The Game Makers Review

The Game Makers from Bezier Games enables players to take on the task of manufacturing board games. Each player will work in their own factory, creating games to go on their individual  12-slot game shelves. Games will each provide unique scoring opportunities based on other games in a player’s collection, games in other collections and multipliers from the player’s marketing board. 

Note: this review is based on the Kickstarter “Completionist” pledge.

Production Quality

It is hard to start with anything but the production quality when this game is encountered. Everything about this game is well planned out with a thought process that looks at gameplay and storage equally. The components look and feel great. The art is vibrant and appealing. It truly looks impressive on the table.

The storage solution features plastic, curved trays with compartments meant for the various components. Wooden meeples are combined with plastic towers and tiles called “tweenies” while structure tokens, scoring charts and machine tiles come from traditional cardboard punch-outs. 

That same storage solution moves straight to the table during setup. The round board used throughout the game is made of a thick plastic and the storage trays lock to the sides near their corresponding wedges. Remove the lid, click in place, and the central game board and various supplies are ready to go.

Each individual player receives a dual-layer, tri-folded board that represents their factory. Bezier includes small shipping-container-shaped boxes in each player’s color. These boxes are large enough to fit the components needed to set up each player’s board – marketing track cubes, a set of tweenies, scoring charts and three die-cast forklifts. 

Want to dive deeper into the components? Check out the unboxing right here on LTN.

Gameplay

Scoring and Winning

At the heart of this game, like so many others, players are simply trying to achieve the highest score. How a player gets there takes a good understanding of the various areas of the factory board and the makeup of the cards.

Game Makers plays a little fast and loose with the categories, as expected. Breaking up the entirety of the world’s board game catalog into four basic groups is an impossible task. That said, each game does fit the category that has been assigned in some way. Classifying The Game Makers itself as a Set Collection/Card Game might be over simplifying things, but I would imagine that is exactly where the game would fit within the structure.

The cards represent a who’s who of modern real-world board games. Players won’t find themselves making generic board games, they will find all their favorites mixed in. Those favorites are placed into four categories – Set Collection/Card, War/Fighting, Co-operative/Team and Engine Building/Strategy. Cards, referred to as Contracts when being produced, provide scoring based on various factors of where they are placed on the shelf or even points simply for being in the player’s collection. 

For example, a player might play The Fox Experiment, an Engine Building Game in this instance. This game will award the player 1 victory point per game that requires dice to construct in each row of the player’s shelf, up to three total points (1 per shelf).

Other games may provide points for specific conditions per column or for contracts with a specific condition that are contiguously connected to similar contracts.

Each category of games provides a different way of scoring based on the player’s individual marketing strategy as well. Players can use dice rolls throughout the game to increase each marketing track, which will then apply a multiplier to the scoring opportunities there. 

Engine Building games generate points for each column on the player’s shelf that has one. Set Collection awards points for every two such games on the shelf. Co-Op games give points for every other player that also has a Co-Op game as well as a bonus if the player has three such games on their own shelf. War Games give points based on having more than each other opponent. Finally, there is a final marketing multiplier based on Trees that award points for sets of trees the player has planted throughout the game.

As players climb the various marketing tracks, they achieve multipliers to each of these values for end game scoring. Making no progress on a marketing track will leave a player with a zero multiplier, awarding zero points no matter what they were able to accomplish on their shelves.

When the game completes, the player will total points for each individual card on a scoresheet, totaling each row of shelf in a column. They will then total their marketing tracks and record those. Finally, they will add the bonus points they might have achieved by completing their first structure. Adding all of these together, the player will learn their total score for the game.

Tie breakers have become one of the most unique and fun aspects of modern board games and The Game Makers doesn’t disappoint. Players can use an interactive web-based application to take a picture of their completed shelves from the game. The application will then return the current ranking of each game on BoardGameGeek.com. If there were a tie for high score, the highest rated game on BGG’s website wins!

How Do We Get There?

Now that players know what they are trying to do to win, examining how to get to that point is paramount. The mechanics of the game are not overly complicated and provide simultaneous play for the players. 

The game uses terminology to refer to items used as components – cards, plastic, wood, tiles and dice. Players will need to decide whether to use resources as components to fulfill contracts or as upgrades to their factory. Dice can be used to increase marketing values. Wood can be placed into the Break Room to use as workers. Cards can be used as Contracts to create games. Tiles can be placed into the Assembly Line. Plastic can be used to build structures.

Players will acquire components by moving their assigned forklifts around the central Warehouse. As play progresses each round, the Steering Wheel will rotate and reveal three spaces that can be used to generate resources that round. Players will move their forklifts that are in the first revealed wedge to one of the next three wedges, increasing the size of the resource returned based on how far they had to move.

For instance, if a player moves their forklift forward three spaces to the wedge designated for cards, they would gain three cards. The next round, that wedge will only be two spaces away and would then reward only two cards. Each component has various sizes or strengths that will apply based on the distance the forklift had to travel to acquire it.

Once a component is acquired, the player then decides whether to place it throughout their factory or into the components area. Items in the components area can be held there indefinitely to be used to fulfill contracts as soon as the player has gathered all of the required components for the contract. 

As each wedge is activated, players take their turns simultaneously, greatly increasing the pace of play and eliminating downtime. Components are acquired and placed and, when the wedge is empty of all forklifts, the steering wheel is then rotated forward and the next wedge is activated. 

