Board Game Arena

Not a fan of the new design, and even less so regarding the rather churlish reply to the criticism.

It is interesting to read the perspectives of players who are colour blind or visually impaired, with several suggesting it has made things worse.

I manage a team in the elearning / digital learning industry and was motivated by the post telling all of us users that we didn't know better than the developers and publishers to do a little more digging.

Interestingly, it looks as though 4 of the 5 colours fail the minimum Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards. To meet the standards, the text on the white backgrounds of the cards should have a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text. The numbers in the top corners of each card fail to meet this value. So not particularly accessible.

Added to this, as others have mentioned, the rescaling of the page is very jarring. Interaction animations should be limited as much as possible unless the user can control it to prevent harm or visual fatigue.

I'm adding all of the above as whilst I support the effort to improve accessibility, I was deeply unimpressed with the reply posted which essentially said users couldn't possibly know better than anyone involved in the redesign.

I would love to see the feedback taken onboard and a solution or improvement found.

Am shocked/dismayed to see the graphics change. Do not want to sound averse to change or improvements, but the update is unbearable and, could just be my opinion, but now makes the game unplayable.

Heartened by the fact that others are voicing their concerns. Not trying to be a pain, but hope it can lead to either: 1). a change back, 2). the option made available to select the graphics. Unfortunately, without one of these two routes being pursued, I will have to stop playing Lost Cities.

The desisgn is awful. The cards are hard to read. Also, they don't organize in my hand by color, which is an odd choice to make.

Where is the reply to the complaints that two people have mentioned above?

Yes please, give us an option to go back to the old look!!! PLEASE!!

The update states: "Sorry, but going back with an option is… not an option."

Why? Really there isn't a copy of the OG port? I dont believe that. To the developers, you really ought to bring a sweeping change in via Beta and allow feed back before implementing. Many games do this on BGA. This community would be absolutely more than happy to play-test via beta. Rolling out a new version completely out of the blue that no one asked for and than just digging in a saying "its better" - when it is objectively is worse - is a bad look.

Seriously, just own it, reload the old version until you guys have something that actually is better.

Have to agree, this is an awful design change - please give us an option to change back

Speusippus wrote: ↑16 April 2026, 04:57 Where is the reply to the complaints that two people have mentioned above?

In here - https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=1340692

I’m literally in mourning for a game that was an old, trusted friend that I spent enjoyable time with, every day. I’ve cancelled my premium membership because I don’t want to play the new version. On my iPad, only about 5% of the fifth column is visible. In fact I was halfway through the game before I realised there was a fifth column.

TheGreatGog wrote: ↑16 April 2026, 00:19 I have visual impairments, including severe colour blindness. The new design is hideous from my perspective and clearly the designers have not consulted properly with people with these impairments. I know the cards have a symbol, but even that is hard for me to distinguish. Please make the old option available. Designers really shouldn''t try to fix things that aren't broken.

interesting, i'm colorblind and couldn't play the previous implementation (around 3 years ago). After a quick preview, the current palette seems much more manageable.