LogFAQs > #934549016

29. VisualEyes (2003)

Category: Player vs Player
Genres: Real-time, dice, judging, word game, separate hands
Rules complexity (0 to 7): 0
Game length: 2-3 minutes per hand
Experience: 30+ hands over 4+ sessions (2016-2019) with 3-4 players
Previous ranks: NR (2016), NR (2018)

Summary - A bunch of dice depicting images are rolled. Each player then races to think of phrases that connect the images (a die with the sun and a straight arrow might be taken to be "sky-line," for example). In "slow rounds," everyone writes these phrases down, and after the time limit, the sheets are read and judged, while if anyone shares your phrase, it is crossed off for both players (Boggle-style). In the "fast rounds," everyone calls out their phrases in real-time and then takes the dice they use, if judged appropriate.

Design - VisualEyes is obviously a mass-market and not a designer game. I'd played it enough times to rank in 2018 but didn't really deem it "hobbyist" enough to rank. In any case, the game is arguably less "game-y" than many other entries here as well. No ingenuity really went into the game, though I will say the dice themselves are great. In particular, I'd criticize the relative lack of structure: players mainly decide whether or not a phrase is fine, and it can lead to slight vindictiveness if people vote you down. There's also zero arc between rounds - a gentleman's agreement not to use the same phrase between rounds is about all the "continuity" you expect, other than adding scores.

Experience - Almost none of the lack of "game-y-ness" matters. Essentially, I just love real-time games, wordplay, cool pictures, and the like. Fast-paced word association gets my competitive juices flowing in a way where no one has to really suffer for it. In comparison, many other games involve making a loser out of someone. Many solitary engine-builders, for example, let you run your engine even if you're losing... but other, more successful players might take longer running their engines if they're superior, meaning you sit around longer. The real-time aspect of VisualEyes takes care of that bit.

Future - I couldn't in good conscience ever really play VisualEyes twice on the same game night, which is rather unusual for filler-weight games. But there are really only so many dice, and its biggest weakness is that after five to ten rounds, you'll start seeing repeats, and avoiding those repeats (if that's a rule) or hitting on them (if that's a rule) starts becoming the game, and that lowers the fun-factor. On the other hand, this is the type of game I'd love to play like four-to-six times a year after the heavy game(s), preserving that sense of delight.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness