{"id":156,"date":"2017-06-12T18:43:24","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T18:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phantomknightgames.com\/news\/?p=156"},"modified":"2017-06-12T18:46:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T18:46:16","slug":"keeping-your-game-focused-also-horrible-puns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.phantomknightgames.com\/news\/keeping-your-game-focused-also-horrible-puns\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Your Game Focused (also, horrible puns)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a big fan of ketchup.<\/p>\n

I was raised by a Midwesterner and, for much of my childhood, ketchup was the only condiment I\u2019d accept anywhere. Even to this day, when I go to gourmet burger establishments, I\u2019ll dump a bunch of ketchup on everything after my carefully constructed order arrives.<\/p>\n

This is a shocking opinion, but I\u2019m also a big fan of ice cream. It\u2019s delicious! Cookies and cream is my favorite flavor.<\/p>\n

So given that I love ketchup, and that I love ice cream, obviously putting ketchup on my ice cream is a great idea, right?<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s article is about avoiding the design equivalent of putting ketchup on your ice cream.<\/p>\n

One Game, 31 Flavors<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s pretty easy to tell, during playtesting, that your game is bad. People get bored or frustrated, individual mechanisms are overpowered or useless, the game lasts for longer than it should. That\u2019s because these are things that give you immediate feedback, the equivalent of a big siren going off.<\/p>\n

When your game isn\u2019t necessarily bad, but unfocused, it becomes a lot trickier to detect. The individual mechanics of your game might be excellent by themselves, but combined they create a confusing mess. This isn\u2019t something that you can detect by examining final scores, and some players may even give you confusing feedback \u2013\u00a0depending on the person, they might not mind something unfocused if they had a fun time playing it.<\/p>\n

The best example I can think of is TIME Stories<\/em>, which combines an intriguing premise \u2013\u00a0co-op mystery solving as you play through the same story repeatedly in an attempt to unravel more of it \u2013\u00a0with dice-rolling mechanics. The thrill of advancing your group game by game conflicts with the issue that you can easily lose the game, even though you did everything right, through a series of poor dice rolls. In a different game, the dice-rolling would be acceptable, or even fun, but here the unfocused mechanics make the game less satisfying.<\/p>\n

Games can also be thematically incoherent. The game El Grande<\/em> was originally Troy-themed, with a big Trojan Horse that players could drop their cubes into to hide how many they\u2019re going to puke onto the board at the end of the round. But during production, the publishers changed the name to the political conquest of Spain, with the incredibly thematic Horse changed to a generic \u201ccastillo\u201d. El Grande<\/em> is still one of the best territory control games ever made, but if it had stuck to its original theme the impact would have been dramatically improved.<\/p>\n

Ketchup Mechanics<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best solution to focusing your game is to have a clear statement in your head of what you want the game to be. However, the problem is that humans aren\u2019t computers, and we design as much on instinct as we do by writing down several paragraphs in a design document. Your “statement”, might be fuzzy daydreams about some players laughing and having a great time, or a looping gif (pronounced gife) of a character in your game doing something dramatic. In this way, it\u2019s hard to keep a game focused when you don\u2019t even know what to focus on.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s two ways to approach this, depending on how you\u2019re constructing your game: \u201ctop-down\u201d or \u201cbottom-up\u201d, to borrow terms from Magic<\/em> design.<\/p>\n

\u201cBottom-up\u201d designs are created when the designer thinks of one or two interesting mechanics they\u2019d like to explore. In this way, you develop these games by weaving supplementary mechanics and theme around your core concepts in a way that creates a complex, challenging design. The issue arrives when the supplementary mechanics are lifted from more popular genres \u2013\u00a0for instance, creating an interesting way of placing tiles on a board but deciding that the way to acquire them is through simple drafting because you can’t think of anything better.<\/p>\n

