Italy is strongly represented in board games. Thematically, it provides the basis for many successful games such as Viticulture. The publishers and authors of the southern European country are also very productive and names such as Simone Luciani, Daniele Tascini, Virginio Gigli, Cranio Creations or Horrible Guild can also be found on many board game shelves here. In addition to the big names, there are of course also a number of smaller publishers. One of these publishers is Space Otter Publishing. With “Dance of Muses”, their first board game will soon be crowdfunded at Kickstarter start.
INFO: We are dealing with the prototype of the game here. The final product may therefore still contain changes. The prototype was available to us as an English version - therefore, individual terms in our article may differ from the German version of the game.
With games that come with a lot of material, it's rarely surprising that they require intensive thought. But if you break a game down to the absolute minimum of components, it takes a lot of care and sensitivity to develop something that is both easy to understand and exciting to play in the long term.
Much from Little
Since 2016, there has been an annual competition on BGG for games that consist of exactly nine cards. In 2019, David and Marco decided to develop a game for this contest. After the material was specified by the contest, the first step was to find a suitable theme.
Finding something that naturally exists exactly nine times wasn't easy. The two found what they were looking for in Greek mythology. There are nine muses. They are the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the daughter of Uranus and Gaia and the goddess of memory.
The first prototype was quickly created using scraps of paper glued to football trading cards. The basic mechanics of tile movement and effects were in the game from the start, but that certain something was still missing. So the Muses (patron goddesses of the arts) were joined by their half-brother Apollo, whose area of responsibility also includes the arts.
Over time, two gameplay restrictions were eliminated. A fixed game board was discarded in favor of freer movement. In addition, it was now possible to move all the muses. The first illustrations were soon found and the "main phase" of game development began with playtesting.
In these four years, the shape of the tiles was changed from rectangular to square. In addition, several variants were created that bring additional gods with individual effects into the game in the form of tokens.
How do you dance?
At the beginning of a round, the muses are laid out in the first part. They are distributed evenly among all players. In turn, everyone places a muse together with their own die with a value of one. One of the three or four muses that each person has must be placed face down.
After the formation, the dance follows. Each move consists of two steps. The first is compulsory. Here you move one or more muses. This movement can be horizontal, vertical or diagonal. If you move several muses, the activated muse "pushes" the others in front of her. Now the values of all moved muses are increased by one.
The optional second step of a turn is to use the effect of the activated muse. This can be used to influence surrounding dice by increasing or decreasing them. "Swapping" dice values is also possible using these effects.
The final chord
As soon as at least one die reaches the value of six, the round ends immediately. Now the hidden muses are revealed and it is checked for all muses whether the dice value corresponds to Apollo's specification (values between one and three). These dice are turned to six.
Now everyone arranges their dice in descending order. Then the highest, second highest, etc. dice of all people are compared with each other. Whoever has the highest value in one position alone gets a point.
The game ends after three rounds or when one person/team is at least five points ahead after the second round.
A highly strategic game
For me it feels Dance of Muses like a pure 2-person/team game. It works well with three players, but the game is simply better in a direct duel.
In terms of feel and strategic demands, the game can be mentioned in good conscience in the same breath as chess, Nine Men's Morris or Checkers. The theme was chosen with care but has little relevance during the game. Here you only think in terms of movements, dice values and effects. A visually appealing implementation like Dance of Muses it does, but it helps the game to offer something more, especially in the world of modern board games, than the classics mentioned above can.
The game is very strategy-based. The options in each move are varied and the resulting options that I offer my fellow players also have to be considered so that I can place the tiles as I want in the medium and long term.
The game is not really suitable for playing "just like that" because the real game dynamics only start to kick in at a certain point. But then the game is convincing with its impressive strategic depth - and not just for the manageable amount of game material.
Dance of Muses For me, it builds a bridge between strategic classics such as chess and modern board games. The game's target group not only includes people who enjoy board games as a hobby, but will also find fans outside of this "bubble".
Information about Dance of Muses
| Number of people: 2 – 4 people (four in teams of 2) Age: from 14 years Playing time: 25 minutes Difficulty: expert game Classification: Abstract Game Game idea: Marco Baglioni, David Trambusti Illustrations: Marco Baglioni, Andrea Arbeteta Garcia, Sara “Sbilemi” Marino Publisher: Space Otter Publishing Official Website: Link Link to the campaign: Kickstarter Start of the campaign: second half of April |
The Kickstarter
The Kickstarter campaign for Dance of Muses is expected to start in the second half of April. The basic game will cost 20 euros. A token expansion will contain improved tokens (wood or "poker chips") as well as additional tokens to track points. Additional add-ons can be added at different levels, including miniatures for the god chips.
The basic game is completely designed. Since individual stretch goals and deluxe components still need some work, the publisher expects delivery in April 2025.
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ZMan, Challengers!, Kennerspiel des Jahres 2023, Family Game,...* |
20,00 EUR |
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