Of course you can design a game… but can you design a good one?

Dr. Lewis Dr. Lewis

PulsipherPulsipherCopyright 2011 Lewis Pulsipher

April 19, 2023

Outline of the session Who am I? Reality Check Who is the game for? What's a good game? Initial design process summarized Typical mistakes and quit points so far 80% vs. 100% The polishing process

(Show some of the awful patents)

April 19, 2023

Who am I Designed my own games while a

teenager Began playing commercial AH wargames

in 1963 Played the original Atari 2600 and have

played some PC games heavily, but rarely play any video games these days; never owned a game console

My favorite game is “the game design game”

April 19, 2023

Who am I

Designer of six commercially-published board wargames (most recently January 11), more games to come

Active designer of board and card games (playtesters solicited!)

My book “Get it Done: Designing Games from Start to Finish” is in late draft

Wikipedia: Lewis Pulsipher; Britannia (board game); Archomental

April 19, 2023

Reality Check Almost no one makes a living designing

games Most who do, work for a game

company, not freelance You probably could spend the same

time as profitably by picking up bottles and cans for deposits and recycling!

Most publishers don’t make a lot, either—and it’s risky

Many publishers exist largely to self-publish their own games

April 19, 2023

Reality Check 2 So if you design games, do it because

you like to, or because you must, not because you want to make money– Alan R. Moon, two German “Games of the

Year”, would have had to get part-time job if not for Ticket to Ride winning

Recognize that your “great idea” is probably not that great, not that original, and not that interesting to other people

Finally, it’s extra-hard to get into video game design

April 19, 2023

Is it for yourself, or for others? If the game is just for you, it’s a lot

easier– As long as you’re happy, you’re fine

For commercial game, you design for others, not for yourself– YOU ARE NOT THE AUDIENCE!

April 19, 2023

Summary, for commercial games, of the rest of the session: Are you willing to do the hard

work? What IS a good game? Initial design process The polishing process Learning to design You’ve got to DO IT!

April 19, 2023

Are you willing to do the work?

It’s easy to get to 80% of a game, hard to get to 100% (Knizia)

It is NOT about great ideas It is NOT about creativity If it will be a commercial game, it is

about work; fun work, but work If it’s just a game for yourself and

your buds, you don’t need to adhere to a high commercial standard

April 19, 2023

What do you think makes a game good?

April 19, 2023

What IS a good game? Don’t talk about “fun”. Fun depends

almost entirely on a person’s preferences and who they’re playing with. Rather ask, why do people think this game is enjoyable.

You are not the audience You must know your audience You must playtest with your audience Ultimately, it’s what your audience

likes

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What about . . .

interaction interesting choices replayability balance/fairness visual appeal? hook/early play customization possibilities

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And more . . .

Player interaction (as opposed to interaction with the system)

Memorability Player(s) able to control what

happens Fair/balanced Clear, easy-to-use interface Asymmetry

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And this:

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery

Or: it’s much better to reduce complexity than to increase it.

April 19, 2023

What does your audience think? So you have to playtest with your

intended audience, as many as possible

Guy who only playtests with “designers”– Good feedback– Relying on expert opinion rather than

on the audience itself

April 19, 2023

Initial design process Ideas are a dime a dozen. A good game

comes from good execution, not from “a great idea”

Write it all down! Play the game in your “mind’s eye” Have a checklist of structures and

questions When you think you know enough to

play, make a simple prototype Until you have a playable prototype, you

haven’t really done anything

April 19, 2023

The polishing process Change, change, change—embrace it The process is iterative and

incremental Playtest, recognize problems,

incorporate solutions, playtest some more

You’ll be sick and tired of it by the time you get “finished”

But you’re never truly finished

April 19, 2023

Learning to design Its easier to begin by modifying

existing games– E.g. Diplomacy variants, Risk variants,

D&D additions– Try “fixing” a poor game such as

Monopoly, or a weak game such as Risk

– Don’t forget to do the whole process, especially the polishing

April 19, 2023

Learning to Design

Even famous, successful designers design lots of not-so-good games; often they are never published

Ability to be productively self-critical is vital

Pay attention to feedback, but keep it at arm’s length. Criticism is about your game, not about YOU.

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Don’t get too involved with: Appearance Story

Instead Focus on how the game plays

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Constraints Limits lead to a conclusion:

– Characteristics of the audience (target market)• “People don’t do math any more”

– Genre limitations– Production-imposed limitations

• “Board cannot be larger than X by Y”

– Self-imposed limitations• “I want a one-hour trading game”

April 19, 2023

Do it!

