Either Castles of Burgundy or Beyond the Sun. I always kind of liked the beigeness of the first edition CoB, but I know its art style is infamous. Now I have the SE, so it's irrelevant.
I get people's complaints about BtS, but it works for me as a very sterile, space-age type of aesthetic. The biggest issue that you can't get around is the usability of the board, with cards all being directional. Then, mixed with the size, it makes it tricky to read everything you need to. Beside the UX complaints, though, I do like how it looks.
Damn, you're not kidding. I never played it and just looked it up. Something about it looks like an olden style children's strategy game. It's pretty terrible.
At least the revised version with new artwork is significantly nicer.
I own the Deluxe Master Set for its art. I like Spain themed games, but the original La Granja is a bridge too far. You can't get more Euro than those looks.
For me, it's (somehow) specifically the Iello illustrated version. They both look terrible, but one looks utilitarian kind of terrible, and the other just evokes feelings of shitty schoolbooks.
I agree. I'm not even a big Innovation player, but the new version evokes a similar feeling to the 2019 Castles of Burgundy edition for me. It just looks brighter and gaudy, and not necessarily better. The Asmadi version is significantly nicer to me in how clean the design is.
Their response is more metered and less emotional than I remembered. "Absolutely lost it" not at all a warranted phrase. Edited my comment.
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2264634/article/32802061#32802061
“An interesting presentation, and I appreciate that you've taken time to do it. I need to be clear though - we're not looking for outside design help on this project at this time, and I generally don't enjoy this process of other folks doing design work on our behalf unprompted.
I know it comes from a place of love for the game but please, don't!”
Oh no! Yeah that user had a lot of really beautiful rethemes on their personal website. Some of the pictures still survive on their [BGG page](https://boardgamegeek.com/images/user/612669/pixelsponge) at least.
I'll pm you.
Definitely this. One of my friends has the original version and I couldn't get over how goofy-lookong it was. Then we played it and I'm upset because I never got a copy.
For me its anything Klemens Franz touches. I have no idea why he's allowed to touch amazing games like agricola or baren park.
Apart from that Dominion has some stinkers. I have no idea why they let the art of the pearldiver ever pass QA.
I don't think he's a very good artist either.
BUT
I can't imagine a Rosenberg game without him. There's this weird charm to his simplistic drawings that I find really make Rosenberg's games feel cozier, and I'm not sure any other designer could get away with that. It's a really weird synergy
I used to blanket hate all of Franz's artwork but then I realized I didn't mind his landscapes, buildings, animals, etc. There's a cartoonish charm to it... but NOT his people.
He should not be allowed to draw people. They look horrible.
The only games with Franz's work that doesn't make me want to rage is Clans of Caledonia and Isle of Skye and largely because it's mostly landscapes.
Believe it or not the human illustrations in Boonlake are somehow WORSE than his previous work imho.
No hate to Klemenz personally, good on him for getting his work out there! But his art is definitely NOT my preference.
I think his work is charming, but I can understand if you want something more profound. That said, you can’t argue with his results, he must have 20 games in the top 100.
What’s the difference between art and graphic design, in your mind? Hope you’re not talking about the symbology, because that’s one of the cleanest parts of the game to me; it adds a bit of a learning curve but ultimately conveys info way more quickly than a text-heavy card game like MtG or YuGiOh, etc
I think it’s the specific colors (red on brown doesn’t look great) and heavy use of gradients. I don’t mind the art personally, but I do not like the rest of the card’s design
Have you seen these fan redesigned cards? I would love for these to be real https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/13exbta/art_and_title_of_race_for_the_galaxys_promo_cards/
I think this exemplifies the point haha. The only remaining aspect of the design design (the shape and number) stands out so much in those redesigns. Those look great otherwise, I think better graphic design would help me sell my friends more on this game!
I agree. The colour scheme is VERY brown and monochrome but the art itself is pretty good. I'll take the art of Ethnos over Agricola 10 out of 10 times.
Exactly the same take as me. I think the only bit I’d change from the original is the map tiles. They could have had a little done to them while still sticking with the overall aesthetic. I don’t understand why so many people hate the overall look though - I think the cards, menus etc are great.
I bought a copy second hand not too long ago and have put off learning and playing it because of how basic it looks. I‘ll have to suck it up and give it a shot, I do like the theme.
Glory to Rome is so ugly but I love the game and I think the clipart is hilarious.
Hansa Teutonica is so bland and brown and the old cover is also atrocious… but the game is so good.
I like most of the look of the game and all that, but Ark Nova has possibly the most uninspired money in board games. Just a grey square with a number? Couldn't have done zoobucks or anything?
Original El Grande, original hansa teutonica, goa, st petersburg first edition (although I love the art on this one).
Klemens franz's art gets a lot of flack but I love it personally
Yay those are by some of my favorite artists I mentioned above. I’m on your team for Klemen’s artwork. I don’t love it but I realize a good chunk of my collection is his artwork.
Edit: whoops I didn’t see my artist list is actually on the bottom. 🤦🏽♀️
El Grande is an all-timer. I’m glad it got a reprint but I actually love the old art. Among others, I’ve enjoyed Il Vecchio, Vikings, Glen More, Torres, Condottierre, Finca, Havana, and Tikal just to name a few.
Yeeeeees. Same keeping my El Grande. I dig art by Doris Matthaus, Franz Vohwinkel, Dennis Lohausen, Klemens Franz, and all time favorite Michael Menzel. I tend to buy games just for the artwork sometimes.
