Saturday, December 10, 2016

Day 33: FotLC through the 113 lenses from The Art of Game Design

Day 33 - Lens 50: The Lens of Character
Elegance and character are opposites. THey are like miniature versions of simplicity and complexity, and they must be kept in balance. To make sure your game has lovable, defining quirks, ask yourself these questions:

Is there anything strange in my game that players talk about excitedly?
Well the game was built to have a number of unique mechanics. I don't know if those qualify as they were very intentional and core to the design. Players talk about how much happened in the game, how moving all at once makes the game exciting and difficult.

Does my game have any funny qualities that make it unique?
There is always, or usually a positive reaction to the 'raise your fist in defiance of the city' mechanic. I think that in a social game that this mechanic's performative nature breaks the ice and encourages the players to become more involved with the game. It's a little unusual to have a big demosstrative action like that in a board game and it helps break players out of the normal gaming mindset and get them ready for the action of this game.

Players also like the tie resolution mechanic where the tying players eliminate each other and the third place player wins. Or at least they like it if it is explained first or it didn't happen. Finding out you lost unexpectedly due to a quirky rule is received poorly.

Does my game have any flaws that players like?
I don't know... I feel like I need more repeat playtesters before I can even ask someone that question. I'll ask my most frequent playtester though.

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