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So, I need to preface this review by letting you all know that I am not a kickstarter addict like many of my fellow reviewers (and surely many of you). Not mentioning any names, you know who you are! I have been burned many times for backing cute looking games that turned out to be straight up stinky doggy doo doo. Here I WILL name names: Monstrosity – take-that chaos, Alien Petshop – straight up kids’ game, Dungeon Date - *shivers* there are no words egregious enough to describe. I feared Roll Camera might follow suite.
SPOILER ALERT! I would not be writing a review here for Zatu if Roll Camera actually did follow in the previous games’ stead. So just how did this game hold up? Now that requires a deeper dive…
Lean Bean Fighting Machine
Roll Camera is quite unexpectedly a totally cooperative undertaking. Usually, when you see cute looking games with gimmicky prefaces, they end up being take-that style games. I am thankful that it is not the case here. I think the world has by far enough games of this ilk. It was refreshing to simply see the word ‘cooperative’ attached to this game. Most cooperative games are big, chunky, intimidating looking games (by comparison). And in comparison to the take-that style games, I think the world could benefit from having more lighter hearted styled cooperative games.
This game is very easy to learn how to play. And if rule books make you groan then there is a very thorough, informative, and entertaining ‘how to play’ video on youtube from the designer himself. And another one for the B-side expansion if you have that too. The gameplay comes down to rolling some dice, assigning your dice to different spots that dictate actions, then removing the dice for the next player. It is that simple. But what is it you are actually doing? And why are you doing them?
Reservoir Beans
The aim of Roll Camera is to communally work towards filming the next big blockbuster. This includes everything from having the perfect script, building your set, and of course, filming your scenes. This is all determined by rolling dice and deciding where to place them. There are actions that can hold any die result, and actions that require specific die results, and there is also a VFX die result that acts as a wild result.
The nice little touch here is that some actions require several of the same die result. If you only roll 1 of the result needed, but that action is needed for the group, then you can still assign a die there. This means when it is time to take dice off the board to pass to the next player, you can opt to save any dice that didn’t trigger an action. If the next player rolls the result needed, then they can choose to complete this action on their turn instead. This gives a great sense of actually working together throughout turns.
One of my favourite actions in the game is the production meeting action. This allows you to pull together with your team mates to throw some ideas on the table. Quite literally. As well as rolling dice, you also have a small hand of idea cards that you are allowed to play when this action is taken. These idea cards essentially come in the form of little boons to help overcome challenges. There are always 3 idea cards presented, 1 from each player. Don’t worry, there are rules in play for 2 or 4 player games. The active player gets to play one idea immediately, bank a second one (that becomes an available dice placement option) and discards the third.
The Green Bean
The challenge in Roll Camera comes in twofold. At the start of each turn, you need to reveal a problem card. These are exactly what they say they are. From minor irritations to major thorns in the bum bum: these cards hinder your film making progress. In order to resolve them, you need to assign dice to their location. The longer you leave the problems unresolved, the further they slide down, and the harder they get to be rid of. These problems can stop you playing certain die results, make certain actions unavailable, and just all-round mess you up. But at least you are facing them together.
The second challenge comes from the budget and time scales that are perpetually winding down to your demise. That’s a bit dramatic isn’t it? A sprinkle of drama never hurts in selling a film. The dials actually just spin down to a studio shutdown. When either dial hits the lowest chevron then it is game over. (I wonder how many Stargate fans that sentence triggered.) Maybe someone should be offering up better ideas to help avoid this situation. The time dial spins down at the start of every turn, so you need to manage each dice roll efficiently to succeed. And the budget dial spins down mainly after every scene you film for your film.
There are of course some small ways to mitigate these problems and increase your time and budget, but they are very few and far between. You need to plan well and offer up good ideas at the right times to succeed. I presume. I have never actually won a game yet.
The Good…
There are some things that Roll Camera does really well. The set up for the three different difficulties with each player count are shown really clearly on the reverse of the dial counter that you use each turn. This simple little detail ticks my attentive boxes. I love that the way to win is to make a film that isn’t a flop, and there are two ways to do this. Slide the quality marker into one of the 6 top spots (out of 17) to achieve a film critique of ‘not bad’ to ‘cinematic masterpiece’. Or slide the quality marker all the way to the 1 spot on the bottom to win with a ‘so bad its great’ result.
Each player gets to choose from a whole host of different roles for making the film. From star actor/actress to film director and production designer etc. Each of these character boards have unique dice placement options for that player giving the game a small asymmetrical appeal. The best part of these boards however is that there is a male version of the character on one side and a female character on the other. Each of the characters also come with their own player aid that explains their unique dice placement options on one side, and those on the main board on the reverse side.
I also enjoy the script decks being separated into a top deck and a bottom deck. The top card of each of these decks combine to give you the title of your film, plus gives each game a unique end of game scoring result.
Little details like these really appeal to me and make me smile. They both give the game more depth, and a charming character. Which is only enhanced further with the charming artwork.
The Bean…
There is a lot to like about this game, but of course, no game is perfect. There are some caveats that you should be aware of. The main one of these being that the game is simply pretty damn hard, which contrasts its whimsical appearance. This mainly comes down to the game relying heavily on the luck of the dice dictating what you can and can’t do. The problem cards limit your options and some action spaces will often have banked dice placed on them. This beans you often end up with either not many dice to roll, or dice results you can’t use. Or both. This is especially frustrating when there is a lack of many dice mitigation options.
The problem cards also get on top of you very quickly. Only 3 can ever be out at the same time, but that can still be some heavy restrictions on the game. Sometimes it feels like the game is easier if you manage to fill the three slots with minor inconveniences and just play around them. This is less resource heavy than simply assigning dice every single turn to get rid of them.
...And The Ugly
This subtitle is a little misleading. It is simply there for the comedic continuation of the previous sections. There is nothing ugly about this game. Unless you are not a fan of the artwork. Then I guess the whole game is ugly for you.
For me though, I am pleasantly charmed by the artwork of Roll Camera. I love the stylised bean characters and find all the little details comical and interesting. I love the easy to recognise symbology. I love that the problem cards have a symbol on the reverse so that you have an idea of what the problem will affect. I love that the scene cards are monochrome to reflect the genre the scene is. And I love that when you film the scenes and move them over to your film reel, you flip them over to reveal their full colour side.
The component quality in Roll Camera is simply outstanding. Every piece from the rule book to the box to the dice to the game tray have been expertly crafted. The rulebook, main board, player board and all cards have been produced to the highest standard and have a such a lovely, tactile feeling to them.
That’s A Wrap!
I think Roll Camera is a game that you can tell straight off the bat if you are going to enjoy it or not. It is simple to understand with very few components, which makes it easily accessible for a wide age range of gamers. It comes in a uniquely shaped game box that opens and closes like one of those film thingies you always see being snapped shut before a take of a scene starts to be filmed. You know the thing I bean. Sorry, the thing I mean. The component tray is also in the shape of a film reel. It is gimmicky true, but with the box being designed vertically instead of horizontally, it is great that the component tray comes designed to close tightly shut without components falling everywhere.
I don’t think there is much here for seasoned gamers. I can see this game appealing well to those who game with their families, with different age groups or those with various gaming groups. It is a decent little all-rounder that doesn’t overstay it's welcome.
