From Monopoly to Food Chain Magnate, and many games in between, players earn the victory by becoming the wealthiest by game end. Given that so many games are economic simulations, perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising. What might surprise us is how many games, even economic games, are not won by becoming the richest player. I »more
Tag Archives: 7 Wonders
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Design Patterns: Triangular Scoring
A quick note before we get into today’s post. I recently appeared on the fantastic Ludology podcast, hosted by Geoff Engelstein and Gil Hova, where I talked about this series of design patterns. Some of you may be reading this now because you heard that episode. Welcome! If you’re a regular and want to listen, »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
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Design Patterns: Asymmetry (Part 2)
Last week I introduced the topic of asymmetry, and wondered out loud about all the different ways we use the term. Is there any hope of putting some order to all the chaos we uncovered? Probably not. But we’ll try anyway! It might help to identify different categories of asymmetry. I’m going to try out »more
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Design Pattern: May The Force Be With You
When I was about nine years old, I excitedly challenged my dad to a game of chess. I had just learned about the 4-move mate, which seemed like magic to me. My dad was a strong chess player, and he never took anything off of his fastball. I was excited to deliver a 4-move knockout blow »more
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Design Patterns: You Can Also Use It As A Resource
Recently, I’ve been addicted to Jump Drive, the latest game from Tom Lehman’s Race for the Galaxy world. This fast-playing card game carries on the central concept of the previous games in the series, which is that players play cards for their printed effects by paying a cost of a number of other cards. Each »more