Players may use workers in various ways throughout game play, sending them out to structures or enhancement areas to assist with various tasks. Once the steering wheel has made a complete rotation, designated by the label “Return To The” on the wheel lining up with the label “Breakroom” on the warehouse wedge, workers will return to their respective break rooms to be used again in the future. 

Breaking Down The Factory Boards

Understanding the gameplay is easier by looking over the various areas of each player’s factory board.  Each section provides players with unique ways to interact with game play.

The Breakroom is where workers are placed in order to be used at any point during gameplay. Workers are classified by level, either 1, 2 or 3. Each level is represented by a larger meeple, with level one workers resembling a small factory worker, level two resembling a slightly larger worker that is wearing a tie and level three resembling the game’s mascot – a panda. 

Workers can be used in various ways. One of those ways is the next area of the board, where players find ways for gaining resources and enhancing actions by placing workers. The “Gain 1” area of the board allows players to place workers here to gain a resource of their choice in various sizes. Each option requires two workers – a level 1 worker and a second worker that corresponds to the strength of the resource. A level 1 worker and a level 3 worker will gain the player a level 3 resource of their choice, for instance. 

The “Enhancements” area increases dice rolls if workers are placed in their respective slots along the top. Placing a worker in the slots along the bottom will allow the player to draw an additional tile or card per worker when they take an action to draw either of those items.

Below the worker area is the factory’s “Assembly”. Players can place tiles into this area, effectively increasing the quality of goods they produce. Matching three icons in a row for a resource will create a discount for that resource when used to fulfill a contract. Having three card icons in a row will mean that a player would have to pay one less card than a contract is requiring. This discount can stack, making some requirements free should the player have an efficient enough assembly built up.

The Game Makers features a unique item here referred to as TWEENIEs. These little additions are explained thematically as Thermal Working Engine Extraction Node Interface Elements. Each player has an identical set of 12 TWEENIEs at their disposal to use as they fill out the assembly. Each time a tile is placed in the assembly that creates a small, diamond-shaped hole, a player may place one of their TWEENIEs in between the tiles (see what they did there?). Each one grants a specific, one-time-use that a player can benefit from. 

The right side of the player board offers the Marketing tracker. Players can assign dice rolls to increase their marketing levels, maximizing scoring for the various tracks.

Components are used to fulfill contracts and create games. Those are gathered together in the component area until a player is ready to fulfill a contract. Players are not required to fulfill a contract simply because they have the components and can choose to wait until a later round, if they want.

Down the far side of the board are slots for individual trees. As responsible factory owners, players are encouraged to plant trees along the way as they achieve various feats. Trees provide some end game scoring based on the marketing track assigned to them.

With so many tracks to follow, it can be easy for a player to try and attack all of them at once. The trees, specifically, can be a difficult track to leverage. It is often best to find one or two tracks to focus on and maximize the value there. As for trees, it might be easier to take advantage of them when you are gaining them than it would be to try and focus on creating them in the first place.

Rounding out the factories are the slots for the contracts and structures. Contracts are drafted to start the game and throughout by taking the cards action. Cards can either become contracts to fulfill or components to be used for other contracts. These contracts drive scoring for the game overall.

At the beginning of the game, players choose a structure from each set of structures available – A, B or C. These structures, which often require a resource assigned to them in order to become active, provide end game scoring or benefits throughout the game. 

Pulling It All Together

Overall, the mechanics of the game are pretty straightforward. Move your forklift, collect resources, use them to fulfill contracts or to make the factory more efficient all the while driving the overall victory points to their maximum potential. There are a lot of areas to maintain, but it’s all manageable and becomes easier the more you play. 

The simultaneous nature of the play creates a surprisingly quick game based on the overall complexity. Players continue to make their way through their own factories while gathering resources and waiting for the steering wheel to move.

The game does create a lot of solitary play. There is very little player interaction and no significant way to impede another player. The focus remains entirely on what your strategy needs and how to move it forward. The game moves quickly and players will need to keep an eye out for when their opponents might be close to triggering the end of the game. 

A lot of games with table presence fall short in the gameplay. Some games have great gameplay but just don’t look that great on the table. The Game Makers seems to figure out how to do both. It is a game that demands people at conventions to stop and ask what is being played, simply because it looks awesome. It’s also a game that begs players to ask “want to play again?” because it is over faster than anticipated. 

The amazing work on production quality and functionality is what sets this apart. Table presence is always appreciated, but using the game’s storage system to also create that table presence is simply impressive. Setup time is very fast and the gameplay does not disappoint.

The price tends to drive some gamers away. I invite gamers to evaluate the amount of game for the price and give it a chance. It’s worth every penny. Alternatively, as mentioned before, there is very little player interaction which impacts some gamers when choosing their next item for their shelf. Beyond the price and interactivity lies a game that is a potential favorite.

Overall, The Game Makers feel like a unique entry into the hobby and one that many gamers would enjoy. The cooperation within the industry to ensure that the game would represent so many real-world games lends itself well to an industry that aims to be inviting and inclusive. While unique in its own right, The Game Makers leans heavily into familiar mechanics to drive home a winner.

Some images included here were taken as screenshots from the game’s implementation on BoardGameArena.com. This was done for accuracy, readability and quality purposes.