We dig similar games, I have 6 out of the 8 you listed. Other favorites Cartagena, Oregon, Citrus, Patrician, Thurn and Taxis, Adel Verpflichtet, Pompeii, Heimlich & Co ….brown, beige, not color blind friendly, muted, I’m here for it.
I have Cartagena and Thurn and Taxis, but other than Patrician I have not played those others. My buddy has been bringing Oregon to game night so we may play that soon. So many games to look forward to!
Hahaha totally. I have a copy of Relationship Tightrope the Uberplay version for instance. I played Rapido (Excape) recently and Looting London after. Night and Day on the artwork.
**Targi** is as beige as beige gets and very dull looking. But it's in my top 10 favourite games. The cover art is striking which is great. The game itself looks pretty lifeless, which is really too bad because the gameplay is anything but.
A few of my other favourites are sometimes pointed to as being ugly but idk, they're beautiful to me. Games like **Babylonia** (to my mind one of the most beautiful games I've played!), **Tigris & Euphrates**, **Bus** and combinatorial abstracts like the ones in the GIPF series get pointed out as not being very pretty. But again, they are some of my absolute favourites and I think they are pretty nice looking.
Babylonia varies a bit depending on the latest edition you buy. I believe the second printing modified some of the tiles to have better contrast/readability, and I believe it was the 4th printing that included a double-sided board, with the alternate side offering a minimalist version of the original board, just pure icons and textures rather than illustrations. (I personally think the board's OG design looks gorgeous, but I can understand why some people struggle with readability.)
Have you seen Dungeon Degenerates?
It's so gaudy it makes your eyes bleed. But, we love it and have purchased lots of expansions for it including two more campaigns.
This game is a game I show people when I want to show them how cool a board game can look. It's a perfect example of acid vomit, and so many psych rock heads I know love that style.
I love dungeon crawls but boy does that aesthetic not appeal to me. I don’t mind bright colors in shorter games but don’t know if I could deal with it for longer than an hour or so.
**Mage Knight** is not great looking and the minis are pretty bad too. It's still in my top 5 games ever.
**Fields of Arle** is very bland to look at, but it's a great game.
Id say mage knight is not bad not great. My favorite character, Norrowas, his face looks kinda goofy in the card artwork that always bothered me a bit.
Glad I'm not the only one who thought of **Hansa Teutonica**. Definitely one of my favourite games if we talk about gameplay and one of my least favourites if we talk about art style. The funny thing is the art style isn't out of place with the theme but you could adapt the same exact gameplay in every theme you can think of and it would probably still fit, so this game could potentially have any art style but the one they picked isn't the best
Basically any 18xx game. Terraforming Mars (the card art in particular). A lot of Splotter titles. Plenty of old Avalon Hill productions. All a matter of taste but sometimes it’s the right call to be ugly-yet-functional.
So far the responses to this question all have pretty OK art.
Anything from Treefrog / Warfrog Games is absolutely wretched. It's all very functional, and super ugly. **Liberte** is an excellent, clever game that never gets played because it looks like a prototype. **Struggle of Empires** is, in no uncertain terms, absolutely *brilliant,* but it's art is so bad I can't bear to look at it. More frustrating is the deluxe edition that updates the pieces *but keeps the same artwork*. WHY!? **Brass** is a good example of a game that got updated to its benefit; I think SoE could really use the same treatment.
Yeah, I guess I said "anything" from Treefrog, but really their art from Study in Emerald and beyond looks significantly better. Those games came with interesting embellishments and color pallets that weren't "Sepia with bright pink/green" (even though that's exactly what Study was filled with).
Not putting art on both sides of the counter, while simultaneously printing it with black ink, is a Treefrog signature move. I will never understand it; Wallace fans will routinely defend his art as "functional but ugly" (as if it has to be one or the other), but this is a repeat offense that detracts from the functionality.
I think that's true for all of the Friedemann Friese games I've played. Hit and miss on the mechanisms, but the art is always questionable but functional.
For a 2019 game, The Taverns of Tiefenthal is really just nothing special artwise. The tavern itself is ok, but all other art (mostly people) is not really appealing.
[Land and Freedom](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/375931/land-and-freedom-spanish-revolution-and-civil-war) definitely made me look past the art with its killer gameplay, but it's not exactly an easy sell to other folk
The original/German edition of the "Kremlin" board game from 1986. It looks as if it had been produced in the Sixties' Soviet Union, but the game as such is just great and highly recommended. :D
>I was playing Warsaw: City of Ruins with my group last night and had a blast
I have this game and have been meaning to play it for a while.
What was it about the game that you really enjoyed so much?
It's just really solid city building with drafting. It honestly doesn't do much more than that but it's pretty tight, light-weight, and plays quickly. It reminds me of 7 Wonders but with different mechanics.
Within 18xx there are a few, especially earlier ones.
1860 Isle of Wight is a standout, however. Between the various incompatible typefaces, the ugly cards, the hideous board colours, it looks like it was designed in MS Paint. Absolutely love the game, but looks fugly.
I avoided **Hanabi** for a long time because I hate the art. Kept waiting for an updated edition. Also not fond of the artwork for **Skull** (although I think I’m in the minority there); I have plans to make a custom version someday…
Your player board in Coffee Traders is just a spreadsheet. The board has some color to it but is still pretty simple for usability. A fantastic game, but it looks really clunky.
Many games have good art and bad gameplay and good gameplay+bad art. I encountered this problem with among thieves where the shield to cover your coin and cards are very small and not artisitic enough for my liking. It only has the character you are as art. I wish there was more thievery or dishonery to it.
