I figure this would be a good way to get to know my tastes a little better, but also I think there is a lot to learn from what has been done this year. I thought 2013 was a great year for games and the lessons will definitely affect my designs in the future. If you want to skip down to the meat of my design lessons you can skip to the second to last section, I wouldn't though.
What kind of games do you normally like?
This is very interesting when you see my selections below. I like all sorts of games, but Power Grid, Ticket to Ride and Castles of Burgundy are definitely near the top of my list. I love games like Blood Bowl (not Team Manager), Summoner Wars and Galaxy Trucker too. This year I theme definitely won out for me though. I think this is a good year to start this feature because the best games for me were very comparable to something in the past. So I will spend so time doing that now.
So lets get to it.
The first game I want to highlight is Battle Lore 2nd Edition. I have always liked the Command and Colors system, and liked the original Battle Lore quite a bit. I bought quite a few expansions, but spent most of my time playing the base game, without a lot of the advanced stuff. Why? Because every time I brought it out I was learning the basic stuff all over again. The war council stuff seemed fiddly. And the board took forever to set up. And again, this is a game and system I like a lot.
So what has changed?
They streamlined a lot of things. In doing so it allowed them to give units individual powers. They took that clunky setup, and it still isn't fast, but they made it fun and interactive. You each set up your own side of the board at the same time. You have unique objectives you need to think about each game, not just yours, but theirs too. Setup when from an exercise to a part of the game.
How were they able to make the game more streamlined, yet add powers to the units to make them more differentiated?
That is the beauty. They took away a lot of the special exceptions and put them on the units themselves. With the old system there were 3 different colors (green, blue and red). Each color had archers, melee and cavalry. Each iteration of these have different move and attack values. While none of it was complicated, there were a lot of the same colors that didn't equate to the same stats. The new version focused on a few core mechanics. When they break the rule, it is on the cards themselves. You only have a few different types of units that you can learn quickly. Other rules they broke were on the Lore Cards themselves, but nothing you had to look up. Bottom line is, the core rules were easier, and the exceptions came on the cards. And not a ton per card, each unit may only have 1 or 2 special rules at most. So when that unit was acting, you look at the card not the rulebook.
So what other games you got?
Another great example of streamlining a great game came with Nations. I love Through the Ages, but Nations took the core of that game and made it so much better. Yea, there are still problems with the game. Tracking what resources you get each round is a pain, no other way to say it. The art is also something that needs to be addressed. For $100 game you should have more than one piece of artwork that is just repeated over and over. But that aside the game is amazing.
How is it "better"?
My key take away from Nations is the turn sequence. That is the major difference. Through the Ages got so fancy with Civil and Military actions, that a players turn took way too long, and usually you had at least one or two, "oh wait, I need to do that over" moments per game. So there goes another 10 minutes of my life. With Nations simply giving you one action per turn, the game moves so much smoother. Even though it is still a long game, you don't feel it because you know your turn is coming up again soon and it keeps you very engaged. So if the pacing of your game seems off, think about integrating players turns, that is what Nations did and it worked out beautifully.
What other games did you like?
The next game I am going to cover is Eldritch Horror. Sticking with the theme, they took the soul of Arkham Horror and streamlined it. Eldritch took all the monster movement, getting sent to the other world, gates, all the cool thematic stuff about the Arkham. They kept it all in there but it put it on the cards, not in the rules. Just remembering a few core rules you can play the game. I have played games with total new players and got them up and running in 5 minutes. And the other players were making their own decisions, and understood what they were trying to do. No they didn't know every consequence to their actions, but that is part of the fun of the game.
Last one?
This was a "New to Me" game from 2012. I actually resisted this game, and every game like it because of my love for Blood Bowl. That game was Dreadball. What did Dreadball do that was so cool? It kept alive the concept of very different teams (with their own strengths and weaknesses), progression you care about (sometimes more than the score of any one game), and fun gameplay. But it cut the game times and complexity in half. I could now teach this game to my wife and friends, and they would actually get it during the first game. I didn't have to dumb down the rules for them. They didn't have to play 200 games to get good at it. The game itself was streamlined, while maintaining all the coolest parts about Blood Bowl.
Main Lessons from 2013?
- Streamline - If you have a good game, think of ways to preserve the core while taking out anything that keeps you away from the fun parts. If you do want exceptions, put them on the cards in the game, not the rules.
- Pacing - Nations taught me to keep my players engaged. Don't have really long turns if you can make it more interactive and have several shorter turns.
- Interactive - If you can take tedious parts, like the setup in Battle Lore, and make them interactive. Have people do them simultaneously and add in little decisions so they aren't just following instructions, but interacting with the game. This can go too far, I am looking at you Mansions of Madness, but I think the failing of that game is that it was only one person making the decisions while the others sat around.
New week I will be getting back into some tools of the trade. I will probably talk about Tokens, how and why I make them, and how to use them. Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.
No comments:
Post a Comment