Game Theory

Guiding Questions

Guiding Questions

Cherry Picked Games now has four titles under our belts. It’s a diverse catalog, to say the least. Switching between genres and themes helps keep us engaged and excited, both for the new games and the old. What it doesn’t help with is creating a clear niche for gamers to associate with our brand. We’re not an RPG publisher or “the drinking game dudes”. So, we have to be consistent in our approach to games. There’s a Cherry Picked style that’s been cultivated over the years. We want people to have expectations about our games that go beyond simple mechanics or illustrative styles.

,

New Experiences

,
New Experiences

Satya Nadella preaches “customer-obsession” to his employees. He proclaims, “the core of our business must be the curiosity and desire to meet a customer’s unarticulated and unmet needs with great technology.” The word “unarticulated” strikes a note with us while we’re deep in Far Away’s iterative design and playtesting phases. We receive a lot of feedback. All of it is recorded and considered. However, the data only goes so far. Feedback often misses the root problem and directly addressing it may work against the player experience.

,

Narrative and Challenge

,
Narrative and Challenge

Far Away is our first “traditional” board game. Most of our titles are narrative-driven games. We strongly feel there isn’t an explicit line between the two genres. Games tell stories: every session creates a small world.  That feeling is made explicit in Far Away, as the players must feel each world is unique. In this medium, the players have the unique opportunity to reinterpret each permutation of cards and hexes. Far Away’s creatures are the focal point for this novel storytelling.