My Father’s Work Review
Those ignorant yokels will never understand the potential of your life’s work, now that very life is spent as the wretches cry and wail at your gates, brandishing torches and pitchforks and threatening all you have strived to achieve. It will be up to your progeny to carry on your most vital research. You were so close!
2-4 Players 180 mins Age 14+
Designer: T. C. Petty III
Artists: Anh Le Art, Cold Castle Studios, Eric Hibbeler, Damien Mammoliti, Janos Orban
Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
Walk THIS Way.
My Father’s Work tells an intergenerational tale of experimentation, madness and ambition wrapped in a gorgeously produced worker placement game from designer, T. C. Petty III and published by Renegade Game Studios. Players take on the role of the head of a family estate dedicated to achieving their life’s masterwork, an experiment that, if realised, will change the world and immortalise your family’s name in fame or infamy. But such a feat does not come without cost, your ambitions are beyond the limits of your meagre life span, it will take three generations of your family to finally stand a chance of achieving your goal. In the meantime, smaller experiments contribute towards your research, fund your estate and help maintain a careful balance between genius and insanity. Delving too deeply into questionable experimentation will turn the townsfolk against you, tread too carefully and you may never discover a vital breakthrough that could result in success.
My Father’s Work is an app driven worker placement game as ambitious as the patriarch (or matriarch) you play. The app presents a branching story based on the decisions the players make as they progress through this gloriously realised exploration of science and the occult, a perfect choice for those who enjoy a creepy and immersive tale during the Halloween season. I can feel several of you rolling your eyes at the mere mention of an app, “how dare a digital presence encroach on my analogue hobby” you probably scream at your phone or computer. To which I shrug and say, “eh.” It’s 2024, app driven board games are a thing now and have been for some time. What matters here is the experience the game provides and I can safely say, My Father’s Work is in a class of its own. I just hope you like reading, or at least listening to someone else read to you because this narrative game contains a lot of… well, narrative.
The game begins with players choosing from one of three stories, each with is own box of hidden goodies that the app will direct players to delve into at appropriate points during the game. Each player has an estate board and a selection of minis with various shaped bases representing the different roles of said minis, such as the player themselves, their spouse, caretakers and servants. Each role is used differently to fulfil certain tasks. Estates can be improved by purchasing upgrades throughout the game, these improvements persist between generations so there’s something to be said for planning ahead. This is one game that rewards the long play. As mentioned, the game takes pace over three generations of the player’s family, with only limited knowledge being passed down to the next generation. Each generation consists of three rounds of play, for a total of nine rounds. While on the surface an intergenerational game sounds like it would take an age to play, its actually rather restrained, every decision will matter and you can’t afford to waste a round on something frivolous. Thankfully almost everything you do is impactful and can benefit you in some small way, even its its gaining a couple of dollars or another resource, there’s seldom a wasted opportunity.
While much of the focus for the players will be on their estate and research, its the town map at the centre of the play area where most actions will take place. Over the course of the story, this town, which is presented in a ring-bound flip book, will grow and expand as a direct result of the players’ choices. Each time the town expands, new actions and options open up tot all the players. I found this to be one of the more compelling features of the game and it was exciting to see the town change as play progressed. It also left me wondering how events might play out differently in future play-throughs.
Play continues until the end of the third generation where players will score their final victory points determined by the decisions made during the game and the number of experiments completed, of course the real decider will be the master work. The successful conclusion to decades of dedication or fanatical obsession, completing your father’s work will result in a game changing score that could mark the difference between victory or defeat.
It’s Alive!
My Father’s Work is a game I found to stand out in a number of significant ways, the first of which, it’s an app assisted game where the app takes a backseat to the actual gameplay. Many other app assisted games cross the line into app driven, where the focus seems as much or more on the device than it does on the play area. Thank fully here, the app does its job of setting up the story and revealing the various twists and turns without feeling like you might as well be playing a computer game. Most of the app is the story being laid out in the form of flavour text with some of it voice acted, while other parts require the players to read. In fact, I dare say that in another day and age, the app itself could have been a form of choose your own adventure style book that players simply thumbed through to find the correct section to proceed. The fact that its automated here simply serves to keep the game moving forward placing the focus on the player’s experiences as it should be.
The branching story lines and occasional surprise awaits the players in the form of new components, cards and other more intriguing secrets that I won’t spoil here. Each boxed campaign contains its own unique adjustments and additions to the game, and each of the three stories can be played multiple times resulting in different components or outcomes depending on the player’s choices. The replay value here is extremely high, so there’s no fear of getting to the end of a campaign and feeling like you’ve experience it all. Reset everything and make a couple of different choices and you’ll find the game delivers a unique experience time and again.
