would you describe the style of your game designs?

Hmm, I’m not very good at that…

Obviously, I haven’t designed a really heavy game or a kids’ game up to now. Most games I designed (or co-designed) are a blend of tactics and a bit of luck. Metropolys is an exception, but the others are all have an element of randomness, which I find great in games. If you hate luck, well, play Go (only my opinion, of course).

I like games most of all with dilemma, but don’t really enjoy analysis paralysis, prefer to play ten games in as many hours rather than one game in ten hours, and I guess that shows in my designs.

How do you balance mechanics and theme?

From a designer’s point of view, I don’t balance anything… As a lousy historian, geographer or storyteller, I just never come up with the idea of a theme I’d like to show or develop in a game. Mechanics always come to my mind first.

The only games where I/we started from the theme were contract games. I’m thinking of Kimaloe about children’s rights, which we did for Terre des Homme, and Helvetiq, which had to be both a quiz and a pedagogical game on Swiss politics.

But if my mind is free-wheeling, it’s always mechanics… What a dull dad I must be!

As a publisher, of course, I try to make an effort and find a theme that fits the game, the target group, a theme that might explain or justify some mechanics. I think it helps the players grasp the rules (our games being rather not-too-heavy, the target often is a regular family).

Though you’ve gained much credit for several stand-out solo designs (Yspahan, Metropolys, Jaipur), you’ve also designed some games with Bruno Cathala and Malcolm Braff, including the very fun Jamaica. How did these collaborative efforts come about?

Up to now we co-created Animalia, Jamaica, and Helvetiq with Bruno, and Kimaloé with Dominique (Ehrhard). All those games were initially contract games. Contract game means client, deadline, and delivery. In this respect, I find working in a trio a very good solution, and also a very reassuring one. There always is one of us with a new idea, or one mediating when the two others get hot on a particular topic, etc.

Plus, the fact that we have a fixed canvas (age, number of players, theme) often makes it easier to let certain ideas go, as they objectively don’t fit. That is tougher with a regular game, as each designer has his own tastes, which might lead to heated subjective discussions, or even arguments.

The very first contract game we did was for a German industrial company back in January 2006. Malcolm had recorded a CD for them in past, and they asked for another one. As he didn’t really feel like composing a second album for this purpose, he proposed a game instead. They liked the idea, so he asked me what I thought about it and I said, sure, let’s do it. Soon after, we thought it might be wise to ask Bruno if he’d join us, being as I said before more seasoned then we were. He agreed, we had a blast, and that got the whole GameWorks thing started…

Which style (solo or collaborative) is more enjoyable for you?

Both are. I’ve really enjoyed cooperation so far, as well as being on my own. I like the group dynamic because combined with the deadline pressure it makes each project go forward very quickly. On my own, I have a tendency to write down many, many ideas, without them turning into something concrete. But for the same reasons, it’s nice to let some ideas really get ripe at their own pace.

Designing as a trio also is more fun, as we keep joking around all the time, and that’s very enjoyable.

What other game designers or designers have influenced you in your own designs?

I guess all of them, since any new game might give you a new perspective on game designing and gaming experience. And that also applies to games you end up not liking.

What current games do you find impressive?

Dobble and FITS are two games I was recently impressed with, because they came as a total surprise. Honestly, as a publisher I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have considered them by reading the rules. Then you play a first game and instantly think geeez… that sure does work. Then you see all those “non-players” loving them right off the bat and it makes you wonder… what is a good game after all?

Dominion was the last game where I really got excited during the explanation of the rules by Bernd (head of HiG) during the Spiel evening in Essen 2009. Mr. Jack Pocket is amazingly good. It’s very much in the line of the previous games, and definitely different. It has super easy rules, but it’s also potentially a real brain burner. I also played Samarkand recently, and enjoyed it a lot. Antoine’s 7 Wonders is also great, something I would very much like to have designed: a civilization building game with an epic feel played in under an hour, what a feat!

What’s next for you as a designer?

I don’t really know. As stated before, last year we published three games which weren’t “our” games, but the designing process was nonetheless very intense. We tweaked all three, some more than the others, and that took a lot of time and creative power. You add to that the whole publishing process and soon enough you don’t have time or brain space for your own game ideas.

So right now I have my usual notepads full of things and stuff, but nothing very precise. We are also planning to release new versions of Yspahan and Metropolys at some point in the future, but haven’t really started working on them, just a few scribbles.

GameWorks

What inspired you to create GameWorks, and how did you go about getting started?

After I was approached by Assura in Fall 2005 for an order of several games, and after the first ideas were well received, Malcolm and I soon realized that since we were also going to lead the whole production (that’s where my experience as a graphic designer and on my book kicked in) we might need a real structure. We founded GameWorks in summer 2006.

What is GameWorks’ overall mission… other than to have the nicest-looking games on the market?

We don’t really have a mission, or a publishing line. We publish games we like and find good ourselves, games we’d play with pleasure. That actually sums it up. Thanks for the compliment on the way they look, we sure do invest a lot in this respect (brainpower, time, and of course money), but as an avid gamer and a person sensitive to aesthetics, I couldn’t publish a game I wouldn’t be myself very happy to receive or buy, then open and discover. Therefore, our games tend to be rather fully thought through.

GameWorks’ most recent publication, Tikal II: the Lost Temple is a sequel to a very famous classic by a very famous pair of designers. It’s also a very good game… How did your collaboration with the Kramer/Kiesling team come about?

We had invited Wolfgang at the 2009 designers’ meeting at the Museum in La Tour-de-Peilz, and he brought a couple of prototypes, among which the one that became Tikal II, originally located in a templar’s temple.

During the course of the first game, I suddenly said aloud “this could really be Tikal II we’re playing here, don’t you think?” I was referring to the hexes we discover throughout the game, the treasures we collect and deliver, how you have to work your way through the doors, with all action points kind of reduced to two actions: grab an action tile, explore the temple. Wolfgang considered the idea for maybe half a minute and agreed. By the end of the weekend, we all agreed to pursue in this direction and see where it would lead us.

Tikal II seems like a strong move from local talent and your own game designs to reaching out to more well-established, long-time designers. Can we expect more of this from GameWorks?

As stated before, Tikal II isn’t our first such game. It was actually released after Water Lily and Sobek, if only a couple of months later. But yes, last year was a first in that respect. I think we’ll keep publishing games from other designers, if they fit in our collection. But three games in one year seems a bit too much for a small structure like ours, especially if those games are as meaty as Tikal II is. So we’ll probably slow down some, and see if that gives more time and space for personal projects.

Any other designers you’d particularly like to publish?

No designer in particular, rather games of a certain style. I would of course very much like to publish any game that is close to things I like or find great as a player. Things like Cities and Knights from Catan, Citadels, Puerto Rico, Dominion, Carcassonne, Ricochet Robots, Time’s Up, Unanimo, 7 Wonders, Mr. Jack Pocket, Dschunke, Tigris & Euphrates, Amun-Re… Well, it’s actually a long list…

Can you give us any hints as to what’s in store from GameWorks in 2011?

The only sure thing is PIX, which we will release this spring. We have received quite a bunch of prototypes or rules by e-mail last year, and are currently going through them… We’ll see. There might be a memory-based game, maybe a card game from Dominique, or another card game from Bruno, this time with Ludovic (Maublanc). Or maybe only next year, I’m not very sure about schedules, as you can see…

But we’ll make sure they look good!