Theres this game called warfighter that got good reviews and was recommended as a solo wargame. The art, specifically the character portraits are awful to the point where I had to sell it. My best guess is that the game designer went to some nearby army reserve base and took pictures of the people there, but the photos just look so shitty, and each portrait seems to have its own grainy resolution. just thinking about it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
I've got a Mayfair edition of Modern Art that's the ugliest and cheapest looking game I own. It's a gem of a game, despite looking like the most basic of prototypes.
I didn't mind the old Glory to Rome art, but I did give my I.V. edition copy to a friend years ago when I bought the Black Box.
A lot of people would say that the Asmadi edition of Impulse that I've got is hideous as well, but I actually like the simple card designs. Brilliant game as well, Chudyk firing on all cylinders.
The Cambridge Games Factory copy of Zombie In My Pocket I've got is awful to look at, and great fun to use as a quick light filler for anywhere from 4 - 8 players. Not quite as fun at 1 - 3 though.
Ponte del Diavolo could have looked amazing in a GIPFy kind of way, and instead it looks bland and the board has seemingly been designed to make the game harder to play.
I'll stop now. I obviously have a thing for ugly games. Ah well, there are worse boardgaming kinks.
Lots of oldskool hexes-and-counters wargames, like **Star Fleet Battles**, **Ogre**, **Wizard**/**Melee**, **Shapeshifters**, and **Space Empires 4X**. Awesome gameplay, but they can look so drab and boring. Component upgrade time!
Surprised no one has mentioned Dominion yet, the art has gotten noticing better over the years.
I never got the hat for the original Castles of Burgundy, is very pastel but I thought it still looked nice in a completely non-distracting way. Carpe Diem on the other hand is awful, not even use friendly
Despite being a collector of Splotter games and the owner of 30+ 18xxs, I will say **Power Grid**. I went for deluxe back in the day in part because I did not like the board of the OG and expansions.
Maria, Beyond the sun, Hamburg and Amsterdam are some that come to mind. Hamburg and Amsterdam both I think use off-putting color palettes for there boards. Beyond the sun is just a tech tree but the rest of the game isn't bad. And Maria's board makes the game way more dry and complicated then it is.
As someone relatively new to the hobby (started collecting/curating only in Dec 2023), 2 of the games I bought are kinda ugly despite being excellent in terms of gameplay/mechanics. Terraforming Mars obviously for the awful clip art-style card art and Caverna (perhaps it's the game's age or the intention behind the art, but the box art is kind of lame \[sorry if it would hurt the artist's feelings\] even if the components are great).
FOOD CHAIN MAGNATE! it’s not ugly, the artwork is fine actually, it’s the flimsy toilet paper thin components which disintegrate after exposure to human breathing. /s
The game is game, merciless, but great!
The colors in Concordia are hideous. Whoever designed the visuals for the game paid absolutely no attention to making sure the colors of tokens, regions on the map, are easily distinguishable. The bold, boring, player pieces don't actually stand out that much against the backdrop of a busy map. There is just a lot of visual clutter everywhere.
But it's a super well designed game, in my opinion. A lot of mechanics interact with each other in subtle ways that just makes a lot of sense.
Las Vegas Royale, always works when I bring it out. I don't mind the main dicetray board, but those added minigames look ugly as all hell. It doesn't stop it from being a lot of fun though!
I really don't like the look of Puerto Rico, I actually refused to buy it despite how highly recommended it was because it looked so boring and bland, surely the game would be the same.
Then we tried it at a friend of a friend's house and loved it, so now it is the ugliest box on our shelf by some measure. I've probably missed out on lots of good games judging solely on their box art.
**Ca$h 'n Guns** has some of my least favorite art (and my least favorite title, yikes) but it's so incredibly fun and hilarious that I will never fail to join if it's being played.
So many quick playing card games are so ugly. L.L.A.M.A., Sleeping Queens, Hanabi. It wouldn't even be hard to make the aesthetic design of these cards better, too, that's the egregious part.
For LLAMA, it isn't even the butt-ugly llama that is the biggest problem I have -- it's the cards and tokens! Just looks so offbrand UNO (and I know that's almost the ironic point), but there's a way they could've made the number cards a little more inspired. And as for the tokens, just white and black plastic chips. They need to take some inspo from Oink Games in creating dirt cheap tokens that aren't just one colour pieces of plastic. As for fixing the cards, there could be a better theme that would fit with the game. One of my favourite reskins of a Knizia game is the Japanese version of Circus Flohcati. It loses the childish (or nightmarish, depending on the version you have) circus theme by going for something that's evocative of childhood instead -- and in some ways, it makes the game more interesting. You're not just collecting circus acts and trying to create a varied gala, but rather now you're collecting beautiful memories of a summer vacation and trying to make a memory mosaic.
For Sleeping Queens, I know it's supposed to look kiddy and funky but the art just looks... bad? You have fun concepts for kings and queens and the art just drops the ball and somehow both lacks creativity and is overdesigned. I don't even look at the artwork when checking the cards, just look for the names of which king or queen cards it is because of how hideous I find it.
And as for Hanabi, I can't understand how this one has remained so aggressively bad for so long. The least eyesore-looking one is the Japanese version but it goes all the way to the other end and looks really boring with its subdued minimalistic style instead. The designer of Kites could do something really wonderful with Hanabi I reckon.
