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Normale Ansicht

Published — 02. September 2026 ⏭ Pektis Studio

The Problem With Every Co-op Game

✇Pektis Studio
Von: Pektis Studio
02. September 2026 um 16:30

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Cooperative board games put everyone on the same team — but almost every one of them runs into the same design flaw: the quarterback problem. One player, usually the most confident or most experienced, ends up making every decision for the whole table while everyone else just follows along.

This video breaks down why that happens — the same thing that makes co-op games feel social (full shared information) is exactly what lets one person take over. Then we look at the two design tools that actually fix it: hidden information (giving each player something only they control) and split-the-table pressure (throwing enough problems at once that the group has to divide up).

We also talk about what studying this problem taught us at Pektis — even though our own games, Fintastic Sea (an ecosystem-building card game) and Wanderlust (a route-building travel game), are competitive. The lesson still applies: every player, in every game, needs a reason to care about their own turn.

Pektis Studio is an indie board game publisher. We make games and we talk honestly about how they're designed.
🐠 Fintastic Sea and 🌍 Wanderlust — links in our profile.

00:00 The person who takes over every co-op game
00:34 What a co-op game actually is
00:54 The quarterback problem
01:28 Why co-op invites it
02:08 Hidden information
02:46 Split-the-table pressure
03:23 Spotting great co-op design


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ABOUT PEKTIS STUDIO
We're a three-person indie board game studio in Offenbach, Germany. We've published Fintastic Sea, an ecosystem-building card game, and Wanderlust, a route-building travel game with 68 destinations. We're currently building Battle of the Knollen — a fantasy battle game with potato heroes — and sharing the design process as we go.

BATTLE OF THE KNOLLEN:
Follow the campaign on Gamefound:
→ https://gamefound.com/de/projects/pektis/battle-of-the-knollen

OUR GAMES
Fintastic Sea → https://www.pektis.com/de/product-page/fintastic-sea
Wanderlust → https://www.pektis.com/de/product-page/wanderlust-discover-the-world-kickstarter-edition

Join our discord for playtesting→ https://discord.com/invite/z7HxDcfEgX

Follow us on Instagram for behind-the-scenes! https://www.instagram.com/pektis.studio/

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