Dexterity obsession works well

As a writer, and as board gamer, it is intriguing to get into a game during its developmental stage, and to have the change to carry on an email dialogue with the designer.

Which brings me to Zeppelin Strike, a highly anticipated, at least by yours truly, finger flicking game.

To start with Canada has a rather noble heritage in terms of flicking games as most game historians seem to credit this country as the birthplace of crokinole, which along with carom are easily the best of the genre. I would play crokinole over any other board game always, and having drooled for a carom board.

When I found some early game files at my favourite game site (www.boardgamegeek.com) I raided a backgammon set, made some zeppelins, printed some cards, and gave it a whirl. I will admit here I think wooden crokinole pieces might be a better piece option, but only because wood discs seem more natural to flick.

Zeppelin Strike actually started out as something of a lark for Wright, a 25 resident of London, ON where he is a Ph.D student in Philosophy.

“My first design was for a contest here on BGG (Board Game Geek),” he said. “The game is Space Gremlin’s, I did a graphical overhaul/reconstruction not too long ago. I got into it because I thought it would be a fun challenge, design a game for a contest! I got hooked on contests, and eventually hooked on game design.”

In the case of the game inspiration came from what might be thought of as an unusual source, pictures.

“It came from looking at the art that became the zeppelin’s. I just saw it and thought “I need to make a game with this” and further thought “It needs to be a dexterity game” which led to “I know! You flick to move” (not revolutionary, I know),” offered Wright.

“I was driven to make it different, and so the hook I went for was a tactical combat game where all of the core mechanics were dexterity-based but also thematic. So cannon firing requires “accuracy” and boarding has a feeling of a battle over the gap between two ships with crew members leaping across to take out enemy crew, sometimes going overboard themselves and ramming is largely chaos.”

That is truly where Zeppelin Strike excels.

Most games of this kind rely on straight forward flick to move, hit an opponent piece to destroy.

Wright has offered a different approach.

You still flick to move, but once within ‘shooting’ distance you have to flick on a separate board, where accuracy down the track is critical to success.

The simple mechanic really adds to the overall skill set this game requires.

“The core mechanics of Zeppelin Strike (flick to move, the turn radius, and the three mini-games for attacking) basically fell out of my brain in the form you see them today,” said Wright. “The game as a whole, however, has been undergoing small revisions behind the scenes since I first released the print ’n play a year ago.

“I now have four factions, each quite distinct (with minimal overlap in zeppelin options and no overlap in tactics options). I’ve also been working on team battle rules and special tactics cards designed to encourage team work and scenarios.”

I must backtrack a bit here and note I was surprised crokinole was not an inspiration, given Wright is Canadian, and had an interest in a dexterity/flicking game.

“Crokinole was not an inspiration, that’s for sure,” he said. “It was about this time last year (March 2103) that I got “that Dexterity thing” that every game designer eventually gets. For a good year, for every game idea I had I asked myself “can I make this a dexterity game?” Zeppelin Strike just happened to be the one of the ones for which the answer was “yes, yes you can.”

“I really don’t know what got me started on the dexterity obsession, but I hear every designer goes through that phase eventually. Dexterity games have a unique character and so have their own special design challenges that other games don’t face.”

So what does Wright, as a designer like about his own game?

“I like the simplicity of it all,” he offered. “My absolute favourite part, however, are the mini-games. I think I did a good job finding dexterity mechanics that “represent” the different modes of attack such that there’s an option for everyone.

 Really good at “shuffle board” and standard dexterity games? Go for a cannon heavy strategy.

Not terribly good at dexterity games, that’s ok - go for Ramming, it’s the most chaotic and you have a good chance of edging out a win. Want a high risk, challenging path to victory? Boarding is the strategy for you.”

“I’m also always thinking about how to refine Zeppelin Strike: Dogfighters (another dexterity game in the series) and how to integrate them. It’s my dream to have them both playable at once; so you can play a game with big zeppelin’s beating on each other and at the same time have the little bi-planes zipping around fighting each other.

The bi-planes, of course, are mostly useless for attacking zeppelins, sort of battling in their own world while dodging these big hulking ships that are having their own scale of battle.”

This game, if published, will be a gem. Keep your eyes open for it.