This weekend I had the pleasure of dining at a local restaurant called Bulrush. It’s the closest experience I’ve ever had to the best parts of the movie The Menu (with none of the drama, fortunately).
Bulrush’s menu focuses solely on St. Louis/Ozark ingredients. In fact, the head chef mentioned that he had foraged for several of the ingredients himself just a few days before our meal.
As a result, the menu–it’s a tasting menu, so it’s the same for all guests–is highly seasonal. Our double date friends had previously visited Bulrush in the winter, and their meal was completely different.
With our meal as amazing as it was, we’re excited to return for the summer menu in a few months, the fall menu after that, and so on. The combination of the experience and the seasonal element of Bulrush instantly created repeat customers.
I’ve written about seasonal specials before, but I wanted to return to the topic in the context of Bulrush because I now know that digital games also use seasonality as a motivator for customers to return to the game. Marvel Snap is broken into themed seasons, Path of Exile releases new challenges every season, and World of Warcraft offers special skins and abilities during various seasons. Even Wingspan Digital has different seasonal backgrounds and other visual effects. I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg (I don’t know much about digital games).
The closest corollary to tabletop games I can think of are the rotating formats and sets for Magic the Gathering and semi-annual releases of new expansions of living card games like Arkham Horror and Marvel Champions.
Yet I’m wondering if seasonality could apply to any game, both for the benefit of the players and the publisher. While this could involve a new feature to buy, there doesn’t need to be a sales element to it. For example, we could announce a quarterly challenge and encourage people to post the results (start with specific cards, use a specific combination of goal tiles, etc). Maybe this is an opportunity to showcase print-and-play fan creations (custom Scythe factions, realms for Rolling Realms, birds for Wingspan, etc).
I think the keys are that (a) there’s something new and (b) it’s communicated to a large enough group of people–i.e., on the game’s Facebook group, BoardGameGeek, and Discord–that there is a high level of collective excitement and participation.
What do you think? Have you seen a successful implementation of a seasonal “menu” for tabletop games? If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them in the comments below!
UPDATE: Alert readers noted that the game Meadow has envelopes to open and add to the game in different seasons, Welcome To (and Dice Throne) have holiday-specific modes and characters, and The City of Kings has some holiday-inspired stories, setups, and objectives.
PS. I added Bulrush to my list of food recommendations in St. Louis.
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13 Comments on “Are You Motivated by Seasonal Menus?”
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[…] week I wrote about seasonal menus at restaurants and seasonal modes in video games, and several alert readers mentioned a few tabletop games that feature a seasonal twist. I wanted […]
One of my FAVORITE video games growing up was Harvest Moon from Natsume Inc. and I always relished the seasonal play because it was so fun to look forward to what I could possibly grow next on the farm. Not only that but there were many layers that evolved from what you grew because you could store it for future recipes that were discovered along the way in the game (mostly from talking to people or gifting them). The townspeople would be in different locations/have unique outlooks on their circumstances depending upon the time of the year…It was just such an engaging experience that I would even take notes as I played or afterwards…I literally journaled and sketched drawings of people I met, where I could find them in each season, and what I could learn from them. I agree this could be a fruitful iceberg concept to iterate on from video games. I’d love to thread this is any of my games if I could because I know for myself it created happy-suspense and player motivation. Also, since you seem to be a foodie like myself & have a list for places to eat: If you ever find yourself in the little town of Weston, MO~ check out “Noah’s Cupboard”. As a vegetarian I was always able to find something to eat there. I live in VA now with a plethora of options, and that restaurant is still my favorite. Ever.
Thank you for sharing your experiences with Harvest Moon, Natalie, and I’m excited to try Noah’s Cupboard the next time I visit Kansas City.
Catan has some fun print and play seasonal scenarios. We played last Sunday in honor of Klaus Teuber, but forgot to add the Easter Bunny scenario.
(https://www.catan.com/sites/default/files/2021-08/200409_catan-scenario_easter_bunny.pdf)
There was also a Santa Claus scenario for Christmas. I can’t find a link, but it’s exactly the same as the Easter Bunny, but with different art.
I may have to add Bulrush to my list when I eventually head back to Missouri, the food looks great!
For The City of Kings ( a few years back now ) I released seasonal scenarios as print & play offerings for the game.
They came in the form of a PDF that contained a short story, setup, and objective that then offered a single play of the game. In the end I created 4 of these:
– New Year, new life (New Year)
– Wintermas (Christmas)
– The grey queen’s name-day (Birthdays)
– All hallows eve (Halloween)
I think this is a really great way to periodically create buzz and excitement around a scenario and/or story driven game. While it does take some effort, I found it was worth it and effectively less costly than other marketing options.
Additionally, it offered the opportunity to release these as a pack once a set was available – I have similar plans for Race to the Raft and would love to see more people exploring this.
Frank: Bulrush is my treat if you make your way back to St. Louis in the future!
I love what you shared here about The City of Kings, and this effort will inspire me to try something like this too. Thanks!
Thank you for creating bridges between apparently distant concepts, Jamey! And for mentioning The Menu, one of the best movies I watched recently.
I can share a related experience of mine. In May last year, we released a free print&play of a digital hybrid game. It is about spaceships shooting each other: you play the game, take a picture of the table, and the software unfolds the battle for you.
Usually, spaceships fire laser beams, but in December, we made them shoot candy sticks and Christmas lights.
Over the month the skin was active, we experienced an increase of 150% in the games played. It is hard to say whether this was for the skin change or because people simply had more time to play games during their holidays.
Anyways, players responded very positively to the way we wished them a good holiday season (we have a feedback function in the app), and I had the impression myself that the game felt newer and fresher when I played it.
Of course, we used technology to deliver the ‘seasonality.’ Still, I wanted to share our attempt as I am very excited about what can be achieved by game designers and publishers by bringing such seasonal menus to the gaming table!
“Usually, spaceships fire laser beams, but in December, we made them shoot candy sticks and Christmas lights.” That’s brilliant! It’s neat to hear that people engaged so immediately with it. What’s the name of your game?
I am glad you like the idea! It was really fun to pick the Christmas-themed effects.
We reimplemented Tom Jolly and James Ernest’s Light Speed. The game is really cool, but players had to check every single line of sight by hand, making its resolution a bit cumbersome. My company Tablescope developed the tech, the p&p compatible with it, and a few new twists made possible by the digital hybrid approach.
Light Speed is an amazing game, and I bought the “Stellar Conflict” remake a while ago. Great concept to make the battle digital!
It might not be quite what you mean, but this made me think of the Welcome To… expansions, each with seasonal elements, and all playing slightly different.
It’s definitely in the same realm. Dice Throne has something kind of like this with their Santa/Krampus-themed factions.
It sounds like a great idea to me.