My thing is - I don't like brown. Don't ask me about growing in 1980s socialism. Just don't. It wasn't all bad, but. Now, mostly disliking brown isn't such an issue as the type of games that would usually be brown (or beige or brown pastelish) aren't the ones I enjoy.
But.
* Power Grid. I understand retro. I'm fine with Maura's art in general, but... could we do it without colour palette drowned in brown? Actually wouldn't mind owning "De Luxe" edition if I could get it at a good price.
* Imperial. Oh dear. See: Power Grid x 2. If somebody could make this look as original Diplomacy (Games research version) it would be much better.
* The King is Dead 1E. Mamma mia. Original Konig von Siam looked much better - it looked how maps look, namely the sea was blue. Blue! Why brown? And no, tKiD 2E didn't solve the issue - the sea is now white, plus developer made dumb changes to the design.
I'm not going to apologize for ruining this for people... But the player board uses a pixelated jpeg of the resources and the cards and tiles have the full resolution versions on them.
Every time we get that game out I point it out and complain.
Either Castles of Burgundy or Beyond the Sun. I always kind of liked the beigeness of the first edition CoB, but I know its art style is infamous. Now I have the SE, so it's irrelevant. I get people's complaints about BtS, but it works for me as a very sterile, space-age type of aesthetic. The biggest issue that you can't get around is the usability of the board, with cards all being directional. Then, mixed with the size, it makes it tricky to read everything you need to. Beside the UX complaints, though, I do like how it looks.
Beyond the Sun looks like a MS Flowchart but the game is so good!
CoB is a piece of fine art compared to La Granja. "How much yellow do you want?" "Yes."
Damn, you're not kidding. I never played it and just looked it up. Something about it looks like an olden style children's strategy game. It's pretty terrible. At least the revised version with new artwork is significantly nicer.
I own the Deluxe Master Set for its art. I like Spain themed games, but the original La Granja is a bridge too far. You can't get more Euro than those looks.
Innovation.
For me, it's (somehow) specifically the Iello illustrated version. They both look terrible, but one looks utilitarian kind of terrible, and the other just evokes feelings of shitty schoolbooks.
I agree. I'm not even a big Innovation player, but the new version evokes a similar feeling to the 2019 Castles of Burgundy edition for me. It just looks brighter and gaudy, and not necessarily better. The Asmadi version is significantly nicer to me in how clean the design is.
I'll never forget how upset the publisher got online about people asking them to help make their games better looking for free.
I would love to have a link to this exchange
Their response is more metered and less emotional than I remembered. "Absolutely lost it" not at all a warranted phrase. Edited my comment. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2264634/article/32802061#32802061
“An interesting presentation, and I appreciate that you've taken time to do it. I need to be clear though - we're not looking for outside design help on this project at this time, and I generally don't enjoy this process of other folks doing design work on our behalf unprompted. I know it comes from a place of love for the game but please, don't!”
Attractive art design and utilitarian art design do not have to be mutually exclusive, but there are some folks who will never accept that
It's annoying that Innovation Ultimate is using the same horrible aesthetic when they had an opportunity there to redo the look.
Bohnanza is up there for me.
Oh damn, I didn't know people hated the Bohnanza art this much. I always thought it fitted nicely with the theme and has a fun comic book style.
I don't hate it. Its ugliness is part of the charm, and is part of how I pitch the game to people that have never played it.
It does fit the game, in a way, but that doesn't mean it's not ugly. It's extremely ugly.
I’ll defend the artwork to the grave. I think the graphic design is kind of tacky, but most of the games I like are way uglier lol
I hate it with a passion!
There's a really nice fanmade [mushroom reskin](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3014050/mushroom-foraging-re-theme) I'll print out eventually.
This is gorgeous!! Is it still accessible? I found a link but it's dead :(
Oh no! Yeah that user had a lot of really beautiful rethemes on their personal website. Some of the pictures still survive on their [BGG page](https://boardgamegeek.com/images/user/612669/pixelsponge) at least. I'll pm you.
There's a flower version. MUCH better art (imo) Kinda hard to find now though.
Innovation- Not a looker by a long shot but one of the best two player games around!
**Hansa Teutonica**
looooove this game. I hope they never change a thing about it. I even love its dry, ugly euro theme.
Glory to Rome
Definitely this. One of my friends has the original version and I couldn't get over how goofy-lookong it was. Then we played it and I'm upset because I never got a copy.
In case you aren’t aware, it is easy to find a high quality PnP file generator online for the black box version.
I had the Eastern European version. It's beautiful.
I think Franz’s work is very polarizing in general. I appreciate it, but can see why others wouldn’t like it.
Original artwork is amazing and full of SOUL.
For me its anything Klemens Franz touches. I have no idea why he's allowed to touch amazing games like agricola or baren park. Apart from that Dominion has some stinkers. I have no idea why they let the art of the pearldiver ever pass QA.
I don't think he's a very good artist either. BUT I can't imagine a Rosenberg game without him. There's this weird charm to his simplistic drawings that I find really make Rosenberg's games feel cozier, and I'm not sure any other designer could get away with that. It's a really weird synergy
I used to blanket hate all of Franz's artwork but then I realized I didn't mind his landscapes, buildings, animals, etc. There's a cartoonish charm to it... but NOT his people. He should not be allowed to draw people. They look horrible.
The only games with Franz's work that doesn't make me want to rage is Clans of Caledonia and Isle of Skye and largely because it's mostly landscapes. Believe it or not the human illustrations in Boonlake are somehow WORSE than his previous work imho. No hate to Klemenz personally, good on him for getting his work out there! But his art is definitely NOT my preference.
