Feld's New Horizon: Sandcastles of Burgundy & Gateway Design

Stefan Feld. The name alone conjures images of intricate scoring mechanisms, multi-layered resource management, and the satisfying crunch of a perfectly executed 'point salad' turn. So when whispers of his 44th design, 2025's The Sandcastles of Burgundy, reached our ears, the Crit Sheet team braced for another masterpiece of strategic depth. What we found, however, was a delightful departure: Feld's inaugural children's game, co-designed with his wife Susanne Feld, an elementary school teacher. This isn't just another title; it’s a fascinating insight into design philosophy, stripped down to its most fundamental elements.

Gone are the myriad tracks, complex multipliers, and the agonizing decisions between equally lucrative paths. The Sandcastles of Burgundy, or simply *Sandcastles*, streamlines the core Feldian loop into something accessible to younger minds. While full mechanics remain under wraps, the premise suggests players will be constructing a kingdom to impress Queen Crab. We can infer a simplified dice-rolling mechanism, perhaps a single die or two, where results dictate which ‘sandcastle’ tiles can be claimed from a central market. These tiles, representing various parts of a burgeoning coastal kingdom—a market stall, a fishing pier, a royal garden—are then placed onto a personal player board. The elegance, I predict, will lie in the placement bonuses; perhaps adjacent tiles of certain types grant small, immediate rewards, or completing specific rows/columns triggers a bonus. The ‘point salad’ isn't eliminated, but rather miniaturized: instead of calculating end-game majorities across five categories, players might simply count unique tile types or complete small sets. The genius here, surely, is Susanne Feld’s influence, ensuring clarity of iconography and intuitive decision-making, allowing children to grasp core board game concepts without cognitive overload. It’s a masterclass in elegant simplification, teaching resource allocation and spatial reasoning through play.

The premise is charmingly simple: the esteemed Queen Crab has announced her intention to visit your kingdom, and players must prepare by constructing the most impressive sandcastles and coastal amenities. This isn't the gritty medieval Europe of his namesake Burgundy game, nor the scientific pursuits of Bora Bora. Instead, it’s a vibrant, almost whimsical tableau. Imagine bright, chunky tiles depicting smiling crabs, playful dolphins, and colorful beach paraphernalia. The lore serves a crucial purpose in a children’s game: it provides immediate thematic grounding, making the abstract mechanics of tile placement and set collection feel purposeful and engaging. Queen Crab isn’t just a victory condition; she’s a character, a narrative hook that transforms a dry puzzle into an imaginative quest. This is essential for young players, who often connect more deeply with story than pure systems. It’s a lesson many TTRPG designers could learn: sometimes, simple, evocative fluff is far more effective than dense, impenetrable lore.

Is *Sandcastles* good for the game? Absolutely. For the veteran gamer, it offers a fascinating glimpse into a design philosophy stripped down to its essentials. For the TTRPG Game Master, this is an invaluable tool for cultivating the next generation of players. It teaches turn structure, basic strategy, and the joy of seeing your plans come to fruition, all without the pressure of complex rule sets. Think of it as a primer for systems thinking, a foundational step before graduating to more intricate board games or even the collaborative storytelling of an RPG. It’s a testament to Feld’s versatility and, more importantly, a vital contribution to the hobby’s future. Gateway games are the lifeblood of our community, and *Sandcastles* appears poised to be an exceptional one, bridging the gap between simple play and strategic depth. It proves that even the most celebrated designers can find new challenges and, in doing so, enrich the entire tabletop ecosystem. If you’re looking to introduce the younglings to the magic of tabletop, keep an eye on this one. For those who want to see where Feld's design journey began in terms of complexity, check out The Castles of Burgundy Special Edition.