Game Review: Doomworks!

This will be the first in what should be an ongoing series in which we review some of the stuff other folks out there are doing.

Doomworks! is a card-based tabletop game that we obtained by backing it on Kickstarter. It’s also one of the model projects we’re basing our own upcoming Kickstarter project on, and so it seemed like an apt first review.

In Doomworks! you are taking on the role of a mad scientist trying to assemble your doomsday device before all the other mad scientists finish theirs. It’s created by a fella in Arizona called Daniel Schroeder, whose domain at onemanact.com seems to have expired. Alas.

For our part, we’d very much like to see another project from the studio, as Doomworks! was inventive, imaginative, and different, while remaining competitive and fun. Its cards are well-designed, giving the information necessary without feeling cluttered. The game is easy to learn, which makes the strategy of each turn the focus of your energies.

The theme of the game was what first attracted me to the project, and it is well-constructed and maintained throughout. It reminds me of the game Evil Genius, which lurks deep in my Steam catalog and surfaces occasionally. It plays with the tropes of the mad scientist and, while playful, stops short of making fun of the genre, as well it should.

They manufactured at the GameCrafter and you can still buy the game there thanks to that company’s printing model. At 20 bucks, the game’s worth it as you’ll certainly pull it out and play it on a semi-regular basis. It’s a quick game, and the modular nature of the doomsday devices means you’re never manufacturing the same thing twice. (Or at least, rarely).

Lastly, and certainly not least, the art on this game is worth the price alone.

I have decided to compare games to beer, as an esoteric and inscrutable form of reviewing instead of giving something so mundane as scores. Doomworks! rates a Saison, but with something surprising like a hint of winter spice in it. It’s enjoyable in short bursts and suits many occasions, and you can play it a few times in a night with few ill effects.