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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond
@ross-esmond.bsky.social
160 followers 54 following 140 posts
Good Programmer, wannabe Board Game Designer, Math... Enthusiast, and half decent Technical Writer.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 2d
I like seeing those games in action, but there is a different feeling between the two, especially for repeat play tests.

I wrote this because of a prototype I've been playing repeatedly. The designer is super appreciative, which is fine, but I had to explain that I wasn't really doing him a favor.
ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 2d
I figured out how to do a Balatro board game and emailed the designer of Balatro about it.

I have a bad tendency to work on games from existing IP. I'm a programmer with a degree in math. So I'm really good at honing ideas, but I need to get better at working on my own.
ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 3d
Depends on the standard of success. I'm not published, but I have a couple of board game prototypes that I'm proud of. One of them is sent off for consideration at the moment.

I then have maybe a couple of dozen shelved prototypes. That's where most of my thoughts come from.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 3d
There's a point where a board game prototype becomes "fun enough" that play testing it is not a burden or a favor; it's just playing a fun but incomplete game.

I think getting to that point should probably be the initial goal of #BoardGameDesign, well before content, balance, or aesthetics.

🎲✂️
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 7d
This is the single most valuable thing I've learned about #BoardGameDesign so far, and it's not even close.

When a player has to make a choice in a strategy game, the "best" option should depend on the state of the rest of the game.

I wrote about this more at rossongames.com/choices

🎲✂️
The Structure of Player Choices.
How the state of the game should affect the value of the player's options.
rossongames.com
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 14d
I had the same thought process with the same game. I realized it was more intuitive to have that little bit at the start, so at least there's a counterexample.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 14d
But, most importantly, the jargon and instructions in your rule book will naturally make more sense after you've explained what the player will be doing.

"I'm going to have to clear the wango cards from my play space? What the hell are wango cards and why are they in my play space?!"

🎲✂️
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 14d
It's usually equivalent. The phase happens in-between rounds either way, you're just presenting it differently: at the end of the prior round rather than start of the next.

You often don't even have to say "skip this in the last round" because the end-game trigger has already stopped the game.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 14d
#boardgamedesign

If you have an Upkeep phase that should happen in-between rounds, put it at the end of the round, not the start. I read rulebooks that put it at the start, then say "Skip this phase on the first round." If it's supposed to go in-between, present it as going after the round.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 18d
Yes, you're right. Libertalia and Citadels as well. 5 seems to be the multiple choice sweet spot. Too many to prompt a blind guess but few enough to be motivating.

The designs built around deducing just that one thing go well past 5. "Immediate guess" is a good qualifier.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 19d
I've played prototypes where I'm incentivized to guess what another player has, but there are dozens of possibilities to pick from, and I just wind up not trying.

If your entire game hinges on players actually trying to guess, it seems that limiting the options to about 5 is best.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 19d
🎲✂️ I've noticed that whenever a game really wants me to try and guess what another player has or has selected, the game will only give players 5 or fewer things to pick from:

* Coup: 5 characters to have
* Planet X: 4 theory tokens to place
* Race for the Galaxy: 5 phases to pick
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 26d
The best design diary is the one from Kory Heath about Zendo, and it's not even close.

web.archive.org/web/20241231...
Zendo—Design History – Kory Heath
web.archive.org
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 28d
I've seen two other statements that feel unlikely to me. The first is that most copies sold are only played once, which seems pessimistic. The other is that most plays are first plays, which is mathematically unlikely.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 28d
This corroborates what I believe, but don't have data to back up, which is that the correct statement is "most of your players will only play your game once." I think most copies sold are played more than once by the owner, but their guests may never get another chance.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 28d
I've heard this several times and I've never been able to find a source. It's possible there isn't actually any proof of that. Everyone seems to have heard it from somebody else. Does anyone have a source?
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 28d
I must have made my point very poorly because I was agreeing with you, just commenting about the framing of "balanced" vs "unbalanced".

We've still not said anything in disagreement. Maybe blue sky wasn't the place for me to write that up.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 29d
I've made the same point. To me, a "board game idea" is a theme that inspires a twist on a classic genre.

Like my recycling plant idea. It's a rondel game where the goal is to automate enough steps to start skipping spaces on the rondel, which is the opposite of how they usually work.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 29d
For what it's worth, I assume Peter Olotka was mostly making a point about player character imbalance, which can work just fine. Once a player has locked in a "better" character the rest of the players can act to rebalance the game, which Cosmic Encounters is designed to facilitate.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 29d
When people say they "balanced out the fun", I assume they had a game where the player's options weren't affected by the state of the game, but the solution is to make the options drift in power over the course of the game; not to leave them unbalanced.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 29d
The cool thing about this is that it's a range of balance, not an exact number. You probably want options to have an equal opportunity to shine, but you can have some cards that are useful less often, as long as they come in handy enough to still be considered.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 29d
To me, balance is about the probability that an option to the player is the best option on any given turn. If a card is so overpowered that players automatically pick it without thinking, it needs a nerf, whereas if a card is so underpowered that players don't even consider it, it needs a buff.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 29d
This is where the "debate" gets kind of imprecise. You're right that choices should not be balanced to the point where they're always equivalent. They should be unbalanced during the game, but the choices that the players have need to be balanced enough that I still have to consider all my options.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 29d
This is how pretty much every strategy game works, and it's what forces the player to observe and reason about the game. If one bird was always better than another, you could just build up a priority list in your head and pick the best bird card every time without thinking.
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ross-esmond.bsky.social
Ross Esmond @ross-esmond.bsky.social · 29d
To use an example, the bird cards in Wingspan depend on the game state such that they are rarely "balanced" on any given turn. A 0 point bird can be great on the first turn and useless on the last, but where that cross over happens is up to the player to figure out.
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