Author: RogerDoger

Retired Machine Designer turned Board Game Designer

The Road Less Travelled

2021-04-04 / / 1 Comment
Relative Value Bias

I am Currently reading the book “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariele. As described in chapter one, people’s decisions can be irrationally swayed by relative comparisons. For example, if you were given a choice between a brown or grey jacket of equivalent value (assuming you have no color preference) you are equally likely to pick either one. If a third jacket were introduced which is similar, but slightly inferior to one of the original two, your choice will be strongly influenced by this. If, for example, you introduce a second grey jacket which has a minor flaw or is the same, but without a belt, the great majority of us would pick the original grey jacket. This is because the grey jacket would seem like a better deal, simply because you have a basis of comparison, and the brown jacket will seem like a lesser value, because we have nothing relative to compare it against. This irrational bias in our decision making is exploited regularly by merchandisers and just about anybody else who wants us to buy their product or service.

This behavior shouldn’t be ignored when designing a game. You can, perhaps, reward players who explore alternative strategies by increasing the utility or value of unique and less obvious cards or other components in your game. This might enhance the replay value of a game and may even lead toward more varied strategies emerging in your game. You might instead decide to guide players in a certain direction  by using similar components and graphical cues to lead plyers to a more interesting and fun path of action. No matter how you plan to use it, it is a behavior that probably should be considered in your design.

I am not an expert, nor am I a successful in publishing games. (Yet!) I am just trying to figure things out and hope you enjoy my occasional rant. Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree, or even if you just want to say hi.

Roger Meloche

A Glimmer of Hope

2021-04-01 / / 0 Comments
Fight Night in Canada V9a (Temporarily Broken)

The first playtest of Fight Night Version #9 went off the rails. The hurriedly put together graphics were hard to follow, there was no clear player direction, and the mechanism’s in general were a little clunky and slow. The teach was horrible (My Bad) and one of the mechanisms was broken so bad we couldn’t finish the game. Ouch!

There is, however, a glimmer of hope. I witnessed the first emergent strategy in any of my games. The players were also immersed in their roles in the game, not through any story or art in the game, but by their behavior alone. It would have to be the behavior, because the art in the prototype is so cheesy. This is a sign that there is something intriguing buried under this current mess of a game. Yeah!

The first steps are to fix the broken mechanisms, then deal with the graphic issues, and finally guide the players a little better. This version of the game will be a test bed for determining player behaviors and looking for patterns.

Once I have more information, I can start looking at simplifying the game while adding more opportunities for unique player actions. This will come later in version #10. “Stay tuned to this station for further updates.”

Special thanks to the play-testers for their time and their valuable insights.

Where’s the Beef?

2021-03-28 / / 0 Comments

Looking at my latest iteration of “Fight Night in Canada”, I keep picturing that lady in the old hamburger commercial yelling “Where’s the Fun”. It’s in the game somewhere buried under a pile of pasted on mechanisms and ill fitting fixes. It’s time for some drastic measures, time to “Kill my Darlings”.

Lets’s start at the beginning. I came up with a really cool system of resolution conflict, combining dice and a type of area majority/worker placement. I had to find out from some local game experts if this has ever been done before, as well as show off my my new toy. “Fight Night in Canada” was born. I made a quick prototype and showed it to Moe and Sean (Of TabletopBellhop Fame).

Fight Night in Canada version 1a

It turned out that this is likely a new idea and it could be fun, so I decided to pursue it. After man play-tests and redesigns, I found myself at version #7, an over-complicated, sometimes fun, but way too complicated mess.

Fight Night in Canada version #7

I thought I had nailed it on version #2f, when I wrote the full rules with illustrations, but certain issues kept rearing their ugly heads, and no matter how many ways I tried to rework the attack dice. I just couldn’t give the players enough interesting choices without introducing too much complexity. After all, this game was nothing more than a simple two player “dice chucker”; a 45 minute teach was not acceptable for a 20 minute game. My last attempt (version#8) to streamline this mess helped a bit, but not enough. It’s time to take some drastic measures.

