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That’s a hard one to answer! The first thing that springs to mind is art – art was not a priority back in the 90’s (people were just happy to be playing a game that used the brain), but if you’re launching a game in 2022, neglecting art can be a death knell to the whole project.
Obviously, most every mechanical aspect has improved since then; every designer today is standing on the shoulders of the giants who came before us. If you’re not spending the time to iron out the bugs and pain points of your 2022 design, I’d seriously sit down and question why!
But I think the most important change is simply how flooded the market is. In 1995, a board game reviewer could realistically play every single new release of the year. Today, you’d have to be playing 10 games each and every day just to stand a chance!
If you’re designing today, you have to TRULY stand out. You can’t just be last year’s game (or worse, last decade’s) with a slight tweak – you’re competing with hundreds of games being released in just the same month as yours. It’s great for consumers, but makes the work of a designer exponentially harder. But hey, that’s the gig!
