by Jorge J Barroso

The other day, Eugeni Castaño and I were talking about how different it is to design different types of games. Eurogames are crafted, developed — you let the mechanisms or theme guide you, and the game grows with each play. Party games, on the other hand — as with fillers — find you. They appear on a random game night or pop up while you're doing something completely unrelated, and that's when the magic happens...but first, let's add a bit of context.

I ([user=flipper83]flipper83[/user]) generally tend to design Eurostyle games (like Phoenix: New Horizon or Concilium Urbis), and Eugeni ([user=Urgeniu]Urgeniu[/user]) excels across the board, though he truly shines when it comes to creating brilliant party games and fillers (like The Lie, Oh My Park!, or Imperfect Job).

We had just finished working together on Graffiti Rush, a family filler that plays and teaches in under a minute. We worked really well as a team, and more importantly, we had a blast developing it, so we started brainstorming ideas for future prototypes.

Eugeni and I usually work like this: We sit down (ideally in person), and we throw ideas at each other, one after another, until one of them hooks us, then we start playing around with it, pulling at the threads. After these sessions, we go home with four or five ideas, each of us committed to pushing them a little further. If I send Eugeni a voice message the next morning — or he sends me one — that means we've found a good one.

One of those ideas was "Palabrinto", a family word game in which players moved through a maze and had to say words without the other team figuring out what they were. It was a solid idea — and it worked — but party games have something that most other games don't: They're felt. When a party game ends, if no one wants to play again or if people aren't wiping away tears of laughter from what happened five minutes ago, then it's not a great party game.

And that's when the magic happened. During one of the test sessions for "Palabrinto", we had the idea of having players communicate the maze words using only a single consonant. We tested this idea, and it was a hit! Total laughter! That's when the game finds you. We looked at each other and said, "This is the game."

The other elements in "Palabrinto" were fun, but they just didn't reach the same level, so we made a few changes — just a few, but they were more than enough. Each player had six words for their team to guess, but they could use only a single consonant shown on the table. If, for example, the word was "family" and the chosen letter was "b", the player would say "babibi", using miming or gestures to help their team guess the word.

First or second game testing, and trying to say "elevator" with the letter "f"
We had stumbled upon a pure party game — easy to explain in one minute and super simple to test. We started trying it out with friends and family, and the test was clear: If people wanted to play again and if they laughed — and if they remembered the game days later — then it was a good party game.

And that's exactly what happened. Some fellow designers still laugh and bring up moments from those playtests when they see us.

At that point, all that was left was to find the game a home. In 2023, we went to DAU, a board game event in Barcelona, where we ran into the folks from 2Tomatoes Games. We convinced them to give the game a try. After a session full of laughter, they fell in love with the project and believed in it from day one.

The truth is, though, this game wouldn't have been possible without the 2Tomatoes team, who backed it with a ton of enthusiasm.

One of the things we were most concerned about during development was how it would work in different languages. Spanish and Catalan were already thoroughly tested, and 2Tomatoes helped us a lot with the English version. I work for a German company with people from various countries, so I played a few games in English. It was hilarious to see a Spaniard, an Englishman, a German, and a Belgian all trying to pronounce made-up English words — that alone was already super fun.

Another key concern was replayability. Eugeni and I put together a massive word list — over 1,300 words! After a careful selection process, we ended up with just over one thousand words that guaranteed plenty of different and fun games.

Yes! We used Walkie Talkie board game cards. It's one of our favorite party games.
At the same time, 2Tomatoes was hard at work on TETO's visual identity and graphic design. Honestly, now that we see the final product, we have to admit they made some amazing design choices. The cover beautifully captures the essence of the game, and the production quality, especially the cards, is fantastic.

If you now have the game in your hands, try it out and let us know what you think. We'll be happy if it brings you even half as much laughter and joy as it brought us during development.


Now it's time to keep creating. I'll just say this: designing party games is the opposite of designing Eurogames, but it's just as fun — maybe even more. I don't think I have Eugeni's gift for creating hilarious situations between players, but I'll always be happy to contribute my little grain of sand whenever I can.

To fellow designers trying to create party games, my advice is: Don't force them. Look for funny, everyday situations — and if someone who doesn't know you isn't laughing or doesn't want to play again, ask yourself whether it's truly a good party game.

Jorge J. Barroso