Nightmare Productions

Do you know how horror movies are made? I now do thanks to Reiner Knizia’s Nightmare Productions from Trick or Treat Studios. Apparently all of the film big wigs get together and bid for the various creatures, locations, directors, props, musical composers and cameos needed to make a new horror movie, and when they have everything needed the movie is released and kudos is awarded.

Nightmare Productions is a remake of Dream Factory originally released in 2000, which was themed on the ‘golden age’ of cinema. I haven’t played the original version so this review will not be focusing on what’s different between the two games, rather I have just looked at the new game as a big Reiner Knizia and horror fan.

So does this game give me that awesome feeling of watching a brilliant scary movie or does it end up being a disappointment like some of those ‘mock’ scary movies that appear on TV at 3am? Read on to find out.

Money’s Too Tight To Mention

This game is based around a ‘closed economy bidding’ mechanism which means that everyone is dealt the same amount of money at the beginning of the game and that is the only money that can be used to bid each turn. The winner of the bids will receive the item whilst the losers will receive the winners winning bid shared equally (any left over money will be left in that space for the next round).

This clever system means that no player can run away with the game as for every bid you win your ability to win more bids is reduced until you lose a few of them and get some money back. I love this mechanism and I wish more games included it.

Do You Like Scary Movies?

The game is played over four rounds where you will bid for all of the components needed to complete your screenplays. Each round will include six bidding phases (with two to three tiles) as well as two phases where players will draft tiles (1 tile per player) according to who has the most creatures and cameo tiles. Whenever you receive tiles (through bidding or drafting) you must immediately place them on an uncompleted screenplay in the relevant space (as indicated by the symbol). You can discard any unwanted tiles or replace previously placed tiles on uncompleted screenplays. The contract tiles can go on any space except the cameo space. Every tile you draft has a star rating ranging from o to 4.

A screenplay is considered completed as soon as all spaces are taken up (apart from the cameo space which doesn’t need to be completed but you really should try to for the extra points). Then you will count up all the stars on your screenplay and then take the points token equivalent to your star score. If there is no points token for your score you take the next one available below your score.

I really like the creature tiles as well as the props, locations and cameos. The artwork by Dug Nation is really good (think cheesy 70’s horror) and fits the game perfectly. Disappointment comes from the director and music composer tiles as these just say ‘director’ & ‘music composer’. Why didn’t they put some funny titles like ‘Steven Scareberg’ for director etc. A missed opportunity for sure.

And The Winner Is…

An award (worth 5 points) is given to the first player to complete a screenplay in each of the three categories of horror tropes (Supernatural, Creature, Slasher). Then at the end of rounds one, two and three a best movie award (5 points each) is given to the player with the highest scoring screenplay. This could be the same movie all three times so it is worth trying to maximise a screenplay as quickly as possible.

After the fourth round is completed awards are handed to the player who has the best screen play in each of the three horror tropes (worth 10 points each) as well as a 10 points award for the worst movie (lowest points total screenplay) and the best casting for the player who has the highest combined star value of their creatures and legendary creatures.

Final scores are tallied by combining all of your completed screenplay points, your awards and one point per million dollars left in your reserve. Ties are broken by the player with the highest ratings marker.

Nightmare Productions

Irony that the name of the game is one of the biggest problems I have with it. Some of the production decisions seem to defy logic. The worst offender is that at the beginning of the game you are expected to shuffle all of the productions tiles (89 of them) and then create a pile face down. Why not just include a large drawstring bag for all of them to be placed in and then drawn randomly. It seems like such an easy solution to a time related problem. Next is the awards handed out. I don’t understand why a corresponding picture of the award is not on the board so you know where to put them every time without having to refer to the rules.

This is not a cheap game and I wonder whether savings could have been made with a reduction in the cardboard thickness of the production tiles, reducing the board size and the large standing up awards and maybe even a smaller box.

But don’t get me wrong, the game looks great on the table and will certainly attract people over to play it. And with the quality of the cardboard used the game will continue to look good for some time.

It’s Alive

I am super happy that this game is back in print and with a great theme. I really like the closed economy bidding and the star based points systems. I also really like the art work which is not scary but rather just funny. It is a shame they didn’t lean further into the comedy aspect with naming funny directors and music composers.

The game length sits very comfortably at 30 to 45 minutes with no opportunity for analysis paralysis. The game does take too long to set up mostly due to the tiles all requiring to be shuffled and placed face down (a problem I resolved by using my own drawstring bag) as well as placing all of the points ratings markers.

Like all Reiner Knizia games the actual gameplay is solid with lovely little touches and easy to explain rules. I recommend this game if you like bidding with a clever twist or you like the idea of the theme.

Just watch out……..they’re behind you!!!!!