Yesterday, the latest games from the Pack o Game series arrived - I had placed the pre-order back in August - marking the release of the third set of eight. I'm an incredible fan of these games, especially since they are almost completely unknown here in Hungary. And why do I love them? I'll try to summarize my thoughts in a few points.
My simple answer is that I love them because they are improbably small. Last year, I did a series on Instagram about pocket-sized board games, but even in the photos, it's evident that these are even smaller than the other tiny ones.
In a world where everything needs to be bigger, where we rave about multi-kilo board game boxes, where we witness incredible innovations in game components, along comes someone with bubble gum-sized cards, just a few of them, and puts together great board games.
Years ago, as a game designer, I was advised by a publisher to incorporate unique tools into my games, otherwise they wouldn't stand out in this massive influx. Chris Handy's response is so beautiful and perfect to this challenge.
To me, this is the real innovation: tiny, small cards, with every other tool excluded. Creating a variety of board games from this creatively is cool. And diversity is very important because it’s not about these now 24 games all being cut from the same cloth. There are always new ideas and approaches.
When I talk about board game pedagogy, this is also what I mean. What does such a simple structure teach us in 2024? What does it teach us that someone in this loud, colorful, and special world can articulate important and good things with such simple tools through the language of games?
As a game designer, I love unique aspects (like board game books that don't use physical components: video1, video2), and as a player too. Sitting down to play the Pack o Game series always brings a smile to my face, and that's a great feeling. In my workshops, there's a specific challenge to guess how many games I have on me, even though it appears I'm not holding anything and seemingly have nothing much in my pockets. Then I unpack 5-6 full-fledged games in front of them. The last time, a design student from an art university responded to the games saying that this was exactly what they wanted to design because they hadn't thought such things existed. Well, they do.
I consider these tiny games a true manifestation of creativity and innovation. DIG is our favorite to play with my daughter, while HUE has captivated me the most so far. I'm eagerly anticipating what the latest set of eight can add to this incredibly original universe.