Hello everyone, I am Germán P. Millán, designer of Bitoku and Sabika, among others. This year, I have the pleasure of publishing another title with Ludonova.
Men-Nefer is a game that we have included, along with Sabika, in what will be a series of games we have called Project Thaumata. For now, and while we think about which cultures to visit in future games, I want to share with you some comments and reflections on the creation of Men-Nefer.
Reflection I. On the process
I doubt any author would say that designing a game is easy. After having published several titles, I still feel helpless and fearful when I start a project. I think the imposter syndrome is something we authors have to live with.
The development of Men-Nefer has been long and complicated (which game hasn’t been?). It has changed so many times that I am unable to remember a multitude of past details.
Reviewing old versions of the board I have been surprised to see that it has had all kinds of mechanics: it has worked with dice, with workers changing professions, asymmetrical powers, hidden contracts… a lot of things that no longer exist.
I mention all this because I think it is important to emphasise the time and care needed to make highly complex games. It is important to stress the game, to try to break its mechanics and replace them with others that do the same thing in a more solid way, and this requires many playtests. In the case of Men-Nefer I can say that it has been the design that has suffered the most from this stress and constant self-criticism. After seeing it finished I don’t think there is any other way to design games, time and work are essential.
Chapter I. The beginning and documentation
I remember 2020 very well, I guess like everyone else. The Spanish government declared a state of emergency and we spent a long time without being able to leave the house. I spent that period finishing the design of Bitoku and Sabika, but I also started thinking about a new game based on ancient Egypt.
I am aware that it is not the most innovative theme, there are already a lot of games set in Egypt, but my fascination for this culture was more than enough to make me decide.
I remember watching lots of documentaries about the period, as well as playing the video game Assasin’s Creed Origins, an impressive portrait of ancient Egypt that allows you to visit some locations as a tourist guide, where they explain a lot of interesting details. It’s like a visit to a museum, but inside a videogame. A fantastic idea.
All this information accumulated in my head and little by little I sketched a Eurogame-like game where the players built pyramids, erected sphinxes, embalmed nobles, made offerings in the temple, sailed the Nile river… in short, reflecting fundamental activities of ancient Egypt. Rescuing the first board I designed, I was surprised to see that all the general elements remain in the game once it is finished, but nothing works in the same way.
Comment on prototype I
I usually list each board file when there is a major change. The last board generated for the Men-Nefer prototype is called “Board_V81”, at that point we decided that the game was finished. Here is the first board I designed.
And here below you can see the aforementioned “Board_V81”. You probably think that there are no big changes, but I can assure you that they are two totally different games.
Reflection II. On the economics of the game
In my latest designs I think more and more about the relationship between what the player does and what he receives as a reward. That is, the value of things.
Let’s take a very simple example by imagining a game where you can get wood and stone. And where wood is easier to obtain than stone. It would be wise to apply an economy where wood generates 2 victory points and stone generates 3 victory points. Stone should have more value as it is more difficult to obtain.
But there are many other ways to approach this. For example, there are non-resource games where the number of actions is what replaces the cost of a resource. If doing something requires more actions from the player, it should give a higher reward than doing something else that requires fewer actions. Some of Stefan Feld’s games apply this approach.
With Men-Nefer I learned a lot about this concept. It doesn’t always have to be “I get resources” and then “I spend resources”.
Chapter II. Resources in Men-Nefer
I remember in a very early stage there were resources: granite for sphinxes, limestone for pyramids, natron (similar to salt) for mummification, wood to build ships… There was a huge amount of resources, this gave a very thematic layer to the game, but it generated a lot of problems. For example, you have few actions to get everything done, is it necessary to generate a reward that is achieved after 4 actions when it can be synthesized and done in 2 actions?
I confess something that I have learned from many mistakes: what always works is to reduce things to their minimum essence. If something works in a simpler way, it means that the development is on the right track.
Following this premise, at one stage of development I eliminated all resources and replaced them with workers. If you want to build a sphinx, you must use a builder. Or an embalmer to mummify a noble. Now I had 3 resources, instead of 6.
This game economy worked well, and we even improved it a bit. You could get workers that were good for everything. Versatility applied to a game element always works and decongests the game. Think of any game that uses wild cards and you will understand what I mean, they are very useful for the player.
Many games were played with this system while other “gears” were being polished, changed and improved, mainly because the economy kept the game flowing.
As everything that revolved around the economy improved, there came a point where the economy itself stopped working well, and began to slow down the flow of the games.
The solution, effectively, was to further synthesise the game economy to the point of removing all the workers and synthesising them into game actions. As I said before, if something tends to be simplified, it is the right way to go.
It’s actually quite a bit more complicated than that, as Men-Nefer is not exactly lacking in resources, but a large part of its economy was transformed into action management.
