Kenny's Thinking Garden

Board Game Reimplementations

4 min read

Board Game Reimplementations

Core Idea

Reimplementing existing board games as digital products — not cloning them wholesale, but adapting their core appeal into a new digital form. The constraint that shapes everything is copyright: any work must address this upfront, not as an afterthought.

State of Thinking

The appeal of reimplementing board games is that the design work is partially done — the core mechanic and theme have already been validated by real players. The challenge is doing it in a way that is legally defensible and creatively distinct enough to stand on its own.

Copyright as a primary constraint: This is not a minor concern to resolve later. Any game considered for reimplementation needs a clear answer to: what is the legal basis for adapting this? Options generally are:

  • The mechanic is not copyrightable but the specific expression is — reimplementing the mechanic with new art and theme is usually defensible
  • The game is old enough or its IP is ambiguous enough that risk is low
  • Explicit licensing or permission from the publisher

Until this is resolved per game, no development should proceed. Copyright and backlash risk is the first filter, not the last.

Solo play as a core requirement: Games must either work well as solo experiences or the implementation must handle multiplayer linking between players. Building another Boardgame Arena is explicitly out of scope — the focus is the game itself, not the platform.

Games currently under consideration:

  • Metropolys / Skyrise — Metropolys appeals for its simplicity. Skyrise has more end-game scoring complexity. The simpler version may be more tractable to implement well.
  • Legacy: The Testament of Duke de Crecy — the genealogy and family tree theme is the draw. There are many games on this topic — need to research what makes this space compelling and what Obsession does well as a reference point.
  • Villagers — noted as a candidate, no detailed reasoning yet.
  • Pax Porfiriana — noted as a candidate, no detailed reasoning yet.
  • Barrage — noted as a candidate, no detailed reasoning yet.
  • Oh My Goods! — noted as a candidate, no detailed reasoning yet.
  • The infamous traffic — noted as a candidate, no reasoning or context given yet. Title needs verification — unclear if this is an exact game name or a colloquial reference.

Most of these are at the “interested” stage — only Metropolys/Skyrise and the genealogy theme have any articulated reasoning behind them.

Thinking Trace

  • The draw is not just nostalgia — these games have proven design. Reimplementing them digitally is about making them more accessible, not just copying them
  • Metropolys caught attention for its simplicity — a complex game that is hard to implement well is a worse bet than a simple game done excellently
  • The genealogy theme (Legacy, Obsession) feels personally resonant — family tree and generational progression as a game mechanic is underexplored digitally
  • The copyright worry is real and came up immediately — it is not theoretical. Building something that gets a cease and desist or community backlash would be a waste of time and damaging
  • The no-Boardgame-Arena constraint comes from wanting to stay focused — a platform is a different product from a game

What changed?

— skip, v1 —

Why it changed?

— skip, v1 —

Evidence / Signals

Open Questions

  • What is the copyright status of each game under consideration — mechanic vs expression, and who holds the IP?
  • What makes Obsession well-liked — is there a design lesson transferable to a digital genealogy game?
  • Which of the six games has the most tractable copyright situation?
  • For games that need multiplayer — what is the minimum viable linking approach that does not become a platform problem?
  • Is there a genealogy/family tree game mechanic that is distinct enough to build without directly copying any existing game?
  • What is “The infamous traffic” exactly — is this a specific published game title or a reference to something else?

Connections

Changelog

  • v1 — Initial node

Graph View