Game Design Notes PDF

What are Components Many board games come with components. Components are the things that you need to make and play a game. Sometimes they are called bits, parts, or pieces. A pawn is a component that usually represents the player in the game. **The Problem with Rule Books** **Problem \#1: There...

What are Components Many board games come with components. Components are the things that you need to make and play a game. Sometimes they are called bits, parts, or pieces. A pawn is a component that usually represents the player in the game. **The Problem with Rule Books** **Problem \#1: There Can Be Only One (Reader)** Solution: Consider including player overview cards that the other players can review to "follow along" the major beats of the game and understand objectives and the types of actions they can choose from. Alternatively, video rules can also help with clarifying rules.3 There are some great video rules available, but often they are created "after the fact" by secondary sources. Video rules add just another step to the complication of creating a game for the game designer. Not only must you be good at making a game, but you also must be an effective communicator and a decent videographer! I didn't sign up for all this work! However, in today's media-centric market, videos are becoming more and more of a necessity. I know some publishers who won't accept a game submission without a "how-to- play" video! This means you must be ready to make a video for your game even if it is never seen by your customers. You don't need a fancy camera or editing to make a decent video (at least, not yet!). Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating a how-to- Play video for your game: Keep it short. No matter how complicated your game is, keep your video to 3 minutes or shorter. Sadly, most people just don't have the patience to watch anything longer. Set up your game on an uncluttered surface...or use a digital prototyping tool like Tabletop Simulator. Show all the components and how they interact during the game. Your video viewers want to know what the game pieces do and how they interact with each other. It also helps to show how the game is supposed to look when set up properly and how things interact during play. Have good sound. Poor sound quality is the most common problem I see with many game videos. Speak clearly. A good trick is to smile when speaking, which makes your words sound clearer and friendlier. Try not to mumble. Write down your instructions as a script and read it if you must. Rerecord if you make a mistake or trip over a line. Be enthusiastic and positive. Your game is great! Let others know this too! Never mention the problems with your game or make excuses for anything about it. It's okay to mention that the game is a work in progress or the art is placeholder; publishers understand this. Also, don't insult other games to make yours appear to be better. **Problem \#2: Front-End Information Overload** Have you ever experienced a player who reads the entire rule book to the other players before they can start playing? Some rule books are very long. I remember having another player read the rules for about an hour before we started playing. Solution: There is a process from cognitive psychology called chunking in which information is grouped into a collection of basic units, usually around a common subject. Once you've learned a "chunk" of information---like a set of rules or sequence of player's actions---you should then introduce the next "chunk" of information to the player. **Problem \#3: Rule Book Length** Large rule books can be intimidating to a player. I have seen some players decide against playing a game merely because they are intimidated by the rule book's length. Some players feel that it would be a better use of time to play the game than spend time reading the rules. That's but you want to be aware that the longer your rule book, the larger the barrier you are placing between the player starting to play your game. Solution: Writing succinctly is an art and a skill. Often a designer wants to describe a mechanism or gameplay function in length. Or they might want to include lore, tell a story, or write the rules in "a voice," as if a character were telling the reader the rules. However, all of these tend to take up space in a rule book. If you can't edit yourself, get an editor to help you reduce page count. I've found that a great way to keep track of page count is to set a page number limit. Because of the limitations of printing, rule books are usually a minimum of four pages. Pages are generally added in groups of four, so make sure your page count is a factor of four (4, 8, 12, 16, etc.). This limitation helps you decide what to keep and what to cut. Another factor to keep in mind is the physical size of your rule book. A rule book that is 5 inches by 7 inches is going to require more pages to cover the same content that is found in an 8 by 11 inch rule book. Consider the "reading experience" you want your players to have and how you are going to present the information (via text, via illustrations, via examples) to help determine the size of your rule book. The physical box size will also determine the size of your rule book. If your box is 5 inches by 7 inches, then you can't have a rule book larger than that. Finally, not all games require rule books. Some games are simple and require only a single two-sided sheet of rules. There's nothing wrong with being "short 'n' sweet," as long as all the information the player needs to understand how to play your game is covered. The rules to my game Pantone the Game (2018) are a single sheet because that's all we needed to explain the game. **Problem \#4: Edge Cases** Rule books cannot cover every situation or answer every question; otherwise, you will have a very long rule book. When edge cases---problems or questions that aren't addressed in the rule book---arise, they can frustrate players if a quick or readily available answer can't be found in the rule book. Solution: It helps to have a frequently asked questions (FAQs) section in your rule book. These questions can be discovered by rigorously play testing your game. The more often that your game is play tested, the more often these edge case questions will