Question by Klerteurezezerter, Jellyfish Lord of Trauma Five:
Jelly Greetings Everythings,
My games all feel like collections of random mechanics, and they’re not fun at all.How do I design an unique and fun game?
Oh Klerteurezezerter my shroomy buddy,
A game is not the rules and pictures in a pretty box.
A game is what the players do with these rules and pictures.
Think about games as propositions on how to spend your time.
Art decorates space, music decorates time, but a game, a game can make art decorate time, too.
When I started designing boardgames I used to get lost in random numbers , cool names for attributes and 100 different special attacks,
and forgot that I’m supposed to make an experience instead of a collection of artifacts.
The question in game design is always how you transplant the idea from your head inside the player’s head.
Think about what the player is doing at the table, about what they’re experiencing and about the actions they will enjoy doing the most.
Inducing strong emotions usually works to make people enjoy your game.
Just add more positive than negative emotions, unless you’re going for some edgy soulslike ultra hardcore grim dark setting.
And make sure that you alternate between phases where a lot of actions and decisions happen and phases where the players can relax a bit.
You can’t induce emotions, when your players are not involved.
So how do you involve your players in your game?
Easy, you make them play your game. Just tell them to do something they enjoy anyway.
- give them an emotional or strategic choice
- make them roleplay an emotional scene
- change their character
- ask them to answer a question
- make them draw or describe something
- make them name something
- make them erase or rip up something
- make them throw dice
and anything else that makes the players do some form of action in real life or in their mind.
Ideally combine multiple of these and fit them in your main mechanics.
So: Read your rules, and think about if they actually make the player play the game. Change or remove them if they don’t.
