Brandon the Game Dev

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways.

Just here for Highways & Byways updates? Click here – it will take you right to the updates at the bottom of the page.

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The mark of a great game developer is to make great complexity and interaction come out of simple elements. Ironically, though, ensuring simplicity can be a terribly complicated task. My ongoing development of Highways & Byways has got me thinking about the way that we, as game developers, communicate with gamers. I’ve come up with a theory which I call the Five Levels of Communication through Game Development.

Games tell stories – whether they mean to or not. Chess tells a story. Pandemic tells a story. These stories are told, on purpose or on accident, through five different levels of communication.

This is why when I create games, I aim to evoke a certain feeling. In the case of Highways & Byways, I want you to feel a sense of wanderlust, as if you’re a young person taking an adventurous road trip in a lousy car. There are five ways game developers can communicate the feeling they’re trying to convey. I’ll provide an example of how Highways & Byways addresses each.

Core Engine: If you strip out all the mechanics that put obstacles in your players’ path, what’s left? Obviously not a very good or deep game, but there is still the pursuit of an objective. The core engine is the bare minimum set of mechanics you need to have a functioning game.

In the case of Highways & Byways, the core engine is moving around the United States, aiming to travel a certain set of beautiful byways. It’s a game about travel, exploring, and being in motion.

Mechanics: Games are not very good until you have constraints that make it hard for players to achieve the objective. Mechanics should add obstacles – whether that means the game itself is working against you or other players are. Mechanics include things like player elimination and hand management. Sometimes you consciously create them and sometimes they arise out of rules.

In Highways & Byways, construction slows players down by making some highways periodically impassible. That’s a mechanic. Players draft their destination cards in the beginning, trying to cluster them as close as possible (and sometimes making it hard for others to do the same). That’s a mechanic, a form of hand management.

Rules: These regulate the way mechanics are implemented. The line between rule and mechanic is really thin, and people will argue about the precise nature distinction (or even the existence of a distinction). To me, a mechanic is the concept behind the game and the rule is the way that it’s handled to ensure balance.

Players draft destination cards at the beginning of Highways & Byways. To keep the drafting fair, there’s a rule that says “the first person to pick changes every time, going clockwise.” That way, nobody gets first pick all the time. Likewise, sometimes, you’ll draft something that’s really terrible. Everybody will then get a chance to “mulligan” 2 of 16 destinations they really don’t want to go to.

Internal Narrative: The game also speaks to players not just through the core engine, mechanic, and rules – which constitute the gameplay. It also speaks to players through its theme, story, art, components, and even box design. The internal narrative covers everything about the game itself as a complete product minus the gameplay.

Once Highways & Byways is farther along, I’ll be commissioning art, polishing up its theme, trying to find 3-D printed car pieces (if economically feasible), and making a gorgeous box. That’s all part of the internal narrative (which I haven’t even begun to flesh out yet).

External Narrative: Games are more than just what’s in the box. Games are also the marketing used to promote them – the advertising and the footwork of the game developers who made them. Games are also the Kickstarter campaign and the stores they’re kept in. Games are the community that talks about them on forums and plays them at conventions. Games become everything that people claim that they are.

Highways & Byways is a game, but it’s also a series of blog articles, and a Twitter account. One day, it will be a Kickstarter campaign. I’m making this up as I go along and even as I write this very sentence. Everything I do online and everything others say online changes what this game means to you.

Great games communicate valuable gameplay information at the lowest possible level, preferably core engine and mechanics. One well-made mechanic can resolve the need for ten well-made rules.

My approach to Highways & Byways is very distinct from my approach to War Co. In War Co., I made the game as simple as I knew how to at the core engine and mechanic levels. However, it was still a rule-based game by necessity. That’s fine, however, it’s not optimal. With Highways & Byways, I’m aiming to communicate with players through the core engine and mechanics. If you misunderstand the rules a little bit, I want the game to be just as playable as it would be if you understood them perfectly.

So what made me do all this theorizing in the first place?