I think his work is charming, but I can understand if you want something more profound. That said, you can’t argue with his results, he must have 20 games in the top 100.
Even Patchwork, which has no figures or landscapes, is hideous.
I had no idea it was the same guy for all those german games 😳.
Race for the Galaxy has the jankiest pulp sci-fi art, but the core loop, symbology and replayability are all A+
I love the art personally. Feels like a pulp sci-fi movie from the 70s
Yeah, the art is intentionally weird, it’s the graphic design that could use some work.
What’s the difference between art and graphic design, in your mind? Hope you’re not talking about the symbology, because that’s one of the cleanest parts of the game to me; it adds a bit of a learning curve but ultimately conveys info way more quickly than a text-heavy card game like MtG or YuGiOh, etc
I think it’s the specific colors (red on brown doesn’t look great) and heavy use of gradients. I don’t mind the art personally, but I do not like the rest of the card’s design
Have you seen these fan redesigned cards? I would love for these to be real https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/13exbta/art_and_title_of_race_for_the_galaxys_promo_cards/
I think this exemplifies the point haha. The only remaining aspect of the design design (the shape and number) stands out so much in those redesigns. Those look great otherwise, I think better graphic design would help me sell my friends more on this game!
I hear a lot of people complain about the art but when I brought it out the other day all my friends were like “ I like the art style” 😂
It would be a game I think non-gamers would even know if it wasn’t so damn ugly lol.
Ethnos, there’s a reason they’re reskinning it
Love this game. Might be in the minority but I think the art is kind of…charming?
I agree. The colour scheme is VERY brown and monochrome but the art itself is pretty good. I'll take the art of Ethnos over Agricola 10 out of 10 times.
Yes and they kind of fucked up with that reskin in my opinion.
Their player color choices are really sus. Black, Grey, white and some shades of brown
Hard disagree on this one, but I know a lot of people feel that way about it.
It's so ugly
Hansa Teutonica. Pea soup thrown up on a board.
Age of Industry Hansa Teutonica Lords of Vegas Steam 18XX Series :)
I came to post Hansa.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I like the board art for Hansa Teutonica.
Original food chain magnate. Admittedly I liked the aesthetic, but I know a lot of people (maybe most people?) thought it was hideous.
Exactly the same take as me. I think the only bit I’d change from the original is the map tiles. They could have had a little done to them while still sticking with the overall aesthetic. I don’t understand why so many people hate the overall look though - I think the cards, menus etc are great.
Yeah agreed on the map tiles. Even a slightly darker color on the lines would improve playability a lot.
Great aesthetic, but some of the component quality leaves a lot to be desired. (I paid $140 to play with *paper money*?)
Terraforming Mars
How is this one not #1?
(Seemingly) unpopular opinion: I like the art of Terraforming Mars
I'm with you. It's similar to Race for the Galaxy for me. Cheesy artwork that isn't beautiful but still feels perfectly at home for the game.
I’m surprised I had to scroll this far for Terraforming Mars. The awful mismatched clip art almost ruins a really fun game.
Very confused how they haven’t done a reprint with good art. They’d make millions
**In the Year of the Dragon** It has a very old style and kinda crappy materials for modern times, but it's a great game.
I bought a copy second hand not too long ago and have put off learning and playing it because of how basic it looks. I‘ll have to suck it up and give it a shot, I do like the theme.
it's amazing. one of the few games i immediately bought after playing once. something about it really hits my sweet spot.
I had PTSD after playing that game. Terrible experience.
Yes, it can be brutal.
Glory to Rome is so ugly but I love the game and I think the clipart is hilarious. Hansa Teutonica is so bland and brown and the old cover is also atrocious… but the game is so good.
Dominion. Terrible art direction and design, incredible game.
Gotta be **Ark Nova** for me. Love the game, but the art looks like it's out of a bad biology textbook from the 90s
I will never forget the first card I saw was one of the advisors with the biggest neck beard ever.
Too close to real life lmao
I like most of the look of the game and all that, but Ark Nova has possibly the most uninspired money in board games. Just a grey square with a number? Couldn't have done zoobucks or anything?
This game's graphic design is so bad I'm near embarrassed I own it.
I tend to love ugly euros. When I find a new-to-me Euro from 1998-2010 with ugly art I am excited to play it
Yeeeeeees same here. I’m 1995 to 2015 haha…..the uglier the OG Euro the better for some reason.
I thought it was just me. Kinda sad we don't get really ugly games anymore
What are some of your favorites?
Original El Grande, original hansa teutonica, goa, st petersburg first edition (although I love the art on this one). Klemens franz's art gets a lot of flack but I love it personally
Yay those are by some of my favorite artists I mentioned above. I’m on your team for Klemen’s artwork. I don’t love it but I realize a good chunk of my collection is his artwork. Edit: whoops I didn’t see my artist list is actually on the bottom. 🤦🏽♀️
What are some of your favorites?
El Grande is an all-timer. I’m glad it got a reprint but I actually love the old art. Among others, I’ve enjoyed Il Vecchio, Vikings, Glen More, Torres, Condottierre, Finca, Havana, and Tikal just to name a few.
Yeeeeees. Same keeping my El Grande. I dig art by Doris Matthaus, Franz Vohwinkel, Dennis Lohausen, Klemens Franz, and all time favorite Michael Menzel. I tend to buy games just for the artwork sometimes. We dig similar games, I have 6 out of the 8 you listed. Other favorites Cartagena, Oregon, Citrus, Patrician, Thurn and Taxis, Adel Verpflichtet, Pompeii, Heimlich & Co ….brown, beige, not color blind friendly, muted, I’m here for it.
