Donald X. Vaccarino

Donald X. Vaccarino (born 1969) is an American board and card game designer. He published the card game Dominion in 2008, which won the Spiel des Jahres award along with many others, and has had 16 expansions.[note 1][1] Dominion and its expansions have sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide, as of 2017.[2] His 2012 game Kingdom Builder also won the Spiel des Jahres award.[3]

With Dominion, Vaccarino has been credited with pioneering the genre of deck-building games.[4] Dominion has been studied academically as a test-bed for how evolving game rules can create balanced play.[5]

Life and work

Vaccarino got his first full-time job as a programmer at age 16, before becoming self-employed as a game designer around 1994.[6][7] Vaccarino was influenced by Magic: The Gathering and was credited with contributing to the game in the Comprehensive Rules of Magic.[8] Vaccarino's games have been published by companies including Rio Grande Games[9] and Queen Games.[10]

Selected works

Vaccarino's published works include:[11]

  • 2008: Dominion
  • 2009: Dominion: Intrigue
  • 2009: Dominion: Seaside
  • 2010: Dominion: Alchemy
  • 2010: Dominion: Prosperity
  • 2011: Dominion: Cornucopia
  • 2011: Dominion: Hinterlands
  • 2011: Nefarious
  • 2011: Nitroplus Card Masters
  • 2012: Dominion: Dark Ages
  • 2012: Kingdom Builder
  • 2012: Monster Factory
  • 2012: Gauntlet of Fools
  • 2012: Android: Infiltration
  • 2012: Kingdom Builder: Nomads
  • 2013: Dominion: Guilds
  • 2013: Kingdom Builder: Crossroads
  • 2014: Temporum
  • 2014: Piña Pirata
  • 2014: Greed
  • 2015: Dominion: Adventures
  • 2016: Dominion: Empires
  • 2016: Kingdom Builder: Marshlands
  • 2017: Temporum: Alternate Realities
  • 2017: Kingdom Builder: Harvest
  • 2018: Dominion: Nocturne
  • 2019: Dominion: Renaissance
  • 2020: Dominion: Menagerie
  • 2020: Winter Kingdom
  • 2022: Dominion: Allies
  • 2022: Dominion: Plunder
  • 2024: Dominion: Rising Sun

Personal life

Vaccarino lives in California with at least two daughters.[6]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Two of the expansions, Cornucopia and Guilds, were later combined into one.

References

  1. ^ "Dominion Announces 15th Expansion". GAMING. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  2. ^ "Table-top Generals". The Economist. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  3. ^ "Kingdom Builder". Spiel des Jahres. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  4. ^ Livingstone, Ian; Wallis, James (2019-09-17). Board Games in 100 Moves. Penguin. p. 150. ISBN 978-1-4654-9871-7.
  5. ^ Mahlmann, Tobias; Togelius, Julian; Yannakakis, Georgios N. (June 2012). "Evolving card sets towards balancing dominion". 2012 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation. pp. 1–8. doi:10.1109/CEC.2012.6256441. ISBN 978-1-4673-1509-8. S2CID 15555254.
  6. ^ a b Dagmar (2021-02-03). "Spelauteur onder het vergrootglas: Donald X. Vaccarino – Spellengek" (in Dutch). Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  7. ^ "Interview with Donald X. Vaccarino | Donald X. Vaccarino". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  8. ^ Hiwiller, Zack (2018-08-14). The Game Designer's Playlist: Innovative Games Every Game Designer Needs to Play. Addison-Wesley Professional. ISBN 978-0-13-487329-9.
  9. ^ "Dominion". Rio Grande Games. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  10. ^ "Kingdom Builder". Queen Games - Connecting Generations. 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  11. ^ "Donald X. Vaccarino". www.luding.org. Retrieved 2022-11-29.