A few weeks back James was at a convention, and an aspiring game designer asked him for some advice as to where to start.
When James began talking to him about board games, the young man replied:
"I don't play those, I'm gonna be a video game designer."
This isn't the first time James has heard something like this from people eager to jump right in and start creating video games,
but board games serve an important role in our understanding of design,
and in our gaming community as a whole.
So today, I would like to make a short case for why board games are absolutely relevant today.
While this will primarily be aimed at students of design,
I hope there's something in here that resonates with all of you.
So, why should we care about board games?
We should care because they're the purest translation of rules to experience.
In a game like Call of Duty, Skyrim, or even StarCraft,
many of the rules are obfuscated.
As a player you can't possibly see, much less understand,
exactly how all the underlying systems work to create the experience you're playing.
Things like bullet physics, enemy AI or pathfinding behavior have an enormous effect on how these games play,
and yet they're almost impossible to fully deconstruct from the outside.
This makes them a poor starting point for a designer learning to analyze games.
If you really want to understand how a set of rules become an experience for a human being,
we need to start somewhere where nothing's happening under the hood.
And that means board games.
Since in board games, all you have to operate every action and motivate every player behavior in the game
is a set of very explicit rules which are clearly spelled out for you,
they serve to offer us fantastic insights into design.
As a designer, as a thought experiment,
you should see what you can deduce about player behavior and about game balance from the rules alone.
Will wood turn out to be the best resource?
Will players fight over the witch?
By having defenders win in the case of a tie, how will this affect the way that players play?
More than that, you should see if you can see the connection between the rules and the play they create.
How do a set of instructions make something feel like combat?
How does a logical sequence or a set of math feel like managing a city?
Also, try to understand why the designers had to put in each of the rules.
Try to understand how each piece fits together as an interlocking whole.
Try to figure out what it would do if you were to remove or change any of these rules.
Do the experiment. Change one of these rules yourself,
replay the game, and see how the play is affected.
This will teach you a great deal as a designer.
Additionally, look for rules that stand out to you,
especially things that are oddly specific or that address edge cases.
These sorts of rules almost always come out of testing.
They tend to be a patch for something that the designers found after the initial design was complete.
See if you can figure out why these rules were necessary,
why the game would break down or how players would exploit the game if those rules were missing.
This will help you understand how to build robust systems.
Next, rule books will teach you an unbelievable amount about communication.
In a video game, because the computer prevents the player from breaking the rules,
video game design can be a lot looser and rely a lot more on players' trial and error.
We can be a bit lax in how we communicate.
But board games don't have that crutch.
A good board game has to have a rulebook that allows a player to pick up and play the game
without any outside instruction or help.
Additionally, a good board game has a set of rules that are also easy to read and aren't a chore to get through.
If you really want an excellent design exercise,
try making a simple board game and writing the rule-book.
Now, hand that rule-book to someone you've never talked to about the game, and don't tell them anything about it.
Just observe them as they play.
What [game] are they playing?
Does it look anything like the game you thought you had built?
At what points do they deviate from your intended design?
What questions did they try to ask you, which you, of course, being a good designer, refused to answer?
You have no idea how much going through this exercise will help you both as a designer and as a communicator.
Lastly, board games are one of the best ways to teach us about social play.
When video games started being able to do all the laborious mathematics and parsing all the recondite charts
that old hardcore board games used to thrive on,
board games designers rapidly figured out that games primarily about social dynamics were how they could compete.
As all the hardcore strategy, Avalon Hill type games migrated to the computer,
board games took over the offline co-op that video games had largely abandoned with the advent of internet play.
Watch a game of settlers of Catan or Diplomacy or Cards Against Humanity,
and you'll see the incredible design work that went into fostering social play,
to creating interpersonal moments, to force conflict or communication.
Examine how this is all done with just a set of rules, of Interlocking systems,
how these personal dynamics are created by a set of logical instructions.
Doing so will make you a better designer.
Doing so will teach you lessons that you'll be able to apply to many video games ,
and, in my opinion, prepare you for the design landscape of tomorrow.
Hope that helps convince some of you that even if all you want to do is create video games,
board games are worth playing and worth studying.
If you're feeling in sort of a board game-y mood right now,
PATV has a show for that.
It's called "Shut Up And Sit Down",
and it is entirely about board games.
Maybe go watch a few episodes and get some recommendations.
We'll see you next week!