Resources are one of the most common building blocks in board games. We collect wood, stone, money, food, cards, workers, energy, actions and dozens of other things, and then use them to do something we could not have done without them. Because the idea is so familiar, it is easy to treat all of these
What Kind of Resource Is This? Read More »
Every game has to end somehow, but the end condition does much more than tell players when to stop. It determines how much control they have over the remaining time, what kinds of risks become reasonable, when long-term investments stop making sense, and whether the final stages feel like a gradual acceleration or an abrupt
The End of the Game Starts Before the Game Ends Read More »
Balance, snowballing and the design problem of keeping success meaningful without making failure permanent A player can be behind without having lost. In fact, being behind is often one of the most interesting positions in a game. It changes priorities, encourages risk, forces adaptation and creates the possibility of a comeback. The problem begins when
If Falling Behind Means Losing, Why Keep Playing? Read More »
In most games, turns are treated as part of the basic structure. I act, then you act, then someone else acts, and eventually the opportunity comes back to me. Because this structure is so familiar, it is easy to think of turns as containers for the real design decisions rather than as design decisions themselves.
Every Action Is an Opportunity Read More »
Competition and Cooperation Are Not Opposites We often talk about competition and cooperation as if they sit at opposite ends of a scale. A competitive system encourages people to pursue their own success; a cooperative system asks them to work toward a shared success. From a design perspective, however, this distinction is much less useful
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