Matthew BaileyGenerally speaking, when I’m going around the UK Games Expo, we mostly look at light to medium-weight games—largely due to the fact that it’s very difficult to get an opinion on a big, long, heavy game while sitting on a show floor.
Having said that, one game that Jack and I specifically did get a chance to try out on the show floor is Compania, a new engine-building game from Level 99, featuring a really interesting bidding mechanic and a beautiful, almost JRPG-style aesthetic. It’s produced by Japanese designer and artist Yog Akase (赤瀬 よぐ).
The general concept of Compania is that you’re trying to bid to gain goals by sending out your workers. You do this in private by placing a certain number of dice on a grid to indicate which goals you’re targeting, and how many workers you’re sending. Once revealed, the player with the most workers on that goal gets to claim it and then use it to build their engine.
An interesting twist, though, is that if you don’t win the goal, you actually get to leave your workers there for the next round. This is a big bonus, as it means it becomes easier to potentially win that goal next time. This is really important because it prevents the kind of snowballing you sometimes get in engine-building games.
As you progress, you grow your company’s buildings by developing land, constructing factories, and creating a network of airships to satisfy your goals and ultimately win the game.
While this isn’t going to be a game for younger kids, I actually think it’s a really good middleweight title for slightly older children looking to move from family games into more complex board games. It has the ability to mod the difficulty by adding more or fewer modules, and you could definitely teach this to an older child who’s willing to learn. Jack completely got it straight away, and to be honest, I reckon Toby would’ve been absolutely fine too—although unfortunately, by that time of the day, he was gassed! I have to send my apologies to Crystal, who did a wonderful demo, but Toby was not in the best place by that point on Saturday.
As someone with a graphic design background, the visuals and theme of games are really important to me. One of the things I dislike about many engine-building, factory-industrial type games is that they often have a very unappealing aesthetic. While I may be a man well into middle age, I don’t quite feel I’m ready for steel factories and gears just yet.
Brass: Birmingham is a fantastic example of a very highly regarded, high-quality game—but for me, the theme just doesn’t appeal. Compania, on the other hand, has this wonderful Japanese anime/JRPG pink-hued aesthetic that is really beautiful to look at and makes the whole experience much more inviting.
