{"id":14985,"date":"2023-04-17T19:15:33","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T19:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/?p=14985"},"modified":"2023-08-30T19:25:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T19:25:28","slug":"whale-to-look-%e3%82%af%e3%82%b8%e3%83%a9%e3%82%aa%e3%83%ab%e3%82%ab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/blog\/2023\/04\/17\/whale-to-look-%e3%82%af%e3%82%b8%e3%83%a9%e3%82%aa%e3%83%ab%e3%82%ab\/","title":{"rendered":"Whale to Look – \u30af\u30b8\u30e9\u30aa\u30eb\u30ab"},"content":{"rendered":"
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J\u2019aime beaucoup les petits jeux de l\u2019\u00e9diteur japonais Oink Games, mes pr\u00e9f\u00e9r\u00e9s \u00e9tant sans doute leurs trois grands succ\u00e8s, A Fake Artist Goes to New York, Deep Sea Adventure<\/em> et Insider<\/em>, mais aussi d\u2019autres dont on parle moins, Durian, Mr Face, In a Grove<\/em> ou Kobayakawa<\/em>. J\u2019aime aussi leur format, des petites boites bien remplies \u00e0 l\u2019esth\u00e9tique minimaliste. Lors de mes voyages au Japon, \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9poque o\u00f9 j\u2019\u00e9tais un peu tout le temps au Japon, j\u2019ai en outre eu l\u2019occasion de croiser Jun Sasaki, cr\u00e9ateur de la boite et auteur de la plupart des jeux, et l\u2019ai trouv\u00e9 fort sympathique.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Le format, les jeux, l\u2019\u00e9diteur, cela faisait trois bonnes raisons pour essayer de temps \u00e0 autre de caser un jeu chez l\u2019\u00e9diteur tokyo\u00efte. J\u2019en ai m\u00eame con\u00e7u un sp\u00e9cialement pour leurs petites boites, Maracas, qui a fini chez Blue Orange. Ne d\u00e9sesp\u00e9rant jamais, j\u2019ai, fin 2022, encore envoy\u00e9 les r\u00e8gles d\u2019un petit jeu m\u00ealant m\u00e9moire, estimation et prise de risque, qui n\u2019avait pas encore de th\u00e8me. Jun et son \u00e9quipe l\u2019on essay\u00e9, l\u2019ont trouv\u00e9 un peu trop exigeant et m\u00e9chant pour leur public familial, mais Jun m\u2019a demand\u00e9 s\u2019il pouvait essayer de le retravailler. \u00c0 partir de la m\u00e9canique principale, les cartes cach\u00e9es regard\u00e9es \u00e0 tour de r\u00f4le par les diff\u00e9rents joueurs et les paris sur la valeur d\u2019un groupe de cartes, il a imagin\u00e9 tr\u00e8s rapidement quelque chose de plus l\u00e9ger, et trouv\u00e9 un th\u00e8me amusant, l\u2019observation des baleines et des orques. Le d\u00e9veloppement du jeu, que je n\u2019ai regard\u00e9 que d\u2019assez loin, s\u2019est donc fait tr\u00e8s rapidement, au Japon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J\u2019aime beaucoup le titre anglais, Whale to Look, que certains Am\u00e9ricains auraient sans doute trouv\u00e9 raciste s\u2019il n\u2019avait \u00e9t\u00e9 imagin\u00e9 par un japonais. Le mat\u00e9riel, comme toujours chez Oink et comme vous pouvez le voir sur les photos, est extr\u00eamement mignon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dans Whale to Look, les joueurs emm\u00e8nent des touristes observer les baleines et les orques, mais il faut viser juste pour apercevoir les animaux. La baleine est toujours dans le coin o\u00f9 il y a le plus de poissons, la grande orque dans celui o\u00f9 il y en a le moins, et chacun \u00e0 son tour, avant d\u2019envoyer un bateau, peut regarder l\u2019une des cartes qui constituent la mer et voir le nombre de poissons qui y figurent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whale to Look est un jeu de d\u00e9duction, mais pas un pur jeu de logique. Si chacun dispose d’informations objectives, les cartes qu’il a vues, on ne peut gagner qu’en interpr\u00e9tant aussi correctement les actions des autres joueurs, et il peut parfois avoir un peu de bluff. Les jeux de ce type sont assez peu nombreux. les deux qui me viennent \u00e0 l’esprit, deux jeux que j’appr\u00e9cuie beaucoup, sont Cursed Court<\/em>, de Andrew Hanson, et Divinare<\/em>, de Brett J. Gilbert. Si vous aimez vraiment l’un de ces deux jeux, vous pouvez acheter Whale to Look les yeux ferm\u00e9s.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Whale to Look<\/em>, en japonais la baleine blanche et la grande orque<\/em>, est publi\u00e9 pour l’instant dans une \u00e9dition bilingue fran\u00e7ais-japonais. J’ignore quand et comment le jeu sera distribu\u00e9 en Europe ou en Am\u00e9rique, mais vous pouvez commander le jeu sur le site de l’\u00e9diteur<\/a>. Vous pouvez m\u00eame y acheter une peluche r\u00e9versible, baleine blanche d’un c\u00f4t\u00e9, orque de l’autre…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whale to Look – \u30af\u30b8\u30e9\u30aa\u30eb\u30ab
