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A deep interest for design and analog games brought me here.

6 replies [Last post]
Wed, 03/22/2017 - 08:00
hallonapl
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Joined: 02/06/2017

...and I'm really looking forward to the experience!

I am a logician and mathematician, working in software development.
Lately my fascination for systems and their design has led me to look more in depth at analog games and how these produce and present the puzzles and interactions that make them games (Wow! that sounded more presumptious than I intended it to be!)

I have always been a gamer, but for a long time, from the mid 90:s onwards, anything non-videogame-related was more of a curio.
Now the pendulum has swung all the way to the other side and I have mostly given up on the digital implementations in favour of reading about and playing analog ones instead.

Since I enjoy puzzling over solutions to all kinds of quirky problems, I decided to try out analog games design. Little did I realize that most of the time would go to trying out designs too complex to just "intuit about" and discarding loads of ideas that felt boring! :D

I am still not entirely satisfied with the alpha version of my only prototyped design, but am hoping to finish building a play testable rules set and component list some day "soon".

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Wed, 03/22/2017 - 09:54
#1
JamJam52
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Joined: 03/20/2016
Welcome!

Welcome! Yea I think every designers first lesson is the difference between intellectually interesting (and usually complex), and fun :)

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Wed, 03/22/2017 - 10:36
#2
Squinshee
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Joined: 10/17/2012
Complexity is both easy to

Complexity is both easy to make and hard to make well.

Welcome!

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Wed, 03/22/2017 - 17:36
#3
questccg
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Joined: 04/16/2011
I think it depends on the intended audience

Perhaps what is challenging is creating a SIMPLE game people have FUN playing. In the case of my own designs, I often try to focus on a "core" having been through the experience where new gamers were lost due to "Analysis-Paralysis". Meaning because the game had too many options, newbie gamers were not sure what choice to make.

In the end I have "overcome" this challenge and managed to streamline the game into a "core" that can be enjoyed by nine (9) year olds, in addition to being FUN to play by Parents and seasoned Gamers. My personal path was 1> First simplifying the "core" 2> Offer expansions to add more complexity.

This was a fortunate turn of events - because I originally had planned to release expansions - I was just not planning to do so "so rapidely..." so to speak!

Cheers and Welcome!

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Thu, 03/23/2017 - 07:54
#4
let-off studios
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Joined: 02/07/2011
Welcome!

Hello and welcome, hallonapl! :D

Several designers I regularly meet with are well-versed/accredited in mathematics and statistics (though I am not myself). Many of them work for software companies and/or departments in the federal government - I live near and meet with designers in the Washington, DC metro area. You're not alone.

One of the things I've adopted to help with my game design is the perspective that games work well as models. The game doesn't have to accurately simulate something as long as it manifests the world, and/or brings out its ideas. The calculations will be sound and will underlie anything within the game, but on the surface they're mostly concealed.

The focus is on the actions taken while the player participates in the model, as opposed to the "behind the scenes" workings of what makes the mechanics work together to make a captivating game.

A lot of this is general musings, but your post started me thinking about what goes through my mind when I consider a design and "whether or not it's fun." Might your challenge be coming up with a captivating theme? For example, I find something about Acquire absolutely fascinating, though I'd otherwise not touch fancy hotels and the concepts of mergers and stock buyouts with a ten-foot pole. :) It's the world itself that's sucked me in, as opposed to what makes the world work.

In any case: welcome! Please keep us posted on your progress. :D

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Mon, 04/03/2017 - 02:51
#5
hallonapl
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Joined: 02/06/2017
Thanks a bunch for the warm

Thanks a bunch for the warm welcome!

I am looking forward to putting a design up for scrutiny as soon as I have had time to write down the rules and design an alpha level set of PnP components.

Have a nice day, all of you!

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Mon, 04/03/2017 - 02:55
#6
hallonapl
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Joined: 02/06/2017
I think my challenge is

I think my challenge is mostly letting go of bad designs and letting the ones with some legs free.
To actually write up a set of testable rules and creating simple, printable game components in order to send the game out into the world, so to speak, is probably what I should do now. :)

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