Archive for the ‘Game design mistakes’ Category
Game design mistakes 5: Your game idea sucks, part two (Game design vs. software development)
I’ve been reading a lot about software development, and there are a lot of new techniques out there that have some creepy parallels to board game design. With the old-school “Waterfall” software development technique, the developers would get their requirements from the project stakehoders, and retreat into their offices or cubicles. Several months later, they [...]
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I won’t pretend to be an old hat at this game design business. For crying out loud, I’m not even published yet. I also have to be a little careful here, because muses work in different ways. This post will say as much about me as it will about what I think is a very [...]
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Have you ever played a game that just won’t end? Just as you think it can’t possibly go on any longer, it does? We’ve all played childhood games of Monopoly where your big brother has all the money, and it’s just a matter of time until the last few hangers-on go broke. It’s a process [...]
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“I have a great idea for a game!” That’s the phrase that gets us all in trouble. We have this vision for a fun game, and we want to see it realized. And if it weren’t for these initial inspirations, we wouldn’t have any new games. But game designers new to the hobby tend to [...]
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Game design mistakes 1: When your game’s theme and mechanisms meet, and it all comes out pastel
I have two related mistakes to kick off this series. First, pay attention to where your theme meets your mechanics. Second, try not to have one draw attention from the other. There are countless articles that discuss whether theme is more important than mechanics, or vice versa. That doesn’t really concern us here. Instead, I [...]
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