Imagine a game of SETI. Your probe is still on its way, and the route you had your eye on suddenly changes. The solar system rotates one space, and the distance between your destination and your ship is no longer what it was a moment ago. You look down at your remaining resources, then up at the orbits, wondering whether you can still make it this trip.
This rotation makes players ask the question again: how do I get there?
Two other games Tomáš Holek released in the same year also put a similar question in players' hands. In Galileo Galilei, players turn a small telescope and decide how to carry out their observations at that moment. In Tea Garden, players weigh how to handle the tea leaves in hand and decide when to turn the harvest into resources they can use.
The three tabletops hold space, astronomical observation, and a tea garden respectively. What links these themes is a Czech designer's long-standing interest: taking the things he is willing to study over and over and turning them into decisions others can try for themselves.
1. The map in the living room
In an interview with Albi, Holek recalled that he started making games at around twelve and liked adding his own ideas to existing games. He tried adapting video games he loved into tabletop play, and he designed his own content for Catan. According to Albi's introduction, those hand-drawn maps were so large they took over the living room.
Modifying a familiar game may make it easier to see your own interests than starting from a blank sheet. You can tell which rules make you want to play again, and which parts make you want to reach in and change them. Once the map extends beyond its original boundaries, you also have to rethink where players go first and how long it takes to meet anyone else.
Those early works did not turn directly into the boxes in stores today. Holek says some early attempts have been lost. He kept making prototypes afterward and also learned by playing other people's games. According to the author bio in the Galileo Galilei rulebook, he has been designing board games continuously since 2010. That year and the childhood experiments can be viewed together: the former marks a more sustained period of creation, while the latter explains why he was long accustomed to doing things with his own hands.
As an adult, Holek once worked in graphic design. By the time of a 2024 interview with Albi, he had devoted himself fully to board game design. At that year's Essen Spiel, SETI, Galileo Galilei, and Tea Garden were brought to players by different publishers.
Three works appearing in the same period can easily make people assume they were completed in a single sprint. Looking back, you find that they began at different times and moved through revision at different speeds. To reach players, one work may have to wait beside other designs for a while, and may need to find, through test after test, the one action most worth keeping.
2. Making the solar system a situation players must read
In interviews, Holek traces the start of work on SETI to 2018 and says he formally presented it to the publisher in 2022. The earlier choice of theme came from his interest in astronomy and science. He wanted to make a fairly large game and also wanted players to experience exploration through their actions, rather than only reading astronomical terms on cards.
In the game, players act as research institutions, launching probes, scanning signals, processing data, and gradually searching for signs of extraterrestrial life. The solar system rotates, and navigation must take into account the positions of the planets and the probes. In a CGE design diary, Holek sets the routes available right now alongside the situations that may appear after rotation; both are worth a look before players act.
I think this gives the map a rare kind of role. Usually, plans are drawn on a map, and the map itself waits for you to come back. But here plans have a shelf life. You may well know where you want to go, yet you have to work out the timing at the same time. Preparing one more step may be safer; setting out first may seize the opportunity in front of you. Both judgments must face the fact that others may change the situation.
This cardboard solar system also has a real-world inspiration. In interviews, Holek connects some of the board's shapes with the idea of using gravity assists for navigation. On the table, the shape of the cardboard carries the probe elsewhere. Players can feel from the movement that the environment takes part in navigation, while the specific trade-offs are still decided by the rules.
Such a component is most easily remembered as a clever mechanism. What truly makes it hold up is that players keep watching it after placing their probe. Where the next rotation will bring opportunity has already become their own question.
3. Keep the things to think about, reduce the things to remember
A rotating solar system cannot handle the follow-up work for the designer. SETI also has to make probing, scanning, data, and research understandable, so that when players sit down for the first time, they can find the viable line in front of them.
In an interview with Mojo Nation, Holek mentions that he worked closely with Czech Games Edition developer Tomáš Uhlíř. He brought new versions of the prototype, and Uhlíř took part in key trade-offs and streamlining. The official design credit belongs to Holek, while in the process of turning a prototype into a finished product, the development team has its own work and contributions.