For a game that appears so involved, each turn comes down to just a handful of choices resulting in quick, snappy turns that keep the momentum moving forward. Several times I felt like I’d only just completed one turn when suddenly the round was back to me again and another choice before me. This is to the game’s credit as I find many complex games in recent years result in rather slow, laborious rounds that drag the game far beyond its welcome. Not so with My Father’s Work.
Speaking of choices, players will have ample opportunity to stretch their thinking caps trying to decide where to direct their efforts next. While this can sometimes result in analysis paralysis, fear not, most decisions you make as a player will be to your benefit, even if they aren’t always optimal. Almost everything you do will result in you moving forward at least incrementally.
My Father’s Work does a wonderful job of creating a rich and deeply thematic experience where, over the course of the three generations of your family, you’ll begin to feel a sense of connection to the town as it expands and develops and to your own estate and the upgrades you’d purchased, seeing these aspects grow and change provides a sense of accomplishment. The world feels lived in and you start to feel like an integral part of that world.
One of the more original aspects for this worker placement game, were the way the workers themselves functioned. Each category of worker has their own base shape with differentiates them from one another. This is important since each type of worker can be used in certain ways. For instance, the mini representing you the player and head of your estate can go to any space on the estate board or the town and if in town, you receive double the benefit of the action spaces, whereas you caretakers, frightful to behold, can only take actions in your estate, but they aren’t frightened away at the end of each round like you spouse or servants would be. This again speaks to the variety of options laid out before you and the careful consideration required to navigate each round.
A Riot Is An Ugly Thing... And, I Think, That It Is Just About Time We Had One.
While My Father’s Work is certainly a well thought out experience, it does come at the cost of a steep learning curve. While not the most complex game out there by any means, it does require a substation information dump form the outset for new players. So taking the time to explain the essentials could be a bit of a drag for all concerned if the person explaining the game is unclear or unfamiliar themselves. This has more impact here since there is a growing escalation to the game that requires players to think several turns ahead in order to set themselves up for the next generation. A lack of understanding about the options before them could result in players making less than helpful choices and feeling like they’ve played themselves into a corner. My advise to players is, take the time to learn the game, watch how-to-play videos, read the rules and play a dummy game if you’re going to be the teacher or even Watch game play sessions if you’re not afraid of a few spoilers.
While the app does an admirable job of laying out the story, and much of it is voice acted, significant portions seem to be left for the players to read, and there is reading in abundance here! I’d recommend getting your strongest and most confident reader to take up this task as it will take a bit of time to get through the dialogue and players may find themselves skipping large tracts of narrative to get to the choices at the bottom. This is a shame as there is some excellent writing involved, but in a game that can easily take up to 3-4 hours at a full player count, shaving off a few minutes here and there will be tempting.
Speaking of time, as I alluded to just now, My Father’s Work is a hefty investment, so ensure you and your players are prepared to dedicate a full day/afternoon/evening to do this game justice. Our first time out at four players resulted in us playing a 2-hour game which only really covered the first generation and a half. Granted we were all learning for the first time, but it did wear us out a bit.
Given the care and attention to detail here, one minor niggle I found was how forgetful the townsfolk are between generations. No matter what horrors you’ve unleashed, once the game passes into the next generation, everyone conveniently forgets all that evil stuff you did and your Creepy and Insanity track will reset for the next stage. This seems like a missed opportunity to have further reaching consequences for particularly drastic decisions. Having an overarching reputation system could put more weight behind the players’ choices. Bigger rewards at greater long term cost could be an interesting addition.
He Would Have An Enormous Schwanzschtücker.
Beyond its gameplay, the area in which My Father’s Work really excels is its phenomenal production values. Seldom have I seen a game at this price point that was so really, really, really ridiculously good-looking. Featuring metal coins and resources, screen printed wooden tokens, washed minis, little glass jars with corks in them, a lavishly illustrated ring-bound village book, double layered player boards, and a functional, well designed box insert with a removable resource component tray that can be used during play, the presentation of My Father’s Work is nothing short of outstanding across the board. Perfect! No notes!
I mean just look!
Look at it!!!
It’s Pronounced Fronkensteen!
I absolutely loved my time with My Father’s Work! Meaningful players choices, gently competitive gameplay, branching storyline’s with unlock-able content that can be replayed again and again with variable outcomes all wrapped up in a gorgeous package that you’d want on full display just because. This has quickly become one of my favourite worker placement games, not to mention my go-to game for Halloween, the theme, the art and presentation and the creepy b-movie influences come together to provide an experience that is greater than the sum of its very attractive parts. Did I mention how pretty this game is? I did… okay then.
Thank you for taking the time to read my gushing thoughts on My Father’s Work. I hope you enjoyed this review and if you’ve experienced this game yourself I’d love to hear your experiences with it, so please feel free to comment below or over on Above Board’s Facebook group or our Instagram. In the meantime, enjoy this spooky season safely and I hope you’ll come back for my further review in the future. Take care!
