What would chess look like as a three player game? The components would be easy enough to change- a triangular board, three sets of pieces, and some movement rule tweaks. The strategy however, completely changes. Now a player has to defend on two fronts, decide when to split their forces to attack and when to concentrate them on one person, and negotiate with the other players to direct their attacks on the third person. The game would no longer rely solely on critical thinking to win, but social cooperation too, balancing community and conquest to create a new kind of tactical challenge. These are the kind of games that we at Playford Games are inspired to make. We are calling these games social abstract games, blending social elements into traditional abstract strategy games.

The easiest way to understand social abstract strategy games is to look at the two genres of games that make them up and then to see how they blend into their own distinct style of game.

Abstract Games

Abstract strategy games are games that do not rely on a theme, and minimize both chance and hidden information. The board presents players with a logic puzzle and a challenge to determine the next best move. They are almost always zero-sum, where the gains of one player translate directly to the losses of the other, and the best players are the ones able to set up a lose-lose scenario for their opponent.

With the earliest documented game dating back to 3500 BC, abstract strategy games have a rich history and are easily the most iconic genre of games, likely due to their use as educational and militaristic tools. Chess, Go, Checkers (Draughts), Mancala, Shogi and many others have been used for centuries to train minds in critical thinking, strategy, and conquest.

Social Games

Social games are a very broad category that extend well beyond board games. Some require as little as scraps of paper (or even just words) but the unifying feature is a shared goal: to facilitate community, cooperation, and conversation.

It is important to make the distinction that merely playing a board game for social reasons does not make it a social game; there must be some built-in mechanic that encourages or requires social interaction to qualify.

Social games tend to be paired with another type of game mechanic that defines the substance of the game, from something as light as a trivia or party game, to heavier strategy games. Two popular social strategy genres today are social deduction games, like One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Spyfall, which reward players for figuring out their fellow players, and cooperative games, like Pandemic, that can have all of the elements of a typical strategy game but rely on teamwork against a common enemy, the game board.

Social Abstract Games

Social abstract strategy games maintain the simplicity and elegance of abstract strategy games, while adding interpersonal elements that are core to gameplay. Because of the zero-sum nature of abstract games, combining them with social elements seems counter-intuitive, but they still adhere to the major elements of abstract strategy games- little to no theme, hidden information, or chance- while increasing player interaction and social strategy. By adding in more player interaction and opportunities to cooperate and collude, it adds a new level of strategy to the tactics typically present- negotiation and politics- while maintaining the cat-and-mouse chase.

Santorini

One of the hottest abstract games on the market is Santorini, a move-and-build game with an adorable chibi Greek theme. Players attempt to ascend to the top story of a tower while preventing others from doing the same. The two player version is a standard abstract game, but the three and four player variants add in the social component. In three-player games, players must constantly balance which of their two opponents they are targeting. In four-player games, players play on teams of two and must coordinate actions with their teammate without explicitly stating their long-term strategy in front of the enemy. While it is not advertised as such, the game falls squarely into the social abstract strategy category.

Kush

In a variation of Kush, one of the games in our upcoming Ancient World Multigame System, players are only able to move their opponent pieces, rather than their own. Instead players must bargain and form partnerships to convince other players to move their pieces for them, in a mutually beneficial way. Trust and timing are the key to victory!

These are only two examples, but more and more abstract strategy games are adding social elements, if at the very least by adding multiplayer. Our vision at Playford is to be very intentional in our integration of the two, to challenge gamers both strategically and socially, and at the same time!