I plan on fixing up the rules a bit and then posting for feedback, but right now I am starting to worry that I made my game have so many rules that its too complicated for anyone to want to learn how to play.
How do I know how to balance the game so that it is welcome to new players but also keeps experienced players entertained?
Is there some sort of "rule of thumb?"
(I know this is a hard question to answer without actually seeing the game itself.)
Well what I was told is that you should be able to *explain* all aspects of your game in 5,000 words. That's about the top... Obviously there are games out there with more...
But you should aim for no more than 5,000. And that's advice I got here from other game designers.
So my current game has 4,500 words and is spread out on a 30 page rulebook! It's not the pages that count, it's the words. Why? Because you can have pictures and use larger fonts, etc. All that adds to the page count but is really *complimentary* to your rules...
Check out the thread if you want more details: http://www.bgdf.com/node/13277
New players feel a game is inviting if the rules are easy to learn. Less rules is generally a better idea.
Experienced players aren't necessarily entertained by more rules, but by strategic opportunities, replayability and tension.
So you can simplify without alienating experienced players, but you can also keep the more complicated and use them as advanced rules in addition to the basic rule set. In the end, the only real way you can be sure is to play test with both novice gamers and experienced gamers (who will have an innate understanding of some of the rules when they read them) and see how your game pans out, before making any decisions on changes.
I might have heard this somewhere or might be making it up, but a rule of thumb I keep in mind is:
Find where the player is most interested, and then strip everything else away that doesn't emphasize or focus on the interesting parts.
By "interesting," it could be where the toughest decisions are made, or a tough dexterity component, or the part where everyone is simultaneously engaged and competing on a timer (a la Halli Galli).
"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Another form, about Japanese gardening actually, is "Your garden is not complete until there is nothing else that you can remove."
However, if you've designed what is fundamentally a puzzle (which includes a large number of non-wargames), the more complexity making the puzzle more difficult may make sense.
I think there's a section about simplifying a game in my game design book. (Game Design: how to create video and tabletop games, start to finish)
Write in a sentence or three what the essence of the game is, then take out things that don't contribute to that.
"Should I simplify my game?". If you have to ask that question then the answer is very likely to be "yes".
Nobody likes to learn rules. The goal of the game designer should be to create the maximum amount of fun out of the minimum number of rules.
Remove rules and components until you have the barest bones of the game left. For each rule ask yourself: what does this rule accomplish? Is it really necessary? What happens if the rule is removed? Does the added complexity also add a lot of fun or depth to the game? If leaving out a rule doesn't break the game you should strongly consider leaving it out.
Sometimes you can combine two or three rules into one rule.
"Less is more."
"SIBKIS: see it big, keep it simple"
"Balance the game" probably starts from redesigning the structure of the game.. meaning the relationship between the game play and logic.
If you think that your game has too much rules to it and that complicates new players to learn, break down the game to parts and explain it by good related headings, link all the components by using reference. There is one new game that has big rules and he breaks down the explanation into smaller parts and then join/relate it by graphics etc.
I have just design my first game and find that explaining the mechanics/style a problem cos I seem not able to relate it back to the gameplay so I break it down to phases. I guess if you design a big game, that is also one way to explain the rules in simple format.
cheers
Vence C.
There are also more shades to "complexity". Depends how much interconnected the rules are, how structured they are, how much they lend to edge cases, how well-presented they are, how much of them are centralized into rulebook X spread across cards etc.
Along with simplifying also try making rules better structured and presented (only article I can think of atm: http://marshalkowski.com/blog/writing-rules-part-i-time-traps-and-peanut...).
And perhaps off-load some rules onto cards. That makes player to be introduced to a portion of rules gradually throughout the game
Another thing is your audience, there are players that do like more complex games. I always read that "there in no arguing Arkham Horror has tons of rules", yet I find it a relatively simple game, barring a number of special edge cases arising.
If you have already something done, why don't you at least test teaching the game on a few different people to see if your worries are justified?
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