The best way to keep your bottom-up game focused is to think about what the core mechanic wants. For instance, in our theoretical tile-laying game above, how would it be a challenge for you to get the arrangement that you want? What would generate a feeling of satisfaction when you arrange your tiles in just the right way to shoot past your opponents? What mirrors the core mechanic in a satisfying way? Once you\u2019ve answered these questions, the focus of your game becomes clearer.<\/p>\n

Ice Theme<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTop-down\u201d designs are based primarily on theme. My Happy Daggers<\/em>, for instance, was made as a way to capture the feel of melodramatic swordfights as you might see in The Three Musketeers<\/em> or Kenneth Branagh\u2019s adaptation of Hamlet<\/em>. This makes focusing with your mechanics simultaneously easier and harder: You have a clearer statement of what you\u2019d like to design, but because you\u2019re starting from scratch mechanically it\u2019s a lot easier to drift away from where you started.<\/p>\n

The most important part of designing a top-down game is its \u201cfeel\u201d: That is, making players feel the same when playing your game as they do while watching a movie or reading a book of the same genre. Mark Rosewater, Magic <\/em>head designer, talked about this approach when designing for Innistrad<\/em>, the game\u2019s gothic horror\/movie monster expansion. The primary feeling you get from a good horror movie isn\u2019t necessarily shock, but dread \u2013 the creeping feeling that something\u2019s wrong<\/em> right before the skeleton pops out or whatever. So the mechanics of Innistrad<\/em> were aimed at generating the same feelings: Humans which could turn into werewolves on the next turn, any creature\u2019s death triggering a powerful \u201cmorbid\u201d effect, spells which could return from the graveyard when you least want it. Innistrad<\/em> is considered by many to be one of the best Magic<\/em> sets ever made, which speaks to the power of this approach.<\/p>\n

Heinzight is 20\/20<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your game will be much better when everything \u2013\u00a0every tiny mechanic and every scrap of design \u2013\u00a0is all precisely focused on a core experience. By keeping this in mind while playtesting, the process will probably be more painful \u2013\u00a0you\u2019ll have to throw out otherwise good concepts because they don\u2019t jazz with the other things you\u2019re doing \u2013\u00a0but will result in a clearer, more fun, and more impactful game for your players.<\/p>\n

