Game Design Kit: The Sources
Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Like many who enjoy designing games, I've built up a fairly large collection of pieces, from many different sources. While I prefer to just find the components individually, I'm quite willing to sacrifice a game or two (or ten, or more) so that I have the parts available for whatever I need. This, then, is a list of many of the games I've utilized for parts.
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1.
Board Game: Catan: Seafarers
[Average Rating:7.17 Unranked]
[Average Rating:7.17 Unranked]
Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: wood boats, cardboard hexes
Unlike many of the components on this list, these are easy to get independently of the game, as Mayfair sells game components in addition to full games.
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2.
Board Game: Kontor
[Average Rating:5.98 Overall Rank:4335]
Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: wood coins, wood pawns, wooden houses, square cards
When Adam-Spielt lowered the price to 2 Euro a copy, I loaded up; as great as the wooden components are, the square cards are even more useful for game design.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: castle tops, dice
One of the advantages of living in New England - Hasbro's headquarters are in Rhode Island, and they've contributed a number of piece to the recycling store at the Children's museum.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: large wooden people
While these pieces don't come in handy all that often, the game does show up in thrift stores on occasion, making them fairly inexpensive.
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5.
Board Game: Kahuna
[Average Rating:6.66 Overall Rank:913]
Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: wood discs, wood roads, board, box
One of the first games I utilized for the components, it has an unusual board size for the Kosmos 2 player series, and the boxes are great for storing one's designs in for display.
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6.
Board Game: Vegas
[Average Rating:4.58 Unranked]
Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: small poker chips
There are many, many uses for small poker chips, and I've never found a better source for them than old copies of Vegas.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: plastic cars
The first serious game design I tried took advantage of cars from a copy of this game; I was thrilled to later find more at the Boston Children's Museum.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: metal weapons
Still another find from the recycling store, I have a drawer full of these parts, and occasionally stumble upon a decent idea for using them.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: plastic trains
Sacrilege, I know, but I still wish I'd bought more copies when Adam Spielt was blowing them out.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: stackable plastic squares
In addition to being useful for Can't Stop, these pieces are really handy to have around when something stackable is called for.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: wood houses, money
Older copies are fairly easy to find, and have nice wood houses in quantities quite useful for game design.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: board, wood cubes
Still another Adam Spielt closeout, a good source for the ubiquitous cubes.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: wood cubes
Another purchase for Adam Spielt, though in this case just the cubes, which they were kind enough to find for me - one of the many reasons I'm glad to continue to supply them regular business even with the Euro at a more painful level.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: wood barrels, board, box
Richard Borg sold a number of non-English copies of this & Hera & Zeus last year, and I was thrilled to get them.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: box, wood squares, cards
While the cards is most of the Kosmos games aren't the size I prefer (that being poker-size, since they fit Avery 5395 labels perfectly), those from Hera & Zeus are.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: money
Game money is always helpful to have around, and Monopoly tends to be one of the cheapest ways to get it.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: plastic soldiers, plastic boards, small hexes, box
I've picked up a number of Kosmos 2 player games from Adam Spielt when they've closed them off; I'll list them in the next few entries, without further comment.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: small cards, discs, board, box
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: board, box, plastic pieces
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: board, box, square tiles
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: oversized cards, board, box
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: large square tiles, square counters, box
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: rectangle cards, board, wood pieces, box
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: rectangle tiles, board, box
I've received a number of comments when people see which boxes I've put to other uses; with Crocodile Pool Party, I've generally been complimented for putting it to better use.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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Components: square track tiles
I've not actually come up with any use for the components from Linie 1 yet, though I've wanted to design a track-building game for some time.
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