Board Games

1. Early History with Board Games

Tim played board games extensively as a kid — Risk, Life, Monopoly — mostly with his older brother. At age 10, during a summer break, he built his own board game set in the Caribbean featuring the Bermuda Triangle. Players sailed trade routes, bought and sold cargo, and drew event cards that could destroy their ship or kick them from the game. He admits it had "no chance of balance."

That Christmas, his mother gave him a commercially published game called The Bermuda Triangle that was strikingly similar to his creation. This coincidence became formative — it taught him that ideas are not the important part. Many people have the same ideas independently. What matters is the ability to express them: as design, art, or code.

2. Board Games as Inspiration

Tim still buys board games and tabletop RPG supplements specifically to mine them for ideas. He considers the tabletop space exceptionally creative and a valuable source of design thinking for video game developers.

He bought Gloomhaven and enjoyed reading the rules and organizing the pieces, but ended up playing the digital version due to the pandemic and his move to Seattle. He describes it as full of good ideas.

3. Solo Tabletop During the Pandemic

After moving to Seattle (where he knew nobody) during lockdown, Tim turned to solo tabletop games:

3.1. Box One

A puzzle box game by Neil Patrick Harris. Tim completed it in roughly a day and a half. He digresses into genuine admiration for Neil Patrick Harris's range of talents. He also shares a story about his Labrador Retriever's tail sweeping all the puzzle pieces off the coffee table — costing him 15 minutes of reassembly.

3.2. One Deck Dungeon

By Chris Cieslik — Tim calls this "super fun" and loved it so much he bought it physically, then on his phone, then on Steam (where he 100%'d all achievements). It directly inspired him to open Unity and build his own Yahtzee-style dice game. He eventually walked away from that project when it needed better art and UI polish — but notes that as a hobbyist, he can walk away without disappointing anyone. This is something he values about no longer making games professionally.

4. What Tim Looks For in Board Games

Two core qualities:

1. Variability — games that mix things up every session through modular boards, randomized decks, or shifting player interactions. You're never playing the same game twice.
2. Collaborative play — not required, but strongly preferred. Tim loves games where players work together or where collaboration emerges naturally from the mechanics.

5. Tim's Top Five Board Games (Unranked)

5.1. Wiz-War

By Tom Jolly (Fantasy Flight / Chessex). The board is assembled from dungeon tiles at setup, so the layout is different every game. Players are wizards trying to either steal two treasures or kill all opponents. Spells, counter-spells, and counter-counter-spells make it chaotic and fun. Tim discovered it in the early 90s during grad school and played it so much at Interplay that they made custom cards (which are apparently still online somewhere).

Tim also recommends Tom Jolly's other games: Kill Doctor Lucky (murder someone with no witnesses) and its sequel Save Doctor Lucky (rescue someone on a sinking ship while making sure at least one person sees you do it — "you're basically doing this for the karma").

5.2. Cosmic Encounter

Every player is a wildly different alien with unique powers and sometimes even different win conditions. One alien can share bases with you and wins when you win — creating natural collaboration. Tim admits he once broke a game by asking the Oracle alien a paradox ("Is the answer to this question no?") that halted play entirely.

5.3. Betrayal at House on the Hill

Players explore a haunted house built from random tiles, so the house is different every game. Each player has different stats. At a random point during play, it's revealed that one player is the traitor — and everyone else must collaborate against them. Different haunts, different houses, different traitors. Tim calls it "massively different every time."

5.4. Settlers of Catan

Build a randomized game board, explore, gather resources, build towns and roads. Supports collaboration through trading. Tim notes that as his color blindness worsened, two sets of game pieces became indistinguishable to him — he eventually put marker on one color's pieces to tell them apart.

5.5. Lord of the Rings (2000)

By Reiner Knizia. Fully collaborative — all players are Hobbits trying to get the ring to Mount Doom. Sauron is an NPC who advances toward the Hobbits as corruption increases. If Sauron catches a Hobbit, that player is eliminated — but if any Hobbit reaches Mount Doom, all Hobbits win, even eliminated ones. This creates meaningful self-sacrifice decisions: one card lets you take two steps backward (possibly into Sauron) so all other Hobbits can step forward. Tim loves that the game structurally teaches players the value of collaboration.

6. Design Takeaways

Tim's preferences reveal consistent design values:

• No fixed boards — modular/randomized setup creates replayability
• No fixed rules — asymmetric player powers and variable scenarios keep games fresh
• Collaboration over competition — or at least mechanics that make collaboration emerge naturally
• Meaningful sacrifice — the best collaborative games create moments where self-sacrifice is strategically optimal
• Ideas are cheap, execution is everything — the Bermuda Triangle story as a life lesson

7. References

• Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I37RXM71qmU