He also ran a couple of sessions where attendees could playtest his upcoming games (none of which I was able to attend), so in a more direct sense he was designing games at Origins.

Very nice summary of Knizia’s talk, Dave.  Here’s a few comments that stood out for me:

“The rules should be explainable in 5 minutes”

That doesn’t sound like a man who’ll be returning to his days of cranking out heavy games by the bushel any time soon.  Not that a great game can’t have short rules, but the games of Reiner’s that I fell in love with during the late nineties all took considerably more time than that.  No real surprise, but still not something I wanted to hear.

“Pickomino has sold over 100,000 copies”

I had no idea.  I remember when I first played it, I said it could be a popular crossover hit, but it’s received so much criticism over the years, that I figured it was a marginal seller at best.  But even with my optimistic projection, I never dreamed it would be that much of a seller.  A game that’s worthy of those numbers (and yes, it can be played with a good deal of skill).

“12 million games sold”

Astonishing.

I think that when Reiner turned professional his outlook had to change.  When designing was something he did after work, he could devote the best part of a year to Tigris & Euphrates.  If he did that these days he would go broke. 

I wasn’t involved in testing Pickomino, but I’d guess that as a much simpler game it took far less work to design and develop and has sold far more copies than T&E ever will.  As is often said, gamers are a niche within a niche market and it’s really hard to make a living by designing games for us.

Which Sudoku game was Knizia’s first?  There are nine (!) listed on BGG.

Andy, Knizia is hardly alone in this.  Many designers of heavy games, as they get more popular, start releasing lighter designs.  We’ve seen it with Dorn and we’re seeing it with Wallace.  Some still manage to satisfy the niche market with these games (Wallace) and some don’t (alas, Dorn).  My only disappointment is that so many of Reiner’s games have been of the very light variety and hardly any are the weighty sort that he produced so brilliantly in the late nineties.  I know it’s better for his bank book; I just wish he had the urge to relive those glory years a bit more often.

Doug, I think Sudoku: Das Brettspiel was the first.

Larry, one of the things I like about Knizia’s meatier games is that for the most part they still are explainable in 5 minutes (or so). E&T, for example, does not really have very many rules. Nor does Modern Art, nor Medici, nor Durch die Wüste.

One reason for this is that they usually don’t have lots of different types of things (like action cards), or many special cases. There are exceptions, such as Amun Re, Blue Moon, and Blue Moon City.

Larry, it’s interesting that you include Martin Wallace in your list of designers getting lighter.  Certainly, if you look at his career, he has been produced the odd lighter design from time to time (Stockers, La Stada and Tyros spring to mind). 

However, if Tinner’s Trail is representative of Martin’s new Treefrog line, I think it would be wrong to accuse him of a flight to the light.  Sure it’s lighter than Brass or Age of Steam, but it’s still no Cheeky Monkey or Los Mampfos.

I do share your wish that Reiner would feel the urge to relive those glory years of gamers’ games. I’m just not optimistic of that happening any time soon.

Andy Parsons

That’s just my point, Andy.  While I agree that Martin has done light before (or at least middle weight), most of his games, and just about all of his renowned ones, have been heavyweights.  When he announced the debut of the Treefrog line, he stated the games would be lighter than what gamers had come to expect and Tinners’ matched that claim exactly.  But he succeeded in lightening the design while still leaving deeply satisfying game play.  As you say, it’s no Cheeky Monkey (and I love the Monk, but it’s a very light game).  Toledo is more of a middleweight, but it’s also a reasonably interesting game.

So what I’m saying is that Wallace is showing you can increase your output and widen your audience without going ultra-light.  Not, as Seinfeld would say, that there’s anything wrong with that.  But like you, I miss the old Reiner.