Un jeu de Jun Sasaki et Bruno Faidutti
2 \u00e0 5 joueurs \u2013 30 minutes
Publi\u00e9 par Oink Games<\/a><\/em>
Boardgamegeek<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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I really like the line of small games by Japanese publisher Oink games. My favorite ones are their three big hits, <\/em>A Fake Artist Goes to New York, Deep Sea Adventure and <\/em>Insider, but also lesser known ones, <\/em>Durian, Mr Face, In a Grove or <\/em>Kobayakawa. I also like the format, small boxes filled to the brim and a deliberately minimalistic aesthetic. While traveling in Japan, which I used to do a lot, I had the chance to meet Jun Sasaki, the founder of the company and designer of most of its games, and it is a really nice guy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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The format, the games, the publisher, I had three good reasons to regularly try to have one my own small designs published by Oink. I even designed one specifically for their small rectangular boxes, <\/em>Maracas, which in the end was published by Blue Orange. In late 2022, I sent them the rules and files for a small game, a mix of memory, estimation and risk taking. It was still an abstract game, I had not found a suitable theme. Jun and his team played it, found it too unforgiving, too much of a brain burner, for their line of light party and family games, but Jun asked me if he could try to rework it. Starting anew from the core system, hidden cards which players look at on turn before betting on the value of a group of cards, he designed something much lighter, and found a cute and suitable setting, ships carrying tourists to look at white whales and orcas. The development was very fast and made entirely in house in Tokyo, while I only vaguely looked at it from afar. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I especially like the English title of the game, <\/em>Whale to look, a pun which Americans would probably have thought racist if it had not been devised by a Japanese! The components, as always with Oink, are incredibly cute, as you can see on the pictures. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The players in <\/em>Whale to Look own ships and carry tourists whale watching. Most looked after are the big white whale and the big orca. The white whale is always in the place with the most fishes around, the orca in the place with the fewest ones. Every round, before sending their ship somewhere, players can secretly look at one of the sea cards and see the fishes on it. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whale to Look is a deduction game, but not a purely logical one. Every one has some infos, the cards they have seen, but one cannot win without also reading into the opponents moves, which means there is sometimes a bit of bluffing. There are few games like this, and the only two ones which I can think of now are Andrew Hanson’s <\/em>Cursed Court and Brett J. Gilbert’s <\/em>Divinare. If you like one of these games, you are sure to enjoy playing <\/em>Whale to Look.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Whale to Look, in Japanese <\/em>The white whale and the orca,<\/em> is published so far in a blingual Japanese-English version. I have no idea if and when it will be available in the West, but you can order it from the publisher’s website<\/a>. They even sell a reversible plushy, whale one one side, orca on the other. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whale to Look – \u30af\u30b8\u30e9\u30aa\u30eb\u30ab
A game by Jun Sasaki and Bruno Faidutti
2 to 5 players \u2013 30 minutes
Published par Oink Games<\/a><\/em> (2023)
Boardgamegeek<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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