A Retro Resurgence?

Are arcade and board games witnessing a new dawn? Even in this age of powerful consoles and mobiles with extremely engaging content?

Folks who know me only professionally, might find the title of this post odd. Me and arcade games?! Board games?!

The thing is, I have had an unhealthy fascination with arcade and board games since quite a few years now. It forms a reasonable chunk of my hobbies and not in the manner that it usually means. Nope. I don’t play them (at least not as much as the previous sentences might have led you to assume!). I build them (arcade games primarily, but I do have a great design for a board game). I will talk briefly about what I’ve built but the focus of this article is elsewhere.

Both these types of games are familiar to everyone. There is always a ‘Game Zone’ or ‘Play Zone’ nearby showcasing the usual variety of skill and luck based arcade games. Everybody has / is owning multiple board games. However, my personal observation has been that in the past couple of decades, both these modes of entertainment have taken a sort of beating. They have steadily lost out to PC / Console or Mobile based games. Why so? I think some of the reasons would be:

Time investment — round trip to the local arcade as against firing up the console and logging in a few kills on your favorite game

Getting everyone together — even if you have enthusiasts nearby, it’s usually hard for everyone’s calendars to align for a board game session

Replayability — Some arcade games do lack it. Board games are a little better but some suffer from a routine settling in

Customization — Very few arcade games allow customization to the players liking. Board games’ ability to be tailored varies hugely and customization usually depends on the particular game’s mechanics

Variety — While there are a huge number of arcade and board games, if you have favorites, per game variety is still something that is lacking

Having said that, there are redeeming features of these game types that have stood the test of time:

Tactility — In my opinion, this is a biggie. No console or mobile game can win on this factor. Arcade and board games have an inherent tactility that is just not possible in the other types of games

Person to person engagement — Players engage at a highly personal level when they are spending time in these games

Set your own rules — what I mean by this is that the inherent game mechanics are fluid in quite a few of the board games (usually arcade games fail here)

Credible delinquency — When you fail / lose at these games, the reason / root cause is usually immediately obvious; doesn’t require jumping through mental hoops

So, why am I talking about a resurgence? That is based on my own experience plus a few recent developments that made news.

Recent developments: This and this talks about how arcade games are being revamped. Here is a local paper article on board game popularity in Pune, India. Germany is known to be a huge market for board games.

My own experience: Earlier in the article I’ve mentioned that I build arcade games. I have been doing this now for 5+ years and all my builds have been purely non commercial. My games have had opportunities to serve sizeable audiences (ages 5+ to 40+) of reasonable diversity in backgrounds. I’ve seen first hand how exciting they have been for the players. People of all ages literally form a line for these simple games and for those moments the latest console / mobile game of the season is forgotten.

I think on top of all this, there a couple of additions that arcades and board games would benefit from:

Per game customizability — allow a game to be customized to the players’ liking. Not shallow flexibility but deep, even in core game mechanics. This also helps in building in higher replayability and more variety in the game

Be adaptive — adapt to a player’s gaming style and skill and be fluid enough to provide a more engaging experience

Parting Shot: Here is a blog on one very popular arcade game I had built recently. A image is reproduced below. The game is essentially a revamped version of pinball — the blog talks about more details including the build and codes. I have tried hard to build it per the principles laid down in this article. Take a look and let me know what you think!

Pinball!

In conclusion, my recent experiences as well as the general outlook give me hope that a resurgence is in progress and hopefully we would have these types of games being played more and more in the future!

Sushrut J Mair.