In space, no one can hear you bicker. Cooperative board games have been undeniably popular over the past several years, but all titles in this family seem to possess an inherent problem: the bossy player factor. Gamers with more experience, outgoing personalities or a combination of both are prone to dominating the game and telling everyone else what to do. Enter Space Cadets, an upcoming release from Stronghold Games with a unique take on improving the co-op board game experience.
Space Cadets is a starship bridge simulator in board game form, where each player takes on the duties of a specific officer. It draws heavy inspiration from the Star Trek universe, a fitting influence for a game that aims to encourage teamwork rather than arguments among players. But in order to create this environment where players must truly cooperate in order to succeed, Space Cadets has the help of a uniquely qualified trio of game designers: a family.
Game designer Geoff Engelstein has partnered with his two children, Brian and Sydney, to solve the issues of co-op board games. Brian and Geoff previously worked together in designing The Ares Project, and daughter Sydney has definitely inherited the family aptitude for gaming. (She isn't afraid to prove it in a match of Nuclear War, where she was winning tournaments as early as age 11.) This is the family that plays together, and creates together.
Geoff in particular understands the inner workings of games, regularly demonstrating his knowledge as co-host of the Ludology podcast. In a recent episode, Geoff told listeners that he views the hallmark of a game as the player's ability to become emotionally invested in it. This underscores the issues of co-ops. How are players supposed to emotionally invest themselves when somebody else is directing their moves?
The solution presented by Space Cadets is simple, but it walks a fine line. Players are frequently forced to carry out their moves simultaneously, competing in individual minigames to perform their role among the starship crew. Responsibilities are clearly segregated, but players still feel accomplished as a team because communication is crucial. After all, unless the helmsman steers the ship in the right direction and the engineer properly diverts power, the weapons officer, sensor officer and tractor beam operator will all have a very difficult time accomplishing their goals.
Space Cadets is scenario-based, so one day a team may be trying to scan and tractor beam crystals, while on another, they may be exploring new sectors and combating alien ships. Almost every step of the turn is timed, with team discussion lasting only three minutes and minigame action limited to just 30 seconds. These time restrictions underscore how important it is for players to communicate clearly and efficiently. The full rules have been posted to BoardGameGeek.com if you're interested in taking a further look at exactly how Space Cadets plays.
In a recent interview, I asked Geoff Engelstein what other factors may have inspired the design of Space Cadets, and he had a surprising response: As a collection of individual minigames, Space Cadets could hold the appeal of a diverse range of gamers. "There are a lot of games that I like to play, such as Robo Rally or Ricochet Robots, but my wife hates those games," Engelstein added. "I thought it would be cool to mix together a bit of a spatial relation game for a player who likes that, a poker game for a player who likes that, a tile laying game, etc."
And that's exactly what the Engelstein family did. The above-pictured sensors minigame represents the more casual end of the Space Cadets spectrum, where a player must use his senses to feel shapes in a bag and pull out the right ones. In the weapons game, a player solves small puzzles to load the torpedo tubes and flicks a disk to fire the weapons, hoping to land that disk as far along a damage track as possible without going off the board.
These lighter minigames also helped expand the age range of Space Cadets, further expanding the possibility of it serving as an enjoyable family experience. As Geoff Engelstein explained, "Some of the most satisfying play tests have been at conventions with families that have kids as young as 7 or 8 years old. They take their roles very seriously and feel that they are contributing. You can play Pandemic with kids that age but they need to be coached through the whole thing. I wouldn’t take an entire group of 8-year-olds and have them play Space Cadets, but one or two can definitely handle stations such as the sensors. We really wanted to keep it on their level."
On the more complex end, the helmsman must plot out several ship moves at a time in Robo Rally fashion as Geoff alluded to earlier. The poker game shows up in Space Cadets as well, where the shields officer must play four simultaneous "hold 'em" style hands. Each hand's rank determines the strength of shields on a specific side of the ship.
Space Cadets has a few more tricks up its sleeve to improve the co-op experience, though. Some players are assigned special titles outside of their minigame playing duties. One such example is the captain role that puts a player in charge of managing the turn structure and serving as de facto leader in strategy discussions. The captain role seems to serve as a safety valve for the bossy player tendency, allowing that personality type to have power when it matters least, and leaving them only the illusion of power when all players are off performing their individual tasks. It's a brilliant bit of game design that lets the gung-ho leader get it out of their system, but not at the expense of other players' enjoyment.
A light theme also helps keep Space Cadets from getting too serious. The artwork is intentionally cartoony, and it didn't surprise me in talking with Geoff that this game had another major influence beyond Star Trek. "The other big one would be Galaxy Quest," Engelstein revealed. "I just love that movie, and if you talk about the spirit, that was the spirit we wanted: one of people thrown into a situation where they did not know how to drive a spaceship and did not know what to do and are just bouncing off the sides."
But when a larger game comprises so many minigames and moving parts, it can be a struggle to fine-tune them. That's where the family effort came in, allowing Brian and Sydney Engelstein a chance to contribute their own ideas and serving as a built-in playtest group. On occasion, it even provided them the chance to overrule their dad.
"There were a couple of elements where the kids strongly felt it should be one way and I felt differently. We kept it in my way and only after 6 or 9 months of testing did I come back and tell them their approach was right. I think we are a pretty close family anyway, but it is very gratifying to have these sort of activities. As your kids get into their teens you always feel that they are going to be off doing their own things, and you won’t have anything in common, but this gave us a common base. It's a way to interact with each other, something we could always do together."
That same sentiment work has driven many families to tabletop gaming. The Engelstein family just happens to be engaging the hobby at a different level, and the hard work has paid off. After navigating a years-long journey from concept to finished product, preview copies of Space Cadets will be sold today for the first time at Germany's Essen Spiel convention. Direct pre-orders are expected to open on the Stronghold Games website later in the month, and Space Cadets will be on the shelves at local game stores in late November.
"It’s been nice to show the kids that you can have a project, sketch it on a piece of paper, and turn it into a product on store shelves that people can buy. It’s a great lesson to show them that this sort of thing is possible in your life, whether you want to design a game, write a book, etc. You don’t have to wait for something to fall in your lap; you can just go ahead and do it."
