Anyone have a favorite "Hockey Board Game"

[James Gryphon]

I posted this before, but apparently it was eaten during the transition.
@Tweed: What's this game called? I looked around and couldn't seem to find anything like it anywhere.

 

[a79krgm]

Blue Line Hockey by 3M ... played with my Dad's set when I was a kid in the early 70's. It was mostly a dice game and not much strategy was involved. But it was easy to play for kid. I eventually lost most of the pieces.

 

[Tweed]

I posted this before, but apparently it was eaten during the transition.
@Tweed: What's this game called? I looked around and couldn't seem to find anything like it anywhere.

Just a thing I'm working on I grew up playing hockey board games, card game, video games, and even did a stint at EA Sports working on the NHL series... so this game is pretty much the culmination of all my hockey-game experience. It's a near-finished prototype, but really it will be even better as an online game, I feel. I need to find a developer (or angel investor) to get it going on the web though.

 

[James Gryphon]

Color me intrigued! I don't have the programming or framework experience to help you out much, I'm afraid, but I've been sort of in the market for a hockey board game, and it does look very nice. Can you say much at this time about how it works/plays?

 

[Tweed]

Color me intrigued! I don't have the programming or framework experience to help you out much, I'm afraid, but I've been sort of in the market for a hockey board game, and it does look very nice. Can you say much at this time about how it works/plays?

Oh the game's a lot of fun.. I'm not just tootin' my own horn because it's my game, either. In my friends & family play test sessions, I'd have no problem finding 6-8 folks to play for several hours. Originally I was making the game for "myself", but quickly realized it had the potential to appeal to more than just diehards like me, so I focussed on streamlining, refining and watering it down, watering it down, watering it down... to make it fun and accessible for even non-hockey people. I knew I was onto something good when I didn't have to coax/beg/bribe my family-members to play test it, and they were asking me "when's the next game?" instead.

I mean, that doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you grow up in a non-sports family, and you talk about hockey for 30 straight years, and people are sick of hearing about hockey 24/7 (because they don't care about it)... so I think it's a pretty big deal (and a good sign) when those same people are asking to play the game. My buddies who are actual hockey fans, were always an easy sell on a "Friday night play test session". We'd even end up playing all-day Saturday or Sunday.

My goal was to refine the rules, and the game's flow, to the point that even people who didn't know a lick about hockey (or the NHL, or the format of the league), could sit down, and quickly get an understanding of 1) What they are supposed to do in, 2) How teams, players, and money work in the game (and in the real-life NHL for that matter), and 3) How to be just as competitive at the game as anybody else who is sitting at the table who has a deep understanding of Hockey and the NHL. At the risk of sounding sexist or whatever, I wanted dudes to be able to get together to play the game, and for their non-hockey-fan girlfriends to be able to sit down and play with them, and have just as much fun as the guys. That was one of my main design goals. Even young kids 8-and-up were able to pick up on the rules, some basic strategy, and enjoy playing it. I didn't have a lot of test-sessions that included little kids though, so I can't definitively say how well it lends itself to children. No child ever "won", when playing against adults. However, non-hockey-fans (boys and girls), won on numerous occasions/sessions, so I'm now confident that the game plays well as a game regardless of the hockey theme.

I won't get into the the rules, or how the game works, for IP reasons, but I will say it's basically a hyper-simple NHL-GM mode (EA's NHL), on a board game. It simulates a season, salaries, contracts, free agency (RFAs & UFAs), trades, draft lottery, entry draft, standings, playoffs, two types of CBAs with different economic climates (Owner-friendly CBA vs Player-friendly CBA), positive and negative "events" that happen to teams throughout the course of a season, and Playoff Storylines that can impact a team's quest for the Cup. But, it's an economics game, really, when I think about it.

The two other important design goals I had were 1) Ensure that it's a hockey simulator, in that it produces realistic results in terms of teams standings and playoff outcomes, and financial changes, and 2) The mathematics be balanced to the degree that the economy is self-sufficient (that is to say, the money in circulation is meaningfully present, and the bank/banker/Bettman/whatever... never have to "create" money. It's kinda hard to describe what I mean by #2, but I'd paraphrase it as there isn't an issue of needing a Money-Sink, nor a need for a magical "Federal Reserve". Every dollar is important, and the economics is balanced.

The game can be played with a few different "goals" to win, depending on what the player's decide they want to commit to playing it. If it's a group that wants to burn a couple hours over a board game and then declare a winner, then there's a ruleset & end-goal for that. A "short game" could be one season, and take about 1.5 hrs to play. Conversely, if a group wants to have a longer or more on-going experience, there is a ruleset & end-goal for that as well.

Ultimately, I believe that it would be a better product as an online game, given that hockey and board games are niche. Like truly, that's the reality, so I have no delusions that it's going to take Walmart by storm. I think the board game could be modestly profitable, but that's as far as I see it going. However, an online version, is a different story. Not only would an online version play much faster, lend itself to player's coming and going from a game, and hold intrigue and interest, but the game is also designed to be an advertising vehicle to generate ad revenue. And it's done in an entirely non-intrusive and natural way, so that gamers don't even feel like they're being advertised to. I think that's where I (and a partner/investor) stand to make really good money on this game as a product.

