board games for the 21st century
MORE INFORMATION
‘Viewfinder Cornwall’ has been designed to promote the county long established as one of Britain’s top holiday destinations.
Viewfinder Cornwall is an easy to learn, light strategy game for 2 to 4 players aged eight and over. Throughout the game you play the role of a photographer inspired to take pictures at many of the outstanding sights and attractions in Cornwall.
Players compete to gain the most Skill points, this is possible in a number of ways but primarily by successfully completing a Photo Challenge and winning a Photo Card.
To prepare for a Photo Challenge, move around the board purchasing camera accessories and other items, when ready, check in to a Campsite before going to the designated location on the central Map zone.
Selected items, the right accessories, fine weather and a bit of luck all help to complete the task, earn you maximum Skill and win the Photo Card.
The game ends when someone wins six Photo Cards, the player with the highest total Skill score wins.
GAMEPLAY VIDEO
ABOUT THE VIDEO
This video joins a four player game in progress and follows several turns.
It is intended to demonstrate the basic concepts and structure of the game.
To viewers with no prior knowledge of the game it will hopefully act as an intriguing introduction, while those already familiar with the rules will find it a convenient way to clarify the various modes of play.
The ‘Viewfinder Cornwall’ experience is not limited to a table top.
The deck of twenty one Photo Cards are supplied in a convenient pocket-sized box which can be taken ‘on the road’ to serve as a compact tour guide.
MAKING VIEWFINDER
‘Viewfinder Cornwall’ has been designed by Mike Swindall.
Mike also designed the ‘Print and Play’ board game extravaganza called ‘Smash Monster Rampage’ and the expansion, ‘Crush Monster Rampage’.
Self-published in 2011/12 and available to download for free from this site.
Both these games were so well received by the online board game community that the rights to the games were later bought by a games company based in Salt Lake City USA.
In 2013, encouraged by that success, Mike began work on an early version of ‘Viewfinder Cornwall’.
Although designed to promote Cornwall and likely to fall into the category of ‘souvenir’ board game, Mike has been adamant that the underlying game play mechanics should be original, fun, interesting and balanced.
Many revisions, much play testing and re-thinking later, he is now very happy with how the game operates.
The prototype version, shown on this site, gives only a general indication of how the game could look, much of the art, photos and graphics need revising before being good enough for a retail version. The look and finish of the final game must be of the highest quality – a credit to the county that inspired it.
VIEWFINDER FUTURE...
Looking forward, the strength of it’s core playability means that ‘Viewfinder Cornwall’ can be adapted to feature any geographical area. Once the game becomes established in the South West of England then more editions could follow, each promoting a different county, region or city in the UK - or beyond…
VIEWFINDER CORNWALL