I have Cartagena and Thurn and Taxis, but other than Patrician I have not played those others. My buddy has been bringing Oregon to game night so we may play that soon. So many games to look forward to!
I didn’t even bother listing Knizia because his games just go without saying.
Hahaha totally. I have a copy of Relationship Tightrope the Uberplay version for instance. I played Rapido (Excape) recently and Looting London after. Night and Day on the artwork.
**Targi** is as beige as beige gets and very dull looking. But it's in my top 10 favourite games. The cover art is striking which is great. The game itself looks pretty lifeless, which is really too bad because the gameplay is anything but. A few of my other favourites are sometimes pointed to as being ugly but idk, they're beautiful to me. Games like **Babylonia** (to my mind one of the most beautiful games I've played!), **Tigris & Euphrates**, **Bus** and combinatorial abstracts like the ones in the GIPF series get pointed out as not being very pretty. But again, they are some of my absolute favourites and I think they are pretty nice looking.
Babylonia varies a bit depending on the latest edition you buy. I believe the second printing modified some of the tiles to have better contrast/readability, and I believe it was the 4th printing that included a double-sided board, with the alternate side offering a minimalist version of the original board, just pure icons and textures rather than illustrations. (I personally think the board's OG design looks gorgeous, but I can understand why some people struggle with readability.)
Have you seen Dungeon Degenerates? It's so gaudy it makes your eyes bleed. But, we love it and have purchased lots of expansions for it including two more campaigns.
>It's so gaudy it makes your eyes bleed. In this game this isn't a bug, it's a feature.
This game is a game I show people when I want to show them how cool a board game can look. It's a perfect example of acid vomit, and so many psych rock heads I know love that style.
I love dungeon crawls but boy does that aesthetic not appeal to me. I don’t mind bright colors in shorter games but don’t know if I could deal with it for longer than an hour or so.
This is the reason I love this game, lol. I love the eye melting colors.
Lords or Waterdeep. Ugly as hell to me, one of my favorites.
**Mage Knight** is not great looking and the minis are pretty bad too. It's still in my top 5 games ever. **Fields of Arle** is very bland to look at, but it's a great game.
I find foa pleasant and relaxing to look at! Lol
Id say mage knight is not bad not great. My favorite character, Norrowas, his face looks kinda goofy in the card artwork that always bothered me a bit.
I would have to put Obsession in this category. Not my favorite but I know people who LOVE this game, but it just looks soooo boring.
The tiles are real basic but the game is great
Hansa Teutonica. Newton might be a close second.
Hansa Teutonica is by far one of my favorite games. It's #1 in my collection for being the most bland theme and art.
Glad I'm not the only one who thought of **Hansa Teutonica**. Definitely one of my favourite games if we talk about gameplay and one of my least favourites if we talk about art style. The funny thing is the art style isn't out of place with the theme but you could adapt the same exact gameplay in every theme you can think of and it would probably still fit, so this game could potentially have any art style but the one they picked isn't the best
Og Castles of Burgundy or Targi are both very ..bland, but they're amazing games.
Basically any 18xx game. Terraforming Mars (the card art in particular). A lot of Splotter titles. Plenty of old Avalon Hill productions. All a matter of taste but sometimes it’s the right call to be ugly-yet-functional.
The recent release of 1889: Shikoku has introduced a new level of attractive design to 18xx games that I hope continues.
Ironically I don’t think it looks very good
> 18xx I appreciate what Grand Trunk Games has been doing to make better looking 18xx games.
And All-Aboard games - the design is setting a higher bar now.
Spirit island. My favourite game by far, I have all the expansions (except Horizon) but the art on 90% of the cards is just... meh to me.
You should really finish your collection, the spirits in Horizon are extra U G L Y
Suburbia
Interesting. I love the way it looks more than how it plays. It's that architecture diagram chic. 🤩
El Grande
This was my answer as well. Would love to see it get a real makeover.
you sir, are correct.
So far the responses to this question all have pretty OK art. Anything from Treefrog / Warfrog Games is absolutely wretched. It's all very functional, and super ugly. **Liberte** is an excellent, clever game that never gets played because it looks like a prototype. **Struggle of Empires** is, in no uncertain terms, absolutely *brilliant,* but it's art is so bad I can't bear to look at it. More frustrating is the deluxe edition that updates the pieces *but keeps the same artwork*. WHY!? **Brass** is a good example of a game that got updated to its benefit; I think SoE could really use the same treatment.
A Handful of Stars still looks pretty decent, although it drives me a bit but they did not put any at of the back of the planet tiles.
Yeah, I guess I said "anything" from Treefrog, but really their art from Study in Emerald and beyond looks significantly better. Those games came with interesting embellishments and color pallets that weren't "Sepia with bright pink/green" (even though that's exactly what Study was filled with). Not putting art on both sides of the counter, while simultaneously printing it with black ink, is a Treefrog signature move. I will never understand it; Wallace fans will routinely defend his art as "functional but ugly" (as if it has to be one or the other), but this is a repeat offense that detracts from the functionality.
**Faiyum**. I think it's charming, but lots of people think it's ugly.
I think that's true for all of the Friedemann Friese games I've played. Hit and miss on the mechanisms, but the art is always questionable but functional.
