Origins has an awards ceremony every year, honoring designers in the board gaming industry in one fashion or another. Historically, developers, artists, and writers have all received awards, and being added to the Hall of Game is truly an indicator of prestige. With names like Gary Gygax, Richard Garfield, and Reiner Knizia standing among all of the other titans every year, one truly has to earn his way onto this list. Vlaada Chvátil was inducted this year, and since he’s my favorite board game designer, I have to say that I feel just fine about that!
Vlaada is no slouch. Starting as a humble video game designer, he soon moved on to board game design and co-founded Czech Games Editions, a board game publisher known for strict standards and some of the highest-rated games in the industry. While these contributions obviously matter to the health and longevity of our cardboard-based hobby, I think most people care about his games more. So what has he done? Through the Ages is probably his most famous game, whether for scaring away timid, lightweight gamers or satiating the strategically inclined. I reviewed the Steam release as part of RPGFan’s Origins 2018 feature, and this title certainly deserves its fame. Another key contribution is Mage Knight, one of the most rules-heavy and deepest deck-building dungeon crawlers. When getting off the ground, he gave the board gaming world Dungeon Lords and Dungeon Pets, two games that aesthetically imply a more casual feel but, upon sampling, reveal a satisfyingly complex and nuanced experience.
Rest assured, he’s skillful in all forms of game design, whereas most designers stick to a specific theme or degree of complexity. Vlaada has contributed several party games and is probably best known for Codenames. He also designed one of the most unique and hilarious gaming experiences in Galaxy Trucker, a title in which players have to put together square pieces of a ship to navigate hazardous space and make a quick buck. In fact, one of Vlaada’s finest qualities lies in his rulebooks. Not only are they crystal clear, but he includes so much tasteful and witty humor that his worlds truly come to life.
I had the pleasure and good fortune of rubbing elbows with Vlaada as he spent a great deal of time around the CGE demo area. While initially shy, he had an air of approachability to him. When I brought up his games and the state of the industry, he passionately opened up and relayed much about how he designs and what sorts of decisions are made within CGE. To be honest, I found the conversation and his willingness to divulge secrets surprisingly candid. While he didn’t gossip or bring up inappropriate details, the fact that he was willing to share so much of his methods for balancing games and what he thought about his own work was refreshing and authentic.
I won’t include the specific details of what he said here, but I want to make sure our readers know that while board gaming isn’t the booming industry that video games are, the smaller size comes with a more familiar feel that one won’t find at E3 or during traditional press interviews. Although it was a personal honor just to take a selfie with Vlaada, I have to say that his induction into the Hall of Fame makes so much sense. A great guy like him who has already done so much for the industry absolutely deserves the award, and as the Origins committee states, a relative newcomer like Vlaada earning this sort of recognition will hopefully inspire others to break similar ground.