Too many people like to think about designing so much, they never actually do it

Until you have a playable prototype, you have nothing– (Which is what makes video game

design so difficult)– It doesn’t have to be pretty, just

usable

April 19, 2023

Resources about the business Game Inventor’s Guidebook by

Brian Tinsman “All about publishing” thread on

ConsimWorld Lots of books about video game

publishing Sooner or later I’ll publish at least

one book about game design

Questions?Comments?

Pulsiphergames.comPulsiphergames.com

Pulsipher Boardgame Design on Pulsipher Boardgame Design on blogger (repeated on BGG)blogger (repeated on BGG)

April 19, 2023

Patents 4/30/2011 Game patents for a month.

– Most game patents are ridiculous

Conditional application of hit card – A blackjack variant, where you are dealt an optional card which you can exchange, along with a variable payout table if you do so.

21 to the river – A blackjack/poker combo, described in news article.

Educational game apparatus – Roll the dice, use math to figure out numbers to flip. The patent was written by someone with a loose grasp on English syntax and grammar. The game is called Funberz by Dane Compton, currently without a website.

April 19, 2023

The Euchre Cube The Euchre cube, designed by Patrick O’Donnell and self-published,

differs from your typical Euchre scoring pads and peg tracks in that it prominently indicates the dealer (the guy next to the cube) and trump. The inside has a recessed Euchre scoring track.

It’s patented, includes a bag to hold the cube (a deck of cards will also fit in there), and costs $45 (plus shipping).

Board game – The game “Enlightenment” by Norman Vail. Chakras, deadly sins, and spiritual enlightenment, etc.

Funny, but to me the game looks a lot like Hustler’s adult

7 Deadly Sins game, whose object is not enlightenment. Next we have seven design patents for card game tables from Marcus

Katz: Yes, 7 complete design patents, thousands of dollars each, for tables

that, to the untrained eye, all look nearly identical with each other and with all card tables that already exist.

Surfing board game – A board game, by Carlos Echecopar, a surfboard designer who lives in Peru, where the board actually curls and you have to surf (with magnets) your meeples down the wave.

April 19, 2023

Interactive game and method of play – From Rehco (aka Rehkemper), a toy and game design studio. A card game with cards that have oval portrait spaces for you to put in pictures; several games include versions of Indian Poker and Charades. Several games on BGG are cited as precedents.

Low/max card game method and apparatus – A gambling card game from NJ company New Fun Enterprises (casino supplies). Player and the dealer each get an odd number of cards, split them into two “half hands” (discarding one), and bet if their “low” hand is lower than the dealer’s AND their “high” hand is higher than the dealers. And the apparatus? A half table (like the above ones) with markings on which to place your high and low hands.

Strategic pattern building board game – From a little company called Hasbro. For the game Connect 4 x 4.

In order to point out the inadequacy of previous games (in order to promote the need for this patent), Hasbro had to diss its own game of Connect Four: “Connect Four.TM. is limited because only two players can play, because the suspended matrix only allows a player to insert the colored discs into a single plane, and because only one type of disc is used. Consequently, the difficulty and the enjoyment of the game are limited.”

Gaming devices and methods of playing card games with indicator of cards played from previous hands – Electronic assistance for card counting in Blackjack … which makes no sense, since casinos typically try to prevent that.

April 19, 2023

Pool billiard game with course thereof determined by cards – A set of cards with pictures of billiard balls, to be used to create a multi-player billiard game (pick a card, shoot that ball). may include additional random event cards, such as miss a turn, etc.

Poker game – Though the patent uses the terms “attack” and “combative”, it’s not a war game version of poker, sorry. Based on Texas Hold’em, players are dealt additional cards, and cards they discard will neutralize or cancel out center cards (and possibly cards in other players’ hands), causing them to be discarded and replaced.

Playing method and gaming machine for a card game including a plurality of card games – A Baccarat game where bets are made on both values and colors. I think this is primarily a gaming machine patent, but not exclusively.

Special multiplier bonus game in Pai Gow Poker variant – As stated. From Shuffle Master.

In Pai Gow Poker, each player is dealt seven cards and makes two hands: one of five cards, and one of two cards.

Integrated game system, method, and device – Inventerprise is back, for some reason.

Wobbling game system – From David Gray of Texas. A pirate-themed game of balancing coins on a wobbling surface, as well as other games using the objects. It’s pretty long.