Comment on prototype II
This image belongs to a player board at the time I incorporated the workers. During a single game they shared the limelight with the resources. That game was never finished, we quickly realised that the workers as resources worked better than the resources themselves. Sometimes a testing session lasts a breath and generates a very interesting discussion between the author and the playtesters.
Reflection III. On clocks and gears
It has always seemed to me to be a good idea to create a relationship between board games and clocks. We have several gears turning smaller ones, which together set a machine, or in this case, a board game, in motion.
The usual thing is to have a very large gear: the main mechanic of the game. To which several smaller gears are attached: the actions of the game. These turn and set other, even smaller ones in motion: to obtain a coin, to advance on a track… Broadly speaking, this is how a board game works.
It is very easy to say that we have a big gear that moves the others, but finding that piece is very complicated. I’m always thinking about this, how it can be more fun, more complete, simpler… better. That’s why my testers often comment amusingly that each of my games has been a dozen different games.
Chapter III. The central mechanics
The first Men-Nefer mechanic was based on dice that entered from the ends of a grid taking as many steps as the number on the dice. Then it changed to a common pool of dice that were rolled and enabled the option to perform the actions. This all sounds fantastic, but it probably didn’t work very well. It’s something that happens all the time: you have a great idea, you try it out in a game… and it doesn’t work the way you imagined it would. That’s part of the charm of board game design, constantly solving problems.
The core mechanics of Men-Nefer changed many times, which is why I can say that it is the game that has given me the most headaches. It’s definitely important not to get obsessed. I think I wasted too much time trying to make dice work as a core mechanic and I’ve learned that if something doesn’t work you have to change it and look for another approach.
The moment I removed the dice and introduced the specialisation markers the game started to fall into place as if by magic and finally got a central gear that allowed the machinery to move solidly.
Comment on prototype III
When I design a game I generate a huge amount of iconography. This document always starts out tidy and harmonious, but ends up being confusing and with iconography that is no longer used. For me it’s like seeing the growth of the game in a single image.
Chapter IV. A series of connected games
With Sabika I discovered the pleasure of thinking mechanics based on historical learning, something I had not done until then. With Men-Nefer I took the same approach and because of that I started to wander with the idea that it was part of a series of connected games, where Sabika was the first chapter. This influenced several details in the creation of Men-Nefer from the very beginning.
To begin with, the complexity and length of the game had to be similar. Sabika’s Paria Track is an element that plays against all players, and I decided to create a parallel element to this track. Thus the Duat Meter in Men-Nefer was born. Sabika’s triple rondel generated 3 branches of actions. In the core mechanics of Men-Nefer we also have 3 basic actions to perform, it’s not the same, but there is something in Sabika’s structure that is repeated in some parts of Men-Nefer. For example, the Action Tablet mechanic is nothing more than a rotating rondel of actions, reminiscent of the rondel used in Sabika.
No one will notice these details, but there is an intentionality that wants to connect them from a very early stage of Men-Nefer’s development.
Also, when Ludonova accepted the proposal we talked at length about how to help link the games visually and aesthetically. We all saw the idea as a logical one and went for it with little discussion. The illustrations were commissioned to the talented Laura Bevon, who also took care of Sabika. The cover structure and much of the aesthetic style presented in Sabika is continued in Men-Nefer. David Prieto is an exceptional graphic designer and has been able to connect both games in an elegant and harmonious way. I think you will love the result achieved between his good work and Laura Bevon’s illustrations.
Chapter V. Victory points
I want to say goodbye by talking about the scoring system. I think all my games use the same structure. There is a balance between the points you get during the course of the game and the points you get at the end of the game. This tends to generate two types of strategies, those that play in the short term and those that play in the long term, and of course there is a hybrid that unifies the two.
But Men-Nefer was keen to rethink this and it is something that was not defined until late in development. The game is divided into 3 eras, at the end of which all aspects of the game are scored and direct points are scored very sparingly during the game. All the weight is on the end of the era and I think this is a very exciting moment, where there are surprises and twists.
This system forces the players to mark each other very well and look at their needs. If you’re 3 points ahead of me in one area, that means I have to work hard to get 4 points ahead of you in another area. Let’s say that the game aims to make the snowball more efficient. Of course we have made sure that you can’t maximise all areas and that you have to focus your strategies.
Farewell
If you have made it this far, thank you for your time and sorry for the strange approach of this diary. I have not been able to remember a clear structure in the development of Men-Nefer and have written down loose ideas as I remembered them. I probably got too sidetracked between reflections and digressions.
I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the care and commitment of the Ludonova team in creating a fantastic game, as well as Laura Bevon’s talent in bringing the prototype to life. I can’t forget the many players who have participated in the game testing, it’s been a long road.
Thank you for reading this diary and if you ever play Men-Nefer I hope you enjoy it.
