1. Of course you can design a game… but can you design a good one? Dr. Lewis Pulsipher Copyright 2011 Lewis Pulsipher

2. September 8, 2015 Outline of the session  Who am I?  Reality Check  Who is the game for?  What's a good game?  Initial design process summarized  Typical mistakes and quit points so far  80% vs. 100%  The polishing process  (Show some of the awful patents)

3. September 8, 2015 Who am I  Designed my own games while a teenager  Began playing commercial AH wargames in 1963  Played the original Atari 2600 and have played some PC games heavily, but rarely play any video games these days; never owned a game console  My favorite game is “the game design game”

4. September 8, 2015 Who am I  Designer of six commercially-published board wargames (most recently January 11), more games to come  Active designer of board and card games (playtesters solicited!)  My book “Get it Done: Designing Games from Start to Finish” is in late draft  Wikipedia: Lewis Pulsipher; Britannia (board game); Archomental

5. September 8, 2015 Reality Check  Almost no one makes a living designing games  Most who do, work for a game company, not freelance  You probably could spend the same time as profitably by picking up bottles and cans for deposits and recycling!  Most publishers don’t make a lot, either—and it’s risky  Many publishers exist largely to self-publish their own games

6. September 8, 2015 Reality Check 2  So if you design games, do it because you like to, or because you must, not because you want to make money –Alan R. Moon, two German “Games of the Year”, would have had to get part-time job if not for Ticket to Ride winning  Recognize that your “great idea” is probably not that great, not that original, and not that interesting to other people  Finally, it’s extra-hard to get into video game design

7. September 8, 2015 Is it for yourself, or for others?  If the game is just for you, it’s a lot easier –As long as you’re happy, you’re fine  For commercial game, you design for others, not for yourself –YOU ARE NOT THE AUDIENCE!

8. September 8, 2015 Summary, for commercial games, of the rest of the session:  Are you willing to do the hard work?  What IS a good game?  Initial design process  The polishing process  Learning to design  You’ve got to DO IT!

9. September 8, 2015 Are you willing to do the work?  It’s easy to get to 80% of a game, hard to get to 100% (Knizia)  It is NOT about great ideas  It is NOT about creativity  If it will be a commercial game, it is about work; fun work, but work  If it’s just a game for yourself and your buds, you don’t need to adhere to a high commercial standard

10. September 8, 2015 What do you think makes a game good?

11. September 8, 2015 What IS a good game?  Don’t talk about “fun”. Fun depends almost entirely on a person’s preferences and who they’re playing with. Rather ask, why do people think this game is enjoyable.  You are not the audience  You must know your audience  You must playtest with your audience  Ultimately, it’s what your audience likes

12. September 8, 2015 What about...  interaction  interesting choices  replayability  balance/fairness  visual appeal?  hook/early play  customization possibilities

13. September 8, 2015 And more...  Player interaction (as opposed to interaction with the system)  Memorability  Player(s) able to control what happens  Fair/balanced  Clear, easy-to-use interface  Asymmetry

14. September 8, 2015 And this:  "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery  Or: it’s much better to reduce complexity than to increase it.

15. September 8, 2015 What does your audience think?  So you have to playtest with your intended audience, as many as possible  Guy who only playtests with “designers” –Good feedback –Relying on expert opinion rather than on the audience itself

16. September 8, 2015 Initial design process  Ideas are a dime a dozen. A good game comes from good execution, not from “a great idea”  Write it all down!  Play the game in your “mind’s eye”  Have a checklist of structures and questions  When you think you know enough to play, make a simple prototype  Until you have a playable prototype, you haven’t really done anything

17. September 8, 2015 The polishing process  Change, change, change—embrace it  The process is iterative and incremental  Playtest, recognize problems, incorporate solutions, playtest some more  You’ll be sick and tired of it by the time you get “finished”  But you’re never truly finished

18. September 8, 2015 Learning to design  Its easier to begin by modifying existing games –E.g. Diplomacy variants, Risk variants, D&D additions –Try “fixing” a poor game such as Monopoly, or a weak game such as Risk –Don’t forget to do the whole process, especially the polishing

19. September 8, 2015 Learning to Design  Even famous, successful designers design lots of not-so-good games; often they are never published  Ability to be productively self-critical is vital  Pay attention to feedback, but keep it at arm’s length. Criticism is about your game, not about YOU.

