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※ This game is only available in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.







We are very proud that we can present you a totally new remake of Reiner Knizia’s famous game „Modern Art“ at the Spiel in Essen this year. As you might know there are already several versions of „Modern Art“ available on the market and you might wonder: why a new version again?







We at Oink Games always loved the game a lot and it was our dream to redesign it in a way one could call it finalised. Some years ago we already made another version of „Modern Art“ - our older game „Stamps“ (which we couldn’t produce again due to copyright reasons). „Stamps“ is very different from what we created now though.

What we wanted to do now, is make a game that can be seen as a final version of „Modern Art“ and we put all our spirit and technical knowledge, especially about component design, into this new version.









This article is about our thoughts while designing the new Oink Games version of „Modern Art“ and after reading you will know all details of what we want to achieve through this redesign.





The Size









This is the size we were aiming for from the beginning. It may look like a big box like the one of „Catan“ for example, but in fact this is exactly the size of two small Oink Games boxes put next to each other.











We think that a compact size is a real virtue when talking about board games. You can easily bring the game wherever you want and you can also play nearly wherever you want.











It is actually not easy to fit all game components into such a small box. The game would not be a good game, if, because of it’s small size, the components would be cheap looking or hard to play with. We can present you this new high-quality design, because we have many years of experience about how to make components fit into such small boxes.







The Easel









The wooden easel is a new component of our version of the game. It is always placed in front of the current auctioneer who can place the picture they want to sell on it to make it stand out.











To tell the truth, to have the easel as a new component was a real challenge because of the small sized box, but in the end it gives the game a completely new vibe and it also becomes very clear whose turn it is. We really hope you like it, since we ourselves find it very marvellous!





The Screens







The screens are very important components of „Modern Art“. On the backside of the screens you can find an overview of the different kinds of auctions and other vital information.







In the Oink Games version we put information about the different kinds of auctions, about the number of cards the players get in each round and about the starting balance each player gets on the backside of the screens. Even if you haven’t played „Modern Art“ in a long time, you won’t have to open the rulebook anymore.







There are five screens - each is traditionally designed after a world famous art museum. We followed that lead and made the screens look like modern art as well. We hope you will have fun being a buying agent of one of the five famous museums.





The money







We decided not to use coins in this version and made the money look unitary. We hope you will get a feeling for how it is to trade paintings of extreme value.









All banknotes have a different size and thus are very easy to distinguish. We tried to make the higher amounts look like bundles of banknotes!









Also the thickness of 2mm makes the money easy to hold. Both sides have the same layout which makes finding the right money chip easier. Even if it is very small, we focussed on making the money very easy to play with. Another good thing is, that there will never be too little money chips while you play, since we tested what should be the minimum of each amount and arranged the number of chips according to that.







And there are more tiles in the game - the scoring tiles. The scoring tiles and the money have a different form so that you won’t confuse them while playing.





The cards







There is much to say about the cards.









What we focussed on the most are the top corners of the cards. While you have the cards in your hand you can easily see which kind of auction you will have to use and also which artist’s picture you have. Universally designed, you can see the initial of the artist’s surname and a pictogram explaining the kind of auction in both top corners, so that you can hold the cards like you want to.









The five different auction pictograms are easy to understand which is another plus. Even if you forget which auction requires which action, you should understand by looking at the pictograms!







Between the top corners you can find the artist’s name, the amount of cards there is of each artist and the value of each artist represented by 1 to 5 little dots (this becomes important in the case of a draw!). We implemented this so that you don’t have to look at the board all the time.









What was also very important to us, is the choice of artists. In the end we chose artists whose drawing styles differ and who also have a strong specific usage of colour. We tried not to include artists whose pictures could be easily confused style-wise. You may have already noticed, but one of the artists is Piet Mondrian! All five artist have different drawing styles, very exceptional each in their own way. We hope you, as a buying agent, will take a very close look at every single picture while guessing their future value. You might want to buy some pictures regardless of their value sometimes…





The pictures of KAMINSKI and IVORY are pictures of two artists of an organisation called „AbleArtCompany“. This organisation tries to bring the art of people with disabilities to a larger audience through serving as a conduit between the handicapped artists and the commercial end users interested in incorporating their art into their designs and products. We strongly support this idea and wanted to help letting the world see these wonderful paintings.







The size of the playing cards is very important. If they are too small, it is not easy to hold them in your hand. If they are too big, it will be hard to shuffle them. We think we found an ideal size - not too small and not too big.





The board







We designed the board in a way that will let the players know everything they have to know at a glance. Like on the cards, you can find the names of the artists, the number of the cards there are of each artist and their level of rareness on the board. Even if you don’t have any picture of a specific artist in your hand, you just need to take a look at the board.







In the former versions of „Modern Art“ the five columns for the five artists were always clearly separated and thus easy to look at. The rows that indicate the rounds of the game were not always clearly separated and sometimes hard to differentiate. We tried to make getting an overview easier through putting the round numbers on the board and through connecting them to the scoring areas.







We also put a „+“ between the scoring areas to make the final scoring clearer.





Conclusion



„Modern Art“ is a game we thought about a lot and we are very happy with the result. We really hope this article made you interested in what the game actually looks like and that you will drop by our booth in Essen this year to take a look at it! We are located in hall 6, stand number D101.



Game Design: Reiner Knizia

Direction: Jun Sasaki

Design: Hiroko Izumida, Jun Sasaki

Art: Wataru Hikichi, USHIKUBO Ivory/AbleArtCompany, Kanako Okamoto, Piet Mondrian, KAMIJO Mika/AbleArtCompany

- oinkgms