Last week I relentlessly ragged on my poor attempt to implement “the traffic mechanic.” The idea was that travel is too easy in the game, so you could slow your opponents down by placing traffic delays and road closures near them. This mechanic was poor from a theme standpoint because it implied players were omnipotent traffic gods. Yet it was even worse from a rules standpoint. Think about the amount of “thou shalt nots” the rules would have to spell out to prevent players from boxing others in, immobilizing them. The mechanic was so inelegant that it would have required a ton of rules to make the game balanced.

I’ve replaced the traffic mechanic with the “construction mechanic.” As I did this, I created version 4 of the game (titled “State Route 4” to keep with the theme). Instead of players choosing where traffic is placed, all highways – basically the fast routes – have one of ten letters on them. Every turn, a construction card is drawn. Players cannot pass any highways whose letters match that of the construction card drawn that turn. My brother and I tested this, and it shows promise.

The construction mechanic requires two or three rules to work. The mechanic stands almost alone in communicating what happens in the game. If the big, bright, orange card turns over with a big letter “B” on it, then you can’t pass B roads. Really straightforward, unlike the traffic mechanic that allowed players to place delays (just as long as they meet these 117 criteria first).

People don’t read rule books very thoroughly, so if your game plays intuitively because of good mechanic design, you have an edge in the market. Just like a movie that can be understood with the sound off, a game that can be played with the rules only skimmed is a sign of clear direction.

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Key Takeaways for Game Devs

• The mark of a great game developer is to make great complexity and interaction come out of simple elements.

• The Five Levels of Communication through Game Development

   

  • Core Engine: the bare minimum set of mechanics you need to have a functioning game.

   

  • Mechanics: the constraints that make it hard for players to achieve the objective.

   

  • Rules: regulate the way mechanics are implemented. A mechanic is the concept behind the game and the rule is the way that it’s handled to ensure balance.

   

  • Internal Narrative: everything about the game itself as a complete product minus the gameplay.

   

  • External Narrative: the marketing and the community.

• Great games communicate valuable gameplay information at the lowest possible level, preferably core engine and mechanics.

• You want your mechanics to stand almost alone in communicating what’s happening in the game.

• People don’t read rule books very thoroughly, so if your game plays intuitively because of good mechanic design, you have an edge in the market.

Most Important Highways & Byways Updates

Mentioned Above:

• I updated game to version State Route 4.
  • This replaced traffic mechanic with construction mechanic.
  • Reduced board crowding by combining some roads and removing others.

Not Mentioned Above:

• I play tested State Route 4.
  • My brother and I both liked the construction mechanic and agreed it had potential.
  • Identified issues.
• I updated the game to version State Route 5.
  • I properly marked starting locations on the map.
  • I introduced the Car Choice mechanic.
  • I introduced the Event Pool mechanic.
  • Early testing so far indicates both the Car Choice and Event Pool mechanics have promise.
  • The Event Pool mechanic is going to need a lot of refinement – probably over several game versions.

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways.

Just here for Highways & Byways updates? Click here.

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Most board game mechanics will not work as well as you intend them to. Good board game developers need to know when to drop mechanics and when to refine them. It’s not an exact science. My experiences with developing Highways & Byways this week have made me want to talk about this.

A little bit of background information, as well as an update. I’m continuing early play tests of Highways & Byways. The core game works, but it lacks a substantial challenge and doesn’t have much interaction between players. I’ve been playing with a new mechanic called “traffic.” Players could place road closures and travel delays on roads near their opponents to slow them down. It was about as fun as actual traffic. Back to the drawing board!

As a general rule of thumb, if a mechanic breaks theme immersion, is fiddly by necessity, or doesn’t mesh with existing mechanics then save yourself the time and drop it. If a mechanic is clumsy in execution but seems like it could be fun, continue testing with it, but always remember that you may have to drop it later.

I dropped the traffic mechanic because it was incorrigibly awful. It was fiddly, requiring players to place a lot of pieces. It would require a ton of rules to keep players from simply boxing others in with traffic. Not to mention, it makes players “traffic gods” with the ability to spawn traffic jams across the country WITH THEIR MINDS. My brother and I looked at each other and shook our heads. I dropped the traffic mechanic, upgraded to the next version of the game, did a little bit of housekeeping, and created a new mechanic in its place. It’s called the construction mechanic, which is randomly generated. It’s clumsy, but early tests show promise. I might end up in the same situation a week from now, but such is the iterative nature of game development.