20. September 8, 2015 Don’t get too involved with:  Appearance  Story Instead  Focus on how the game plays

21. September 8, 2015 Constraints  Limits lead to a conclusion: –Characteristics of the audience (target market) “People don’t do math any more” –Genre limitations –Production-imposed limitations “Board cannot be larger than X by Y” –Self-imposed limitations “I want a one-hour trading game”

22. September 8, 2015 Do it!  Too many people like to think about designing so much, they never actually do it  Until you have a playable prototype, you have nothing –(Which is what makes video game design so difficult) –It doesn’t have to be pretty, just usable

23. September 8, 2015 Resources about the business  Game Inventor’s Guidebook by Brian Tinsman  “All about publishing” thread on ConsimWorld  Lots of books about video game publishing  Sooner or later I’ll publish at least one book about game design

24. Questions? Comments? Pulsiphergames.com Pulsipher Boardgame Design on blogger (repeated on BGG)

25. September 8, 2015 Patents  4/30/2011 Game patents for a month. –Most game patents are ridiculous  Conditional application of hit card – A blackjack variant, where you are dealt an optional card which you can exchange, along with a variable payout table if you do so.  21 to the river – A blackjack/poker combo, described in news article.  Educational game apparatus – Roll the dice, use math to figure out numbers to flip. The patent was written by someone with a loose grasp on English syntax and grammar. The game is called Funberz by Dane Compton, currently without a website.

26. September 8, 2015  The Euchre Cube The Euchre Cube  The Euchre cube, designed by Patrick O’Donnell and self-published, differs from your typical Euchre scoring pads and peg tracks in that it prominently indicates the dealer (the guy next to the cube) and trump. The inside has a recessed Euchre scoring track.self-published  It’s patented, includes a bag to hold the cube (a deck of cards will also fit in there), and costs $45 (plus shipping).  Board game – The game “Enlightenment” by Norman Vail. Chakras, deadly sins, and spiritual enlightenment, etc. Board game   Funny, but to me the game looks a lot like Hustler’s adult 7 Deadly Sins game, whose object is not enlightenment.7 Deadly Sins  Next we have seven design patents for card game tables from Marcus Katz:  Yes, 7 complete design patents, thousands of dollars each, for tables that, to the untrained eye, all look nearly identical with each other and with all card tables that already exist.  Surfing board game – A board game, by Carlos Echecopar, a surfboard designer who lives in Peru, where the board actually curls and you have to surf (with magnets) your meeples down the wave. Surfing board game

27. September 8, 2015  Interactive game and method of play – From Rehco (aka Rehkemper), a toy and game design studio. A card game with cards that have oval portrait spaces for you to put in pictures; several games include versions of Indian Poker and Charades. Several games on BGG are cited as precedents. Interactive game and method of playRehco (aka Rehkemper)  Low/max card game method and apparatus – A gambling card game from NJ company New Fun Enterprises (casino supplies). Player and the dealer each get an odd number of cards, split them into two “half hands” (discarding one), and bet if their “low” hand is lower than the dealer’s AND their “high” hand is higher than the dealers. And the apparatus? A half table (like the above ones) with markings on which to place your high and low hands. Low/max card game method and apparatus  Strategic pattern building board game – From a little company called Hasbro. For the game Connect 4 x 4. Strategic pattern building board gameConnect 4 x 4  In order to point out the inadequacy of previous games (in order to promote the need for this patent), Hasbro had to diss its own game of Connect Four: “Connect Four.TM. is limited because only two players can play, because the suspended matrix only allows a player to insert the colored discs into a single plane, and because only one type of disc is used. Consequently, the difficulty and the enjoyment of the game are limited.”  Gaming devices and methods of playing card games with indicator of cards played from previous hands – Electronic assistance for card counting in Blackjack … which makes no sense, since casinos typically try to prevent that. Gaming devices and methods of playing card games with indicator of cards played from previous hands

28. September 8, 2015  Pool billiard game with course thereof determined by cards – A set of cards with pictures of billiard balls, to be used to create a multi-player billiard game (pick a card, shoot that ball). may include additional random event cards, such as miss a turn, etc. Pool billiard game with course thereof determined by cards  Poker game – Though the patent uses the terms “attack” and “combative”, it’s not a war game version of poker, sorry. Based on Texas Hold’em, players are dealt additional cards, and cards they discard will neutralize or cancel out center cards (and possibly cards in other players’ hands), causing them to be discarded and replaced. Poker game  Playing method and gaming machine for a card game including a plurality of card games – A Baccarat game where bets are made on both values and colors. I think this is primarily a gaming machine patent, but not exclusively. Playing method and gaming machine for a card game including a plurality of card games  Special multiplier bonus game in Pai Gow Poker variant – As stated. From Shuffle Master. Special multiplier bonus game in Pai Gow Poker variant  In Pai Gow Poker, each player is dealt seven cards and makes two hands: one of five cards, and one of two cards.  Integrated game system, method, and device – Inventerprise is back, for some reason. Integrated game system, method, and deviceInventerprise is back  Wobbling game system – From David Gray of Texas. A pirate-themed game of balancing coins on a wobbling surface, as well as other games using the objects. It’s pretty long. Wobbling game system