What are you talking about?
This is going to be a series about ways to improve your game by stepping away from it.
For example?
This week I am going to cover working on other games. It could be your games, other prototypes, or published games.
I thought of this topic when I was playing Salvation Road the other day. One of my favorite mechanisms in that game is the wound system. The way it works is that your carrying capacity goes down each time you take a wound. So if you could carry 6 items then take a wound, your maximum capacity is reduced to 5. If you were carrying something in every spot you would have to drop it. The carrying capacity is also your life total. When your last circle is filled, the character is removed from the game. This mechanism came to us when we were working on a different game.
We were trying to solve a problem with the other design. We wanted the capacity to be limited so that players were encouraged to interact with each other, but also players had a way to play more conservatively if they wanted . We wanted to make certain targets more or less enticing. Imagine they were ships (they aren't). You would be more likely to attack the ship that was loaded with the most cargo as you are more likely to get more loot. It works the same in this system. You attack someone and if there are open spots the wounds just cover them and you get nothing. However, if you are carrying a full capacity you would have to drop one or more items. So while it is more efficient to carry more, you are also a better target.
It doesn't work exactly the same Salvation Road, since you aren't attack each other. But your capacity is still limited and so the decisions become more interesting. Do you push you luck and stay out there gathering more items, to be more efficient with your actions, and hope the Marauders don't find you? Or do you run back to the Compound, protecting the resources you gathered, but spending more actions?
So how does this relate to "Letting your design go"?
If we never stepped away from Salvation Road to work on this other game, we probably wouldn't have come up with this Mechanism. We were trying to solve a different problem, but it worked on multiple fronts and worked out great for Salvation Road. Will this mechanism work well in the other game? Maybe, but it still has a great life even if the other game doesn't work out.
What about playing other people's prototypes? Are you stealing their ideas?
Not at all. Unless they say it is ok :). I am talking about giving people feedback on their games being a creative endeavor. While at prototype conventions people always want to play their own games. But you can make progress on your own game by helping other people with their designs. You may have a great idea stored in the recesses of your mind that you don't even know about. Your brain can't see how it applies to your game because you are too close to it. But when you give it as feedback to someone else on their design, it clicks. This happened with The Last Bastion. We weren't even showing it off at this Unpub mini event. But when talking to someone about how to make their decisions mean more, the Favor Token was invented.
In Bastion you have the ability to change the board state while resting at the infirmary. The problem is that in doing so you are just helping other players get the first shot at the new stuff. The favor token makes sure you have access to the changes you made to the board. It is a key mechanism to the game now, that probably wouldn't have been discovered if we weren't trying to help someone else solve their problem.
Bottom Line?
Don't be afraid to step away from your game. If you are stuck on something, or it just isn't coming together, work on something else and inspiration will come. If it doesn't come right away, at least you were still being productive instead of beating your head against the wall.
What is this series you referred to at the beginning?
A lot of the topics I have been covering have a lot of depth to them. So far I have only scratched the surface of a lot of these. A primer if you will. I will be revisiting a lot of these topics in the future with more depth. With that in mind, if you have any subjects you want us to cover more in depth please let me know in the comments, or through email at MVPBoardgames@gmail.com.
What's Next?
That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about preparing for a convention (as we prepare for WBC). Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.
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