In The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design, various industry insiders (including Richard Garfield, Steve Jackson, and others) present a series of essays on various game topics, grouped into four sections: concepting, design, development, and presentation. A wide range of topics is presented, including things like how to get your game published. Below are some thoughts I found valuable and worthy of presentation.
What is a game?
"A game is an interactive mathematical system, made concrete, used to tell a story." In this definition,
interactive mathematical system = rules
made concrete = components
story = theme
Reasons for playing games
Broadly speaking, we play games for socialization, the challenge, and as a hobby. Additionally, we want to be part of a story- participating in what happens, even if we aren't victorious.
Characteristics of games
Games should be or have:
- fun
- Part of this is having (and understanding) options without knowing for certain the correct solution.
- a compelling theme
- You should want to play.
- immersive
- Players are participating in a story and should feel as such.
- well-paced
- Using the story analogy, a game should have three acts and be paced appropriately:
- The first act draws the battle lines.
- The second is the meat of the game.
- don't kick a player out before the game is over, and don't overly reward the leader. If players have certainty of defeat, the fun is diminished.
- The third is the push for victory.
- include 'inherent deceleration'- make it harder to win as the finish line approaches.
- intuitive
- Metaphor (theme) and mechanics (rules) should be present and harmonious.
- After all, a game without mechanics is a story or thought experiment. A game without a metaphor is a math problem or puzzle
- interactive
- Players should be have some degree of influence in others' activity (but not too much)
- simple
- Which includes being easy to learn and quick to set up (called "immediacy of play").
- strategy
- Making meaningful decisions, potentially given limited information
- You want to have interesting decisions. Ones that are easy to make, but not with obvious solutions. (You can do this using randomizers like dice rolls.)
- luck
- Something beyond anyone's control, giving everyone a chance regardless of good (or bad) decisions. This also mimicks the unpredictable reality of life, granting an element of the unknown that is both mystifying, maddening, and satisfying.
- replayable
- Even if you're quite skilled (which allows you to know the correct choice in a given situation), provide many paths to/strategies for victory.
Writing good rules
Rules are extremely important- and layout of the rule book is, too. Michelle Nephew recommends the following layout:
Overview, Components, Setup, Gameplay, Card types (if applicable), Endgame or winning condition, Examples/hints/optional rules & variants, Glossary, Credits
General tips on designing and publishing
If you want to design a game, play lots of them. The experience will hone your own design abilities and help guide your approach.
If you want to publish a game, you must be prepared for every aspect. Make the prototype professional (without going overboard- it will get changed as part of the development process). You should playtest MANY times in different audiences. The rules need to be solid. You should know your game, know your audience, know what publishers to approach, understand the publishing process, and more. You should understand that it is not just your game- you will require a team of diverse perspectives to bring out its full potential.
Review
This book is a mixed bag. There's a lot of good information in it, and I particularly enjoyed the discussion on strategy vs. luck. On the downside, some of information presented is obvious. The writing varies and is generally sub-par. The book could be condensed to an essay (like I summarize above) without loss of content. It's a quick read, so it's not bad . . . but I suspect (or hope?) there are better out there.
Rating: B-
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