With this mini-failure in mind as an example, what can game devs learn about spotting and dropping bad mechanics? It bears repeating that board game development involves tons of experimentation. What you expect to work probably won’t, and sometimes ridiculous ideas wind up being brilliant. So it goes. You’ll have to generate a ton of ideas to make a great game and bury most of them. All things equal, fewer mechanics are better. You want game complexity to arise from interactions, not mechanics or rules.

In the spirit of rapid iteration, then, how do you churn through ideas to improve your odds of reaching the good ones quickly? You have to drop bad mechanics early. Save yourself the time. Try something else. To me, trying to force a bad mechanic is like trying to force a key into a door. It’s a great way to break a key.

Here are five signs of a bad mechanic. Any of the following could ruin a mechanic. Fortunately, the traffic mechanic touches on all of these, which makes it a fantastic example for the signs below:

Sign 1: the mechanic breaks immersion or tone. The Highways & Byways traffic mechanic implied, through its very existence, that players have the ability to change traffic patterns halfway across the country. That makes no sense and it breaks immersion. That alone was reason enough to get rid of a mechanic. The same can be said of cutthroat take-that person-versus-person mechanics in a sunshiny game – it’s just off-putting.

Sign 2: the mechanic conflicts with the core engine. The Highways & Byways game depends upon the relatively unrestricted ability of players to move around the board. The traffic mechanic led to players blocking off roads really close to others. That slowed down travel time just about every turn. It’s like making Sonic the Hedgehog slow. If you make a game about building skyscrapers, this is equivalent to making a mechanic around gathering building permits.

Sign 3: the mechanic conflicts with other tested and liked mechanics. Early game card drafting is working beautifully in Highways & Byways. It gives you a chance to strategize, interact with your opponents, and write your destiny. The traffic mechanic made certain more isolated roads in the midwest and mountain states really unattractive, since there were fewer ways in and out. That meant your opponents could box you in with traffic, which made the more connected northeast more attractive. It upset the whole drafting balance.

Sign 4: the mechanic requires fiddly tracking. The traffic mechanic required extra pieces to be scattered across the board. In this case, it wasn’t so bad, but in general, you want to have to track as little data as possible. For example, if you’re making a fighting game with Life, Stamina, and Endurance trackers, consider simplifying that into one piece of data, such as HP.

Sign 5: the mechanic has to be reigned in with a bunch of rules. I tried making the traffic mechanic work, by saying things like “you can’t place two traffic pieces in a row” and “it’s gotta be three spaces away from each person” and “you can’t box opponents in.” It felt like a Rube Goldberg machine. You don’t want to stress out your players by making them remember too much. Rules come with a sort of cognitive overhead which you want to minimize for the sake of accessibility if at all possible. Games are always misunderstood when played for the first time. More rules increase the chances of devastating misunderstandings. Misunderstandings decrease the chance of getting that second or third play. Failure to get to play #2 or #3 – no matter how good your game is – damages the chances of selling your game.

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Key Takeaways for Game Devs

• Most mechanics you experiment with are not going to work.
• Make your game function with the fewest possible mechanics.
• You want game complexity to arise from interactions, not mechanics or rules.
• If a mechanic is bad, drop it early, save yourself some time, and try something else.
• If a mechanic breaks your theme immersion or doesn’t match your game’s intended tone, drop it.
• If a mechanic conflicts with your game’s core engine, drop it.
• If a mechanic conflicts with other game mechanics that you’ve already tested and that you like, drop it.
• If a mechanic requires a lot of fiddly pieces for tracking, drop it.
• If a mechanic requires a lot of rules or explanations, drop it.
• If a mechanic shows potential, keep it and refine it. Remember that you might have to drop it later.

Most Important Highways & Byways Updates

• I completely dropped the experimental traffic mechanic. It was as fun as actual traffic.
• I leveled up to the next version of the game: SR03.
• I introduced a new mechanic called construction in SR03.
• When I mentioned housekeeping above, this is what I’m referring to. I’d love to go into more detail about the following later, but that’s out of the scope of this article:
  • Simplifying road names
  • Cleaning up sloppy board design
  • Creating postcard style cards