In the same interview, Holek explains his understanding of intuition. If mechanisms can correspond to real things players know, some rules can be understood from their purpose. For a game that wants to retain strategic weight, this is a path different from simply reducing the number of rules.
For example, players can memorize a rule by rote, or they can first understand why it happens at this point. The former way of learning often requires remembering conditions and results at the same time. The latter lets players use the theme to recover clues and leave their attention for the real trade-offs. Put this idea back onto that solar-system map, and you can understand why the rotation itself is both a movement of a component and a reminder: you have to look at the sky as it is now.
In his CGE solo mode diary, he also mentions another kind of rhythm. He wants the automated opponent to feel competitive while being fast enough to operate. During development, physical prototypes were tested first, and later testing was expanded through internal online tools. What is repeatedly checked is how much time players have to spend acting for the opponent before it is their turn to think.
On a multiplayer map, the pace comes from other people's choices. On a solo table, the rules have to create the corresponding pressure. Both sides show something Holek cares about: complex judgments can remain, while the actions players take to handle them should be as clear as possible.
4. Where the telescope turns, and how long the tea leaves should stay
In Galileo Galilei, the astronomical theme remains, but the scale of observation changes. What players hold becomes a telescope that can be turned. In an interview at Essen, Holek said that when he does astronomical observation, he often has to move the telescope and actively search for targets. Starting from this hands-on experience of searching, he made turning into the way of choosing an action.
This action is small. A finger touches the component, and the direction changes. But players pause before the action to work out which set of opportunities they want. For me, this pause is closer to the observation experience he describes than whether the model is realistic. Before seeing the target, the observer has already made a choice.
The work also bears traces of collaboration. Holek mentions that Michal Peichl, who took part in development and was responsible for the illustrations, suggested setting aside space on the player board so that the inquisitors could be represented by wooden pieces instead of cards. This is an example of design and presentation influencing each other. Shape, position, and the way information is seen can all change the order in which players understand a situation.
In Tea Garden, Holek turns to tea, a long-standing interest of his. He says the game began in 2020 and was shelved for two years when the design got stuck. By the time it became a finished product, players needed to use the cards they play to decide the strength of their actions, while also considering when to process the tea leaves.
In Albi's design diary and the rules, fermentation flips tea leaf tokens to the other side. The game turns the processing and changing value of tea into its own simplified rules, so players must look at what they have and what will be useful next, then decide whether to do it now or save it for later.
The direction of the telescope and the flipping of tea leaves do not share one set of mechanisms. Each turns an action from its theme into a visible choice. Some people remember missing an observation; others remember arranging one more step to wait for a batch of tea. The result is a score, but memory often stays with the moment when you were just barely in time.
5. He is willing to go back to the prototype
From the living-room map to three publishers, Holek's experience often contains one action: pick up what has already been made and try again. As a boy he modified existing games; later he handed his own prototypes to more people for testing. A work like Tea Garden, temporarily hard to sort out, can also be set aside until a new approach comes along.
In 2026, a Czech Mensa article based on a Holek lecture described modern board game production as a process of constant iteration, testing, and improvement. Reading it and then going back to the SETI development interviews, it is easy to match that sentence with those new prototypes brought to testing again and again.
These works can of course be played separately. Placed together, they still reveal a continuity in creation. He starts from things he loves, then finds an action players are willing to perform by hand. If that action can only produce one surprise, it needs to be examined again to see whether it can truly support the choices that follow. Only if players are willing to change their plans around it does that action have a chance to become part of the work.
The next time you find a planet moving away on the SETI table, you may first complain about that rotation. Once you find your route again, you will understand why you are still looking at this map. It is always changing, and you still have decisions to make.
[chengcheng's interactive topic]
Which board game component once made you suddenly understand what you were doing in the game? Was it the rotating solar system, the telescope pointing to a new position, or another action? Feel free to share the choice that made you remember it.
I'm chengcheng, and I'll see you next time in Designer Story!
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Resources and Further Reading Albi’s interview with Holek about his path into game design Galileo Galilei rulebook and author introduction Holek interview on site at Essen CGE's SETI solar system design diary Holek on the intuition and streamlining of SETI CGE's SETI solo mode diary Albi's Tea Garden design diary Albi's Tea Garden rulebook Mensa article based on Holek's lecture