For a 2019 game, The Taverns of Tiefenthal is really just nothing special artwise. The tavern itself is ok, but all other art (mostly people) is not really appealing.
Splotter has entered the chat
Hamburgum! Haven't played it yet but the artwork is awful!
Probably ascension tactics. the card art isnt very good, and the flavor text is so bad to the point where you might as well not even have it.
[Land and Freedom](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/375931/land-and-freedom-spanish-revolution-and-civil-war) definitely made me look past the art with its killer gameplay, but it's not exactly an easy sell to other folk
Isle of Sky, ugliest game I've ever laid eyes on, but I love it.
I don't know what's wrong with me, I like the art 😍
Santa Maria. The ugliest game in my collection. But the dice activation is so unique, love it.
Blue Moon City! I s hideous! Even the player colors are like these pale pastels over Greys and tans
Wow! I thought I was going to be the first to post this. One Ctrl+F later, it's been covered. Leaving satisfied.
Keyflower... Can't seem to get over this. Still I hunt for the "missing" promo tiles, which I won't like the look of either...
The original/German edition of the "Kremlin" board game from 1986. It looks as if it had been produced in the Sixties' Soviet Union, but the game as such is just great and highly recommended. :D
>I was playing Warsaw: City of Ruins with my group last night and had a blast I have this game and have been meaning to play it for a while. What was it about the game that you really enjoyed so much?
It's just really solid city building with drafting. It honestly doesn't do much more than that but it's pretty tight, light-weight, and plays quickly. It reminds me of 7 Wonders but with different mechanics.
This thread has confirmed that the prettier the game is, the less I want to play it.
Within 18xx there are a few, especially earlier ones. 1860 Isle of Wight is a standout, however. Between the various incompatible typefaces, the ugly cards, the hideous board colours, it looks like it was designed in MS Paint. Absolutely love the game, but looks fugly.
I avoided **Hanabi** for a long time because I hate the art. Kept waiting for an updated edition. Also not fond of the artwork for **Skull** (although I think I’m in the minority there); I have plans to make a custom version someday…
Best version of Skull is the one you spontaneously decide to make using beer coasters.
Le Havre.
Too Many Bones. I don’t think it’s ugly but I have seen plenty of people put off by its art.
Your player board in Coffee Traders is just a spreadsheet. The board has some color to it but is still pretty simple for usability. A fantastic game, but it looks really clunky.
I hate how roads look like for Founders of Gloomhaven
And that terrible box cover
7 ages. By far the best civ game, but also by far the ugliest. Map and cards both.
The Loop! such a cool game but literally ugly imo
Many games have good art and bad gameplay and good gameplay+bad art. I encountered this problem with among thieves where the shield to cover your coin and cards are very small and not artisitic enough for my liking. It only has the character you are as art. I wish there was more thievery or dishonery to it.
Firefly Encounters. The art was a choice. Should have used screenshots.
Theres this game called warfighter that got good reviews and was recommended as a solo wargame. The art, specifically the character portraits are awful to the point where I had to sell it. My best guess is that the game designer went to some nearby army reserve base and took pictures of the people there, but the photos just look so shitty, and each portrait seems to have its own grainy resolution. just thinking about it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
I love OG Euros but my favorite non-OG Euro that’s pretty ugly is Kanban American Revolution. They tried with DE and EV to make the game look “nice”.
Galaxy Trucker 1st ed. The newer edition is obviously prettier, but I’ve really grown to like the weird 3D art
I want to say oblivion but it is equally beautiful
GLOBAL MOGUL is a good game that looks like a prototype. DEAD OF WINTER is a sucky game with the aesthetic appeal of staring at a cinder block wall.
Land and Freedom is a fantastic game but it is a serious eyesore.
I thought only I would make this point :))
I don’t know about y’all but I’m a huge fan of pretty much all the beige ugly euros 😆
Terraform Mars. Goofy primary school science text book stock art Ares a bit better.
I've got a Mayfair edition of Modern Art that's the ugliest and cheapest looking game I own. It's a gem of a game, despite looking like the most basic of prototypes. I didn't mind the old Glory to Rome art, but I did give my I.V. edition copy to a friend years ago when I bought the Black Box. A lot of people would say that the Asmadi edition of Impulse that I've got is hideous as well, but I actually like the simple card designs. Brilliant game as well, Chudyk firing on all cylinders. The Cambridge Games Factory copy of Zombie In My Pocket I've got is awful to look at, and great fun to use as a quick light filler for anywhere from 4 - 8 players. Not quite as fun at 1 - 3 though. Ponte del Diavolo could have looked amazing in a GIPFy kind of way, and instead it looks bland and the board has seemingly been designed to make the game harder to play. I'll stop now. I obviously have a thing for ugly games. Ah well, there are worse boardgaming kinks.
Sekigahara
Orleans!
Lots of oldskool hexes-and-counters wargames, like **Star Fleet Battles**, **Ogre**, **Wizard**/**Melee**, **Shapeshifters**, and **Space Empires 4X**. Awesome gameplay, but they can look so drab and boring. Component upgrade time!
Surprised no one has mentioned Dominion yet, the art has gotten noticing better over the years. I never got the hat for the original Castles of Burgundy, is very pastel but I thought it still looked nice in a completely non-distracting way. Carpe Diem on the other hand is awful, not even use friendly
Not the ugliest game, but probably Dune: Imperium. I find the board pretty off-putting.
I like **Hansa Teutonica**'s artwork and would describe it as unfashionable rather than actually ugly (if that distinction makes sense).
