Tick Talk

Time can slip away from you, like water through your fingers.  That is how I feel when I look back and realize I have been working my way through Building Block of Tabletop Game Design  (by Geoffrey Englestein and Isaac Shalev, 2020, first edition) for almost two years.  Two. Years.

Player Elimination is an interesting concept, for many reasons. It evokes strong opinions and is used in several 'classic' games found in millions of homes. Personal feelings aside, I want to take a look at some topics of interest about this divisive mechanic.

Metroid Dread is a return to the original style of Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment System, but some of the mechanics have evolved over the past 30+ years.  Unfortunately, parts of the game don't feel retro, so much as regressive.

The second game in this series improves over the original in some respects and retains many things that make the first game fun.  However, there are some lingering issues that make for interesting discussion of game and narrative design.

 Please pardon the provocative title.  There is a bit of debate about what exactly is game balance.  Balance is a subjective assessment, similar to fun, but while balance may be subjective, there are concrete measurements that can be applied to determine how closely a design aligns to that subjective goal.  In a word: metrics . For myself, I want a player to feel like their skill and perhaps some luck, contributed to their victory or defeat.  I hate the feeling of realizing that something in a game is even moderately unbalanced.  If the game is severely unbalanced, it reduces the game to an activity.   For example, if a game has players select from unique abilities at the start (like a faction), but you realize that your faction is unbalanced, the game is no longer about skill and luck, but rather the choice you make at the beginning of the game.  In which case, why play the rest of the game?

Games, Design and Play (by Colleen Macklin and John Sharp) is a solid practical book that lays out an iterative design process. While it focuses on video game development, more than 90% of the material applies to game design in general (product design to a degree). This book is a fairly quick read and full of practical advice.