The board-game prototypes I've made for play-testing, are mostly hand-made, with the aid of CNC machines, Acrylic Signage Laser cutters, and Large format colour printers. They've turned out really nicely, and are far superior to the average board game you'd pick up at ToysRUs. I wanted the prototypes to be high-quality, durable, and present craftsmanship. For example, my brother knocked over his glass of red win onto the board one night, and you can't even tell. Everything was constructed, and laminated where necessary, for just such an occasion, lol. He felt so horrible, he was genuinely devastated. But then he was (as was I) totally relieved that there was no damage, once we mopped up all the wine. Pretty unbelievable actually, lol.

Anyway, I've wondered if there would be a market for wealthy hockey fans who wanted to buy a hand-crafted game like that, but I highly doubt it. I mean, each prototype costs me somewhere around $500 to make in materials and services alone, and that's not including the time it takes over the course of a week for me to put it together. I can't see anybody paying a thousand bucks for a board game, haha.

Sorry I wrote a novel there. Haha. Once I get talking about it, I get excited and all these things I want to say just keep coming out of my fingertips.

 

[Tweed]

Oh, just to expound to that. When I say I originally designed it for "myself", I mean, it was because one day, I was thinking about how I used to simulate hockey seasons with a deck of cards, when I was a kid. Spent hours doing that, especially on long family road trips, or in class when I should have been paying attention to the teacher. So that day, I started mucking around with designs for something more in-depth and contemporary, with the goal of creating a solitaire-capable hockey game/simulator.

That solitaire-aspect of the game became a secondary goal, once I got further into development. It's not something I've perfected yet, truth be told. You can play it alone, but it's not nearly as much fun as playing with other people. In that way, I've missed the mark of my original intent (so far), but I'm sorta okay with that, I guess.

 

[RandV]

Thanks, SealsFan - I'm going to explore this game a bit further.

For awhile (when Strat didn't have a computer version), we played Faceoff - which seemed more accurate but less fun. Then we switched back to Strat once the computer game came out.

Strat's fine, and it does what I want it to do, but I'll have to see if I like ITC better - the website is interesting enough.

Wow I didn't know there was anyone else on here that's heard of Faceoff. I never played the board game and not sure what it's current status is, but I got into online leagues with the PC version in 2000 and it's the only hockey simulator I've stuck with and been playing for 17 years.

I've never actually tried Strat but I probably get what you mean with accurate vs fun.

 

[ICM1970]

Oh my, and all that I grew up with was the table top game that we found in Grandma and Grandpa's barn that my Dad had as a kid back in the 1950s that you used a marble as the puck. Was still in good playable condition though, lol. Later, they got me a newer table top game with Cleveland Barons, Atlanta Flames, and the green, white, and blue Vancouver Canucks logos on it.

 

[timothy r plum]

Faceoff Hockey now named Hockey Bones is alive and well. Different name, same game.
We just released the 72-73 season cardset. A set never produced under the Faceoff name.
1979-80 is due out in a matter of days.
http://sports.ptgamesinc.com

 

[Henkka]

Faceoff Hockey now named Hockey Bones is alive and well. Different name, same game.
We just released the 72-73 season cardset. A set never produced under the Faceoff name.
1979-80 is due out in a matter of days.
http://sports.ptgamesinc.com

Our league still going well, started at 1991.

We have our own game engine, coded as a carbon-copy from the board game.

How is the progress going for 2019-20 season cards? If the season is cancelled, would they be ready to go ?

I still feel that this game is by far the best forgotten secret in the hockey game world.

 

[NyQuil]

I remember picking hockey cards out of a big plastic bag and making up lines for an imaginary line-up against my brother's picked team.

Man, what that did to the edges of those cards. We have some hilariously damaged Ray Bourque and Mark Messier Rookie Cards. Thankfully some of them made it.

More to the point, there's this game "Big League Hockey Manager" that was invented by Canadian journalist Ian Hanomansing of all people. My brother bought it but I don't think we ever played it.

Here's a review:

Big League Hockey Manager puts players in the role of NHL General Managers. You get to do everything they would do such as draft players, make trades, and steal other GM's players through free agency. You assemble your team and play hockey games, within the game. The first team to win five hockey games wins!

Watch out though...you'll also have to deal with problems like injuries, players retiring, having your own players stolen away from you, and staying under the salary cap.

Big League Hockey Manager is a fun game, though it has some drawbacks. The components are somewhat mediocre for one thing. Also, the main mechanic to find out what happens next is role and move, which is a bit antiquated. Nevertheless, people who like the NHL, or the idea of managing any type of pro team will have fun with this one.

 

[decma]

More to the point, there's this game "Big League Hockey Manager" that was invented by Canadian journalist Ian Hanomansing of all people. My brother bought it but I don't think we ever played it.

Here's a review:

Thanks. I hadn't heard of this game.

Has anyone here played it?