Ok, this might look like a weird post, but I want to write an article about this subject and I want to know if I am missing something.
I intend in the near future to focus more on turn based strategy video games it order to get less restrictions than board games. But that comes at the cost of possibly less elegant design or getting common issues TBS VG has.
Considering I want an hybrid between both style, I want to setup a list of rules or guide lines to follow to make sure that the game retains a board game feel while being capable of breaking the laws of reality (like space and time restrictions)
I came up with a list of guide lines and I want to know If I am missing anything. It's basically a list of stuff to check out to avoid common issues found in TBS VG.
1. Keep the number of turns low: Many games have long diluted times, it could take like 20 turns to make a building (Imagine Puerto Rico like that). The goal is to keep the number of turns small, allow players to do a lot in a turn. Execute stuff immediately which prevent remembering what you intended to do 10 turns ago.
2. Replace most variables with constants: Games has many variables that changes for various reason and it sometimes hard to remember and analyze. Board games use mostly constant data, since printed information remains as it is on the components. This could be simulated by using more constants.
3. Reduced data: One of the advantage of a video game is to hold more data. But sometimes too much is like not enough. Avoiding duplicate data, combining data, abstracting data could make the game more elegant which is sometimes more fun than realism.
4. Reduced value ranges: Use smaller value ranges and make them meaningful. Instead of giving a movement of 32 points to a unit, give it a movement of 6 points. Percentages are acceptable, as long as the maximum remains 100% (Not like a game I saw where 100000% was common, so it defies the concept of percentage). Lower values also makes it more convenient for comparing with dice rolls.
5. Mechanic visibility: See how the mechanics behave behind the game to allow the player to anticipate the results of dice rolls, or make other computations by himself when planning strategy. Showing rolled dice on the screen is an example. Showing the current steps of the game rules beign executed is another.
6. Actions instead of adjustments: Allow players to take actions that modifies the game once and for all instead of adjusting sliders and other values. The goal is to place the player in a dilemma of decision making with positive and negative consequences instead of just finding the point of balance on a slider.
7. Avoid micro modifiers: Make modifiers and special abilities do something meaningful. Not like you gain +5% on damage in that specific situation. Forcing you to stack tons of modifiers which end up in micromanagement with the impact of each mod to be meaningless by itself.
8. Avoid Modifiers multiplication: Like getting the 20% of the 10% of the 30 % of the 10 damage points. Stack bonus if you want, but don't multiply them.
9. Faster games: It's Ok for video games to take more time than board games, since it's easier to devote more time when playing solo with a VG. But it should not take 100 hours to finish a game, since most of the time, you want the game to be replayable.
That's all I have so far, if you have anything else, let me know.
That is what I want to avoid, I want to have sorter game play, but repeatable. Rather that 1 huge gameplay session. More suitable for the "Play and forget" play style, and similar to board games.
I also don't want story based games, I want story machines games, which means games that creates unique stories through gameplay.
Sometimes in XCOM, the modifiers only applies in specific situation.