About Games

I believe that, as a game designer, there are few challenges more difficult than creating an exciting, original, and modern roll-and-move game. Jun Sasaki and Goro Sasaki did it. Deep Sea Adventure is incredibly thrilling, packed with small but clever ideas, and it offers a truly unusual game flow.

Playing it with children has been especially fascinating—they’re far more risk-taking than adults, and in this game, their attitude heavily influences my own play. If I don’t adapt well, I’ll drown just like they do. It’s one of those games that’s really about understanding your opponent’s play and managing luck—a rather frustrating combo. But I like it when a game frustrates me.

I’ve played it countless times, I teach it often, and it’s part of the core material in every board game pedagogy training I run.

Smart card games are my weakness. And Scout is definitely a smart one. The last time I had a similar good feeling about a card game was probably with Bohnanza—it’s amazing how tricky things can get from one tiny idea (you can’t change the order of your cards, but you can hold them in two different ways).

I love playing cards, and I enjoy trick-taking mechanics, but it’s not always easy to find the right partners. Scout, however, speaks the language of card games in a way that even those who usually shy away from this world find exciting.

Venice and Oink Games? I couldn’t believe I could be this lucky. Once again, the roll-and-move mechanic shows up—but this time, the set collection comes with a clever twist.

What makes it especially exciting is how hard it is to actually see when the game will end—you mostly just sense it, even though timing is absolutely crucial. The more gondolas drift along the canals, the more chaos, the more thrill.