This article went on forever, so as a reward for sticking with the whole thing here\u2019s a picture of Pikachu with a bottle of ketchup. See you in two weeks!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a big fan of ketchup. I was raised by a Midwesterner and, for much of my childhood, ketchup was the only condiment I\u2019d accept anywhere. Even to this day, when I go to gourmet burger establishments, I\u2019ll dump a bunch of ketchup on everything after my carefully constructed order arrives. This is a shocking opinion, but I\u2019m also a big fan of ice cream. It\u2019s delicious! Cookies and cream is my favorite flavor. So given that I love ketchup, and that I love ice cream, obviously putting ketchup on my ice cream is a great idea, right? Today\u2019s article is about avoiding the design equivalent of putting ketchup on your ice cream. One Game, 31 Flavors It\u2019s pretty easy to tell, during playtesting, that your game is bad. People get bored or frustrated, individual mechanisms are overpowered or useless, the game lasts for longer than it should. That\u2019s because these are things that give you immediate feedback, the equivalent of a big siren going off. When your game isn\u2019t necessarily bad, but unfocused, it becomes a lot trickier to detect. The individual mechanics of your game might be excellent by themselves, but combined they create a confusing mess. This isn\u2019t something that you can detect by examining final scores, and some players may even give you confusing feedback \u2013\u00a0depending on the person, they might not mind something unfocused if they had a fun time playing it. The best example I can think of is TIME Stories, which combines an intriguing premise \u2013\u00a0co-op mystery solving as you play through the same story repeatedly in an attempt to unravel more of it \u2013\u00a0with dice-rolling mechanics. The thrill of advancing your group game by game conflicts with the issue that you can easily lose the game, even though you did everything right, through a series of poor dice rolls. In a different game, the dice-rolling would be acceptable, or even fun, but here the unfocused mechanics make the game less satisfying. Games can also be thematically incoherent. The game El Grande was originally Troy-themed, with a big Trojan Horse that players could drop their cubes into to hide how many they\u2019re going to puke onto the board at the end of the round. But during production, the publishers changed the name to the political conquest of Spain, with the incredibly thematic Horse changed to a generic \u201ccastillo\u201d. El Grande is still one of the best territory control games ever made, but if it had stuck to its original theme the impact would have been dramatically improved. Ketchup Mechanics The best solution to focusing your game is to have a clear statement in your head of what you want the game to be. However, the problem is that humans aren\u2019t computers, and we design as much on instinct as we do by writing down several paragraphs in a design document. Your “statement”, might be fuzzy daydreams about some players laughing and having a great time, or a looping gif (pronounced gife) of a character in your game doing something dramatic. In this way, it\u2019s hard to keep a game focused when you don\u2019t even know what to focus on. There\u2019s two ways to approach this, depending on how you\u2019re constructing your game: \u201ctop-down\u201d or \u201cbottom-up\u201d, to borrow terms from Magic design. \u201cBottom-up\u201d designs are created when the designer thinks of one or two interesting mechanics they\u2019d like to explore. In this way, you develop these games by weaving supplementary mechanics and theme around your core concepts in a way that creates a complex, challenging design. The issue arrives when the supplementary mechanics are lifted from more popular genres \u2013\u00a0for instance, creating an interesting way of placing tiles on a board but deciding that the way to acquire them is through simple drafting because you can’t think of anything better. The best way to keep your bottom-up game focused is to think about what the core mechanic wants. For instance, in our theoretical tile-laying game above, how would it be a challenge for you to get the arrangement that you want? What would generate a feeling of satisfaction when you arrange your tiles in just the right way to shoot past your opponents? What mirrors the core mechanic in a satisfying way? Once you\u2019ve answered these questions, the focus of your game becomes clearer. Ice Theme \u201cTop-down\u201d designs are based primarily on theme. My Happy Daggers, for instance, was made as a way to capture the feel of melodramatic swordfights as you might see in The Three Musketeers or Kenneth Branagh\u2019s adaptation of Hamlet. This makes focusing with your mechanics simultaneously easier and harder: You have a clearer statement of what you\u2019d like to design, but because you\u2019re starting from scratch mechanically it\u2019s a lot easier to drift away from where you started. The most important part of designing a top-down game is its \u201cfeel\u201d: That is, making players feel the same when playing your game as they do while watching a movie or reading a book of the same genre. Mark Rosewater, Magic head designer, talked about this approach when designing for Innistrad, the game\u2019s gothic horror\/movie monster expansion. The primary feeling you get from a good horror movie isn\u2019t necessarily shock, but dread \u2013 the creeping feeling that something\u2019s wrong right before the skeleton pops out or whatever. So the mechanics of Innistrad were aimed at generating the same feelings: Humans which could turn into werewolves on the next turn, any creature\u2019s death triggering a powerful \u201cmorbid\u201d effect, spells which could return from the graveyard when you least want it. Innistrad is considered by many to be one of the best Magic sets ever made, which speaks to the power of this approach. Heinzight is 20\/20 Your game will be much better when everything \u2013\u00a0every tiny mechanic and every scrap of design \u2013\u00a0is all precisely focused on a core experience. By keeping this in mind while playtesting, the process will probably be more painful \u2013\u00a0you\u2019ll have to throw out otherwise good concepts because they don\u2019t jazz with the other things you\u2019re doing \u2013\u00a0but will result in a clearer, more fun, and more impactful game for your players. This article went on forever, so as a reward for sticking with the whole thing here\u2019s a picture of Pikachu with a bottle of ketchup. See you in two weeks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phantomknightgames.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phantomknightgames.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phantomknightgames.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phantomknightgames.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phantomknightgames.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.phantomknightgames.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160,"href":"http:\/\/www.phantomknightgames.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phantomknightgames.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phantomknightgames.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phantomknightgames.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}