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It’s a game where you play an animal and it’s named after a Mediaeval command. Yep, that’ll do me. Need to know more? Here’s a quick reminder:
The Emperor Keralon is mad. His own daughter Lemron is starting a rebellion against him. Throughout the land, Leaders of the five most powerful houses of Oshra are gathering their armies. They want to extend their realm in the power vacuum of a civil war. Will you be victorious in battle and emerge as the most powerful dynasty of Oshra? Yield is set in the world of Oshra. and its story plays out 43 years prior to the events in Hidden Leaders.
2-5 players represent Leaders of powerful houses and try to conquer (and keep!) as many fortresses over 3 game rounds or 12 player turns as possible. You do this by commanding 3 armies across a tactical map by selecting action cards from your hand. Recruit units, conquer fortresses and defeat opponents in battles.
After 3 rounds the player with the most victory points in form of controlled fortresses wins the game.
Here’s designer Raphael Stocker to tell us more about this fantastic and fantastical game.
Let’s get the important stuff out of the way: name a time when you wish you had or you could use the exclamation ‘Yield!’ in a conversation. I feel like it should become the endpoint of social media posts, where one has undoubtedly won a conversational duel.
We made a joke when launching which was “We are live on Kickstarter. Yield your purse now” 😀
Give us some background. Is this your first board game? If so, what did you do before this?
Yield is our 2nd standalone board game. During the pandemic we developed our first board game called “Hidden Leaders” and later did an expansion for it as well. While Yield is set in the same world, they are very different mechanically.
What's the first board game you remember playing? And what's the first one you fell in love with, and why?
I think the first one was either Rummy or Uno, but the first I really fell in love with were “The Mole Company” and “The crazy Labrinth” which we played like all day long.
Who’s on the team? How well does the team interweave together?
At the core we at BFF Games are 3 friends – Markus, Andreas and Raphael – who grew up together playing board games and RPGs. But taking a closer look, we have immense support from our graphic designer Nacho in Spain as well as the amazing artists Satoshi Matsuura from Japan and Luigi Sampieri from Mexico.
How long has it taken to develop Yield? Did development fit comfortably into your daily life?
Developing Yield took about two and a half years before launching the Kickstarter, but based on playtests we further finetuned it until August 2024 still. In general, we develop board games next to our (family) lives and day jobs, which means that even if the project is smaller in size, it takes up more time. For Yield specifically, I worked part-time for half a year while the others had a little less time. We don’t want and need to rush any development, that is why we don’t release a game like every year, but that is ok for us. It is simply amazing to see and read people playing our games.
What’s the main inspiration behind Yield? Which board games it’s similar to? What kind of gamer would you recommend Yield to?
Us three love to play very competitive board games and amongst them stood out a classic named “Maria”. But the game was really hard to table due its play time of around 3-4 hours. We loved the concept so much that we tried to strip down the elements to the core mechanic of battling over territories using different suits and that is when we began to start developing Yield.
Have there been any major hiccups during development, and if so how were they overcome? How has playtesting helped in this area?
The only major hiccup was balancing the asymmetric player abilities, because there are 10 different ones in the base game and another 10 in the expansion. So, with a total of 20 abilities some where simply too strong or rather underwhelming compared to others. While we tried to balance them ourselves, it was so helpful and necessary to gather playtesters feedback, who hadn’t played Yield a hundred times already. Our goal is to make our games as approachable for beginners while maintaining strategic decisions to explore.
Which is your favourite mechanic within the game?
My favourite mechanism is the battle system. You can only play cards which follow the suits your armies are standing on. So, if you are standing only on red spaces and don’t have any red cards, you are doomed. That is why you have to be ready thoughtful about where to move and where to maybe even lose a battle in order to win in the end
This is becoming a bit of a hot topic. What’s your thoughts on AI in game design? This doesn’t apply directly to your game as you have an artist with a distinct human style, but there are games out there which are heading to crowdfunding that seem to rely on it heavily. Is there room for AI in game design? Is there a limit to its acceptable use?
We have discussed this amongst ourselves too as this is coming up in various groups on a regular thesis. We believe that AI in board games is ok when having a prototype or such to better immerse play in the first stages. In final products we think AI has no place. The most important thing is to be upfront with your community, when using AI.
Yield is a competitive game. Was this borne out of the civil war theme, or was it always your intention to go competitive over cooperative?
As said before, our game group really enjoys the competitive nature of board games. When designing board games, we usually have the mechanics we want to use first and at a later point Andreas - our story- and worldbuilder – then fits it into our world. So with each game, our worlds expands and gets more detailed.
What do you play in your spare time between sessions?
Next to my play group at BFF Games I also have another group of 3 guys. We meet every Tuesday to play cooperative campaign games like Sleeping Gods, Frosthaven and most recently Etherfields. With Tanares Adventures, Oathsworn or I.S.S Vanguard we still have a couple of games sitting on our shelf waiting to be explored in the future.
Which one game do you wish you'd designed yourself?
I was blown away by the first legacy game I played, which was “Pandemic Season 1”. It brought so much joy into our lives it will always have a special place in my heart. Since then and up to this point I want to create a legacy game myself.
What advice would you give to other prospective designers? What advice would you give to yourself after a spot of time traveling?
First, designing board games doesn’t end with having a great product. Even if playtested to the limit, marketing is at least half the job to make your game a reality. Also, don’t be discouraged to ask for help and make sure to connect with the awesome community of game designers (via social media).
Going back to myself, I would probably say, that it is worth everything to work with professionals in the industry. Don’t try to save on money in the wrong places. Having a great artist and designers next to a good game idea makes all the difference.
How has the support been from the board gaming community?
Especially for our first game Hidden Leaders, I spend like 5 hours a week connecting with the community and asking for help. There is so much to learn still as the board gaming landscapes has shifted since, but I am so happy to have connected with all of them. They have helped with playtests, marketing tips, connecting with professionals or sharing their personal experiences which we could then build on.
How does it feel to finally launch?
To be honest, launching is both an amazing and intimidating feeling. You never know which side of the coin will come out on top! But we would never do it differently and rather gather together and enjoy the launch playing together and celebrating.
We'll finish on another vital question. Which house of Oshra would you choose to play as, and why? Just so we all get the inside scoop on who it’s best to play as…
I always enjoy a bit of chaos, that is why I love to play with House Skullfeast (black colour/Basil character) and embrace the power of the Undead Army.
That should be you on the hook, so head to the team’s website to learn even more.