I looked at what worked well and put everything else, including the attack dice which were part the original foundation of the game on the chopping block. In design circles, this is known as “Killing Your Darlings”, a brutal but sometimes necessary part of a game design. I am keeping the defense dice but I’m “Chucking” the attack dice and any other component which is not working or creating complexity. Version #9, here we come!

I will post the new version as soon as it is completed so you can judge for yourself whether or not I was successful.

Stuck in the Middle with “La Famiglia”

2021-03-27 / / 0 Comments
Latest version 5a of La Famiglia

The play-testing last version of “La Famiglia” went well, but something interesting came up. We were trying to decide exactly which market I was trying to appeal to, and it turned out to be nobody. It’s like that song “Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am…..Stuck in the middle with you….”.

It was much too complicated to appeal to the mass market crowd that plays games like Euchre and Uno, but it didn’t have enough depth for a Hobby Gamer to sink their teeth into. It is very likely to languish in that No-Sale limbo that designers and retailers dread. My choices were to simplify it to the point where it might appeal to the mass market, or ramp up the complexity and player decisions enough to appeal to hobby gamer. I’m afraid I can’t have my cake and eat it too……Or can I ?

I decided to do both. I added more interesting decisions by giving some of the cards special abilities. I also tweaked the “Situation” deck a bit to make it more interesting. This might be enough for the hobby gamer to enjoy.

As far as the mass market gamer goes, the game will be introduced in stages. The base rules will not include the special card abilities. It might be interesting enough for a casual gameer. If the players wish, they can incorporate the special abilities of the cards. If they want to push it to the limit, they can use the situation deck. I’m hoping this multi-layer approach will work. Only time and more play-testing will tell.

Pondering a Spider Web

2021-03-21 / / 0 Comments

I just read an article which explored the idea that a spider’s web was possibly an extension of its consciousness. At the very least, it was a part of its sensory system. It’s tendrils extend into the world and providing information in the form of vibrations about what is happening around the spider. It was an intriguing idea, and started me thinking about how to represent this in a game.

A typical tableau or engine builder probably wouldn’t be able to emulate this, but maybe an abstract game with a grid on which markers are placed in an ever expanding pattern. Events on the periphery could perhaps trigger a chain reaction which would somehow affect players pawn which could travel along this “web” like construct.

It’s an interesting approach and needs a little more thought, but I’m sure there is a game in there somewhere.

Lets create an artificial construct which might simulate spider behavior. It doesn’t have to be accurate but it should appear plausible. The game could have the following functioning parts:

  • Spiders respond to external stimuli like a fly landing on their web.
  • This behavior is an automatic reaction of the spider
  • They build elaborate webs
  • They cannot build and monitor their webs at the same time.
  • there is a central hub or home base in their web structure from which they monitor their webs
  • Spiders gain energy by eating flies
  • They expend energy by building webs.
  • Flies appear at random
  • The larger the web, the more food they can consume.
  • Spiders can choose to eat food or store it for later.
  • Capturing food damages the web and it must be repaired
  • Spiders compete for territory with other spiders
  • If an opponent’s spider enters a spider’s web, this will result in a battle.
  • Battles will result in a loss of energy which will have to be replenished.
  • The victor in a battle can steal an opponents food
  • A spider can lure an opponent into its web by moving adjacent to it and plucking the neighboring web.
  • If a spider runs out of energy it dies.

The webs can be constructed by laying marker pieces out on a grid. These webs can be free-form with each player being a different color. The home base would be a special marker and the beginning point of the web construction.

The spiders can be represented by a special pawn which can be placed over any web marker. It will be moved around the webs and will travel around the edge as the web is built. It must move to the home base to monitor the web and look for flies. The player has to decide whether or not to build or repair the web, monitor the web, eat some stored food.

The flies could be represented by a deck of cards. Some of the cards will have coordinates for bug-hits. These cards are revealed turn by turn and will randomize the bug hits in the webs. When a bug hits the web and a spider is monitoring it, it is captured. If the spider is not monitoring the web, a dice is rolled to determine if it will escape the web. This might happen repeatedly until the spider retrieves the food.

This is starting to sound like a viable concept for a game. I’ll have to give it some more thought and perhaps make a game out of it one day. It you have any thoughts about this game concept, let me know, I would be glad to hear them.