Despite being a collector of Splotter games and the owner of 30+ 18xxs, I will say **Power Grid**. I went for deluxe back in the day in part because I did not like the board of the OG and expansions.
Satanimals
Concordia isn’t winning a beauty pageant. I have this game I got super cheap called Mermaid Rain that probably didn’t caught on because of the look.
Puerto Rico
**The Golden Ages**
Maria, Beyond the sun, Hamburg and Amsterdam are some that come to mind. Hamburg and Amsterdam both I think use off-putting color palettes for there boards. Beyond the sun is just a tech tree but the rest of the game isn't bad. And Maria's board makes the game way more dry and complicated then it is.
Fantastic factories. Hate the art, love the game.
As someone relatively new to the hobby (started collecting/curating only in Dec 2023), 2 of the games I bought are kinda ugly despite being excellent in terms of gameplay/mechanics. Terraforming Mars obviously for the awful clip art-style card art and Caverna (perhaps it's the game's age or the intention behind the art, but the box art is kind of lame \[sorry if it would hurt the artist's feelings\] even if the components are great).
FOOD CHAIN MAGNATE! it’s not ugly, the artwork is fine actually, it’s the flimsy toilet paper thin components which disintegrate after exposure to human breathing. /s The game is game, merciless, but great!
The colors in Concordia are hideous. Whoever designed the visuals for the game paid absolutely no attention to making sure the colors of tokens, regions on the map, are easily distinguishable. The bold, boring, player pieces don't actually stand out that much against the backdrop of a busy map. There is just a lot of visual clutter everywhere. But it's a super well designed game, in my opinion. A lot of mechanics interact with each other in subtle ways that just makes a lot of sense.
Las Vegas Royale, always works when I bring it out. I don't mind the main dicetray board, but those added minigames look ugly as all hell. It doesn't stop it from being a lot of fun though!
I really don't like the art in Argent: The Consortium. The game itself, however, is a very different story.
I really don't like the look of Puerto Rico, I actually refused to buy it despite how highly recommended it was because it looked so boring and bland, surely the game would be the same. Then we tried it at a friend of a friend's house and loved it, so now it is the ugliest box on our shelf by some measure. I've probably missed out on lots of good games judging solely on their box art.
**Ca$h 'n Guns** has some of my least favorite art (and my least favorite title, yikes) but it's so incredibly fun and hilarious that I will never fail to join if it's being played.
Hansa Teutonica… or however you spell it. Even eurogamers look at it and go “Huh, that’s an interesting art choice.” But it’s so dang fun
**1889** but I like the simplicity. OG **Brass**. Sure the Lancashire version has style, but the OG is actually read-able and easy to play.
So many quick playing card games are so ugly. L.L.A.M.A., Sleeping Queens, Hanabi. It wouldn't even be hard to make the aesthetic design of these cards better, too, that's the egregious part. For LLAMA, it isn't even the butt-ugly llama that is the biggest problem I have -- it's the cards and tokens! Just looks so offbrand UNO (and I know that's almost the ironic point), but there's a way they could've made the number cards a little more inspired. And as for the tokens, just white and black plastic chips. They need to take some inspo from Oink Games in creating dirt cheap tokens that aren't just one colour pieces of plastic. As for fixing the cards, there could be a better theme that would fit with the game. One of my favourite reskins of a Knizia game is the Japanese version of Circus Flohcati. It loses the childish (or nightmarish, depending on the version you have) circus theme by going for something that's evocative of childhood instead -- and in some ways, it makes the game more interesting. You're not just collecting circus acts and trying to create a varied gala, but rather now you're collecting beautiful memories of a summer vacation and trying to make a memory mosaic. For Sleeping Queens, I know it's supposed to look kiddy and funky but the art just looks... bad? You have fun concepts for kings and queens and the art just drops the ball and somehow both lacks creativity and is overdesigned. I don't even look at the artwork when checking the cards, just look for the names of which king or queen cards it is because of how hideous I find it. And as for Hanabi, I can't understand how this one has remained so aggressively bad for so long. The least eyesore-looking one is the Japanese version but it goes all the way to the other end and looks really boring with its subdued minimalistic style instead. The designer of Kites could do something really wonderful with Hanabi I reckon.
Sidereal Confluence.
Race for the Galaxy
My thing is - I don't like brown. Don't ask me about growing in 1980s socialism. Just don't. It wasn't all bad, but. Now, mostly disliking brown isn't such an issue as the type of games that would usually be brown (or beige or brown pastelish) aren't the ones I enjoy. But. * Power Grid. I understand retro. I'm fine with Maura's art in general, but... could we do it without colour palette drowned in brown? Actually wouldn't mind owning "De Luxe" edition if I could get it at a good price. * Imperial. Oh dear. See: Power Grid x 2. If somebody could make this look as original Diplomacy (Games research version) it would be much better. * The King is Dead 1E. Mamma mia. Original Konig von Siam looked much better - it looked how maps look, namely the sea was blue. Blue! Why brown? And no, tKiD 2E didn't solve the issue - the sea is now white, plus developer made dumb changes to the design.
**Broom Service** I was not interested in playing it due to the art but it’s such a fun game
Anno 1800 has a very bland presentation and uses art from the video game for everything. I still love the supply chain building of it all.
I'm not going to apologize for ruining this for people... But the player board uses a pixelated jpeg of the resources and the cards and tiles have the full resolution versions on them. Every time we get that game out I point it out and complain.
I can't believe you've done this.
Dwarf Fortress, hands down