Blind playtesting, where players encounter your game as a consumer might, and must learn how to play from the written rules, is a critical part of the game design process. Some designers reserve blind testing towards the end of their process, and primarily use it to refine rules. Others start much earlier, sometimes relying on »more
Monthly Archives: March, 2018
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Guest Post, JR Honeycutt: Make Choices, Feel Things
JR Honeycutt is a developer and designer who is known throughout the industry for his work on legacy games from Seafall to Charterstone to the upcoming Betrayal Legacy. In the past, JR has worked with Dirk Knemeyer on the Tesla vs Edison franchise, and with Daryl Andrews on the Fantasy Fantasy sports franchise. JR, in »more
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Design Patterns: Asymmetry and Player Interaction
We’ve spent the last few weeks talking about various ways in which games start with asymmetry, or introduce it along the way, in order to reach the ultimate asymmetric outcome of winning and losing. Today, we’ll close our series on asymmetry by talking about player interaction. Broadly speaking, nearly every competitive game can be reduced »more
