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.

Design permeates our lives.  It is everywhere.  I was recently re-binging a Netflix show, Nailed It! , and began to think about the design of the game in the show.  

The board game Villainous is widely available at your local Big Box and on the surface seems to be another barely-a-game theme-for-dollars affair.  After playing it, I came to view it is as a very elegant and well designed game.  Today I want to discuss all the things that I find interesting as a designer.

Cheapass Games in Black and White (by James Ernest) is a book that tries to take on several different roles: part retrospective, part rules archive, part design book.  It is an ambitious attempt, but ultimately falls short in most areas.

Hollow Knight for the Nintendo Switch seems to be tried and true metroid-esque game.  However, while it does have elements of Metroid games, there is little innovation of them.  There are some design decisions that seem to actually detract from the player experience and that is what I am going to talk about today.

Escape The Game (by Adam Clare) is a book about escape rooms, also called puzzle rooms.  It covers a range of topics, from design, to operating, to business advice.  It is a quick read and a broad overview of the overall escape room phenomena.

Meeples Together (Christopher Allen & Shannon Appelcline) is the book I have spent about 10 years looking for. The format of this book is as close to my ideal ‘game design’ book as I have found. Now, this book isn’t perfect, but it gets so much right, it should be considered a ‘must read’, allow me to elaborate...

As I have read more rumors about a Paper Mario for the Nintendo Switch, I have continued to play Paper Mario Color Splash.  Not my favorite Paper Mario, but the last one released.  However, as I play, I am again reminded why this is only my second play through in last three years.  This game is often an exercise in repeated frustration .  Yes, I am talking about the Tangerino Grill stage.

GameTek (by Geoff Engelstein) is a collection of brief thoughts and ideas that are fleshed out into two to three page chapters. The book covers a range of topics from emergence, power creep, to cheating.

Uncertainty in Games (by Greg Costikyan) is a short, informal book that reads more like a long essay than an academic work.  The book provides a good overview of different types of uncertainty (i.e. tension), but often fails to support or fully discuss their statements.  However, the book provides an interesting foray into sources of uncertainty in play.

Characteristics of Games (by George Skaff Elias, Richard Garfield, and K. Robert Gutschere) was a fascinating read and challenged more than one assumption I had about topics I felt were quite cut and dried.  This book starts at the foundation of design by examining topics such as number of players, game length, and types of games.  The book introduces some new vocabulary and contains some excellent appendices that give good summaries of topics such as Game Theory.

As a huge fan of the Paper Mario franchise (mostly, discounting the out-of-theme Wii game), I was very excited to play Paper Mario Color Splash for the Wii U.  I remember it having solid game play and good continuation of theme and style.  Then I decided to replay it recently and ran into a couple of issues that seem like good talking points of bad design .

The White Box Essays by Jeremy Holcomb isn't just a book about game design, but rather an overview of the whole process.  Each step of creating a game is covered by a short chapter.  The topics aren't covered in great depth, but do provide valuable information.  If you want to read 5 pages about what a game "is", check out a book like "Rules of Play"... if you want information about nearly every aspect of creating a game, from conception to production to fulfillment, then the White Box Essays is the place to start.