My latest article in the Journal of Boardgame Design has just been
published. "The Art of Scoring - How Game Designers Encourage You To Get More" explores the use of scoring systems in games as a way to create focus, tension, and player interaction.
"Scoring for majorities is one of the most popular mechanics in Eurogames. I scanned my own collection and found that out of 100 games, I identified 35 of them that use scoring for majorities in some form. But there are other ways that designers have come up with to grant disproportionate, typically escalating, scoring in their games. It's pretty darned hard to come up with something new, but fortunately there are a lot of creative designers out there. I thought it would be fun to see what people are using, and to see what different effects they can have on game play."
This is Part 1 of a two part series. The second part, to come later, will
survey some of the more original schemes that designers have used in
particular games, and how they affect game play.
Join us at
http://www.jbdgames.blogspot.com/
I hope that this sort of post is welcome in this forum. I have enjoyed a good amount of traffic originating from this forum, and I can think of no group out there whose focus is more closely related to my writings. FWIW, my own focus is really more in line with appreciating game design than it is in guiding new game design - but there is tremendous overlap.
In turn, I expect to be returning to this forum more frequently to read what others contribute, to learn, and to get inspiration for my own writing.
Anyway, I write to no particular schedule. Technically, JBD is a "blog", but really it's a periodic online monograph which happens to use Blogger as a hosting mechanism. My goal is to get out one article a month. This article became so long that I chose to break it into two pieces - the second part will be released in a week or two.
I hope that participants here enjoy this latest article and feel encouraged to comment.
Thanks, all,
Jonathan