come up. It's then up to you to decide to squash the edge cases in the rules or to allow for them by making exceptions. We'll be talking more about play testing soon. If you keep these problems (and their solutions) in mind as you begin to write your rule book, the more successful your rule book will be. **Tricks to Writing Rule Books** Trick \#1: Rules are stories. Trick \#2: Use the six zones of play. Trick \#3: I am talking to "you." Trick \#4: Use present tense. Trick \#5: Include pictures. Trick \#6: Add callouts. Trick \#1: Rules Are Stories The best written rule books are like stories. They have a beginning, a middle, and an ending. As a thousand bedtime stories and movies have taught us, every story starts from the perspective of the protagonist, the lead character of the story. "Once upon a time, there was a poor girl named Cinderella..." or "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there was a farm boy named Luke..."; you get it. In the case of board games, the protagonist is the player. Yes, you can have more than one protagonist in your story. When you start explaining your rules, you do it from the perspective of the player. I find that if you start your story by focusing on who the player is and what they are doing, it makes it much easier than starting with more complicated or abstract concepts such as objectives, components, or mechanisms. Use the rule book to tell a story Trick \#2: Use The Six Zones of Play It is also important to think about where the players are positioned at the game table. When you describe the actions of the game, it helps to work your way from the player outward toward the center of the table and the other players when describing how the components are to be used to complete victory objectives in the game. The zones are as follows: **Zone 1: The player's dominant hand** **Zone 2: The player's nondominant hand** **Zone 3: The tableau** **Zone 4: The board/shared space** **Zone 5: The sideboard** **Zone 6: The rule book** **Zone 1: The Player's Dominant Hand** The first zone is where the player holds cards or information that is most important to the play of the game. It is the most secret and personal of spaces and, in most cases, not accessible to the other players unless a card or ability allows it. From a functionality point of view, the player might often swap out what is in this hand to perform some other action, such as move a unit, roll a die, or make some other significant move during the game, but players will hold these components "close to their chest" as it were. They are often critical to the player's success of the game and the best zone to which the designer can convey or even change information to the player. **Zone 2: The Player's Nondominant Hand** The second zone is the domain of the hand that is doing what the other hand isn't. Depending on the player's handedness (left, right, or ambidextrous), the nondominant hand might be reaching for resources, moving a pawn, or even grabbing snacks. Often a player will switch between these two hands to perform different tasks, only to return to the dominant hand. The nondominant hand is an accessory to the player's dominant hand when it comes to functions, and the designer should never make the functions in the nondominant hand redundant to those in the dominant hand. (For example, a player should never have to juggle two *hands of cards at the same time.)* **Zone 3: The Tableau** The third zone is the personal play space of the player. It's where a deck of card goes, and it's where the player keeps their character sheet, their pile of meeples, coins or resources, or a status tracker for health or some other currency. The other players rarely have access to this space, unless a card or special ability allows it. It is where many of the player's tactics are plotted out. As a designer, this is the second-best location to convey information to the player as it is literally "in front of the player" and hard to ignore. Plus, this zone often undergoes the most change during a game, allowing a location for new status or rules to be communicated to the player. **Zone 4: The Board/Shared Space** The fourth zone is the first and most important common space in the game. All players have access to this place where they can move and place their pawns/meeples, collect resources and cards, or interact and combat the other players. This is usually where you find resources and currency used in the game. This zone often represents the microcosm of the game---a representation of the game's world and everything that isn't of personal use to the player. Information and rule changes can be done here, but because of the distance of the board to YOUR TURN! 32 T HE GUIDE TO G R E AT TA B L E TOP G AME DE S IGN the player, it is less desirable. Any change to any game state represented on this board should be big, obvious, and clear to all players. **Zone 5: The Sideboard** The sideboard zone is the domain of extensions to the main game board (zone 4) and is often where secondary mechanisms for the gameplay resides (such as the corruption tracker in Lords of Waterdeep: The Scoundrels of Skullport (2013). In many cases, these side boards are used to track time, points, or world conditions such as a round. Because of their distance from many of the players at the table, components in this zone should be designed to have a lesser priority or be infrequently used (such as once every player has had their turn or when a specific condition arises) by the players. This zone is where problems can arise for players. One suggestion is to make this zone mobile so that it can be moved to the other player rather than being locked into a fixed and distant location. **Zone 6: The Rule Book** The sixth zone is also troublesome to game designers. When a player needs to refer to a rule book during the game, it breaks the game's magic circle and the immersion of the game. Designers should strive to make players refer to a rule book as infrequently as possible. This of course is the greatest challenge to a game designer---clear and concise rules. In addition to the rule book, the Internet also counts as zone 6 for the purpose of the Six Zones of Play theory. Player aids (which can live in zone 3), rules printed on cards (zone 1), icons on the game board (zone 4), or even a shorthand guide printed on the back of the rule book (zone 6) exist to keep the players from having to "go into" the rule book, distracting them from gameplay. There are some games (such as SeaFall (2016) or Betrayal Legacy (2018) that have separate storybooks that contain narrative elements that keep the players within the magic circle of the game. But in general, having to go back to the rule book disrupts the rhythm of play. As a game designer, you should strive to reduce the need to go to the rule book and focus on keeping players in the game. **Zone 0: The Mind** The Six Zones of Play theory primarily focuses on components and their spatial relationship to the player, but game designer Mike Sellers reminded me that the mind of the gamer is just as important, as it is holding all the strategies and tactics and information vital to the playing of the game. While I agree it is of course important to always consider the player and what information they should know (or need to know) to play the game, their mind doesn't come with the game nor does it always remain in the same location during play; therefore, it doesn't quite fit in with the Six Zones of Play theory. **Zone X: The Box** There is one other zone outside of the Six Zones of Play, zone X. This zone is the game's box. It's the phantom zone where pieces are banished for bad behavior, if they aren't necessary to play this version of the game, or extra components that aren't needed for play. Sending components to the box means that they are completely out of play and should never be considered during gameplay again. Out of sight, out of mind, as they say. **The Goal of the Zones** What is the point of identifying these zones? As a designer, the goal, is to bring activity from the further zones (4--6) into the closer zones (1--3) so that any necessary information can remain in the player's view and be easily accessed. Remember, all gameplay should be centered around the player, and the closer you can keep a game's components and information within reach of the player, the more engaged they will remain in the game. To bring everything back to writing rules, your rules should describe to the player how to play the game by "moving" from one zone to the next. This "chunking" of information will help the player understand how components are meant to be used and what their relationship is to each other in the context of the entire game. **Trick \#4: Use Command Statements** This is an old writing trick that I find works especially well for rule books. For example, say "Roll dice" instead of "Dice are rolled," and say "Move your pawn" instead of "Players will move their pawn." This keeps your instructions sounding fresh and exciting as you read them (especially aloud) rather than stagnant. Trick \#5: Include Pictures They say one picture is worth a thousand words. It may be trite, but it is true. But in the case of a rule book, one good illustration that shows the players how gameplay works is priceless. You could spend pages of a rule book describing how gameplay works, but if you show the player one good illustration (or two or three) detailing that gameplay in action, they will understand it much faster and clearer than any words can convey. It is too easy for someone to confuse words, no matter how simply you state something, while a clear image is almost impossible to misinterpret. Players tend to read rule books only once or twice and will return to the rule book only when they've forgotten a rule. Help them find those rules quickly with the help of an image or even color-coding sections of the rule book to help them with quick navigation **Trick \#6: Add Callouts** Speaking of aiding your rule book readers with quick navigation, another good trick is to use "sidebars" or "callouts" in your rule book. These can be images or rules that relate to a specific action or situation in your rule book. For example, in the rule book to Splendor (2014), there are two different callouts that show (1) how buying cards can score points and (2) how more valuable noble cards score and affect other cards. *What makes a callout unique is the ease in which the player can find it in the rule book.* *Callouts are best used either with common actions or with edge case situations. What's useful about callouts is that they are easier/quicker for a reader to find in the rule book, especially if they have an associated image or subject header to aid the player* What Every Good Rule Book Needs An introduction List of components Game setup Goal of the game General sequence of play Detailed sequence of play End of game Credits Creating an Introduction The introduction, also called the overview, informs the player of the "who, what, and why" about your game. If you are a creative writer, this is a great place to introduce the story and set the mood. Just like with a book or a movie or a song, you need a strong introduction to grab the player's attention if you want them to go along with you **List of Components** The list of components is a list of all the parts that are needed to play the game. Why would you want to include this in your rule book? Players will want to know if all the pieces required to play the game have been included in the game so if anything is missing, they can contact the publisher to get a replacement. The list of components serves another useful purpose---it lets the publisher estimate how much the game will cost. This is particularly important when selling your game---a topic Take a photo or create an illustration of all the game's components so players can see what everything looks like. It also helps to show pieces in relation to each other so players will know if a component is big or small. You don't need to show every bit and piece in the game, just a representative image of the component. It always helps to give a little bit more information than you think might be necessary. For example, it is helpful to show both the back and the front of a deck of cards as part of the component list. The list of components teaches players the names of the different types of components. This is important especially when components have a similar appearance. For example, knowing the difference between the encounter deck and the item deck will be important during