![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
challenge: making a smol solo game, 1.4
Nov. 30th, 2023 08:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yhleePreviously:
- 1.1 overview; parameters and desired player experience.
- 1.2 research, inspiration, comps.
- 1.3 design document and writing your rules.
Next:
- 1.5 playtesting.
- 1.6 iterative design.
- 1.7 release! (fin)
Your challenge (the exercises break this down into pieces)
Design a smol solo game for a common game aid - poker deck, Tarot deck, set of six-sided dice, a paperback book (there are bookmark games!).
Important note: I'm posting these at fairly rapid intervals but you are welcome to go at your own pace! I know people have lives. That said, one could in principle do (say) one exercise/day for a very smol game if one had a lot of clarity. I've been posting my responses in the comments not because I'm some kind of game design master (lolnope) but as examples of my own process.
First, let's discuss rapid prototyping before we go on to playtesting (1.5)!
Rapid prototyping is the idea that you want to get your game into playable form as soon as possible so you can suss out what is and isn't working. In service of this, you ditch fancy graphics (why spend time on layout if you're going to switch the entire DECK you're using, or reword card text, etc.) and go for minimal-effort, cheap, fast, janky prototypes. Index cards. Meeples stolen from that half-complete ruined set of Axis and Allies your kid dropped in the bath. (Did you know my daughter put our Carcassonne set in the bath to play with when she was a toddler? Lol.) Pennies and pebbles for counters.
resources
- How to prototype a game in under 7 days by Raph Koster is a succinct introduction to the topic.
- For those who like video, Mark Barrett's GDC 2017 talk [YouTube] is 25 minutes.
- For those who love to read :D Board Game Design Lab has an extensive series of articles on rapid prototyping.
- Also, TOTES optional, but Jeremy Holcomb's The White Box is a $25 box of prototyping components (meeples, dice, blank cards, etc.). I bought one for myself because it's super cute. Ironically, it's like that Nice Sketchbook You Are Afraid to Ruin for me! I have better luck prototyping on SUPER janky materials like scratch paper. :p But someday maybe I'll challenge MYSELF to use the dang thing. IMO this is worth it for the included White Box Essays (also by Holcomb) on tabletop/analog game design, although you can also buy that separately.
Note that there are other people who will sell you "make your own game!" prototyping components (blank cards, hex maps, rando dice assortments, meeples, spinners, etc.); I like this one for the essay book, but de gustibus. For most of us, cheap/janky/fast is good. :p
Challenge 1.4
Create a rapid prototype of your game! With any luck, the physical components (given the SMOL nature of this challenge) are easy/cheap to obtain: a deck of poker cards, some six-sided dice, your catten as pseudorandom action generator. :)
If you're stuck for ways to do a rapid/cheap prototype of XYZ component, feel free to ask here - someone might know!
If you have Brathwaite & Schreiber's Challenges for Game Designers, their description for how to create a rapid PAPER prototype for a first-person shooter like Doom is very instructive reading!
Next up: 1.5 playtesting, 1.6 iterative design, 1.7 release.
- 1.1 overview; parameters and desired player experience.
- 1.2 research, inspiration, comps.
- 1.3 design document and writing your rules.
Next:
- 1.5 playtesting.
- 1.6 iterative design.
- 1.7 release! (fin)
Your challenge (the exercises break this down into pieces)
Design a smol solo game for a common game aid - poker deck, Tarot deck, set of six-sided dice, a paperback book (there are bookmark games!).
Important note: I'm posting these at fairly rapid intervals but you are welcome to go at your own pace! I know people have lives. That said, one could in principle do (say) one exercise/day for a very smol game if one had a lot of clarity. I've been posting my responses in the comments not because I'm some kind of game design master (lolnope) but as examples of my own process.
First, let's discuss rapid prototyping before we go on to playtesting (1.5)!
Rapid prototyping is the idea that you want to get your game into playable form as soon as possible so you can suss out what is and isn't working. In service of this, you ditch fancy graphics (why spend time on layout if you're going to switch the entire DECK you're using, or reword card text, etc.) and go for minimal-effort, cheap, fast, janky prototypes. Index cards. Meeples stolen from that half-complete ruined set of Axis and Allies your kid dropped in the bath. (Did you know my daughter put our Carcassonne set in the bath to play with when she was a toddler? Lol.) Pennies and pebbles for counters.
resources
- How to prototype a game in under 7 days by Raph Koster is a succinct introduction to the topic.
- For those who like video, Mark Barrett's GDC 2017 talk [YouTube] is 25 minutes.
- For those who love to read :D Board Game Design Lab has an extensive series of articles on rapid prototyping.
- Also, TOTES optional, but Jeremy Holcomb's The White Box is a $25 box of prototyping components (meeples, dice, blank cards, etc.). I bought one for myself because it's super cute. Ironically, it's like that Nice Sketchbook You Are Afraid to Ruin for me! I have better luck prototyping on SUPER janky materials like scratch paper. :p But someday maybe I'll challenge MYSELF to use the dang thing. IMO this is worth it for the included White Box Essays (also by Holcomb) on tabletop/analog game design, although you can also buy that separately.
Note that there are other people who will sell you "make your own game!" prototyping components (blank cards, hex maps, rando dice assortments, meeples, spinners, etc.); I like this one for the essay book, but de gustibus. For most of us, cheap/janky/fast is good. :p
Challenge 1.4
Create a rapid prototype of your game! With any luck, the physical components (given the SMOL nature of this challenge) are easy/cheap to obtain: a deck of poker cards, some six-sided dice, your catten as pseudorandom action generator. :)
If you're stuck for ways to do a rapid/cheap prototype of XYZ component, feel free to ask here - someone might know!
If you have Brathwaite & Schreiber's Challenges for Game Designers, their description for how to create a rapid PAPER prototype for a first-person shooter like Doom is very instructive reading!
Next up: 1.5 playtesting, 1.6 iterative design, 1.7 release.
