Making Games

Continuing my thoughts and lessons learned on what makes a good game.

Sure, we all love to be the banker in Monopoly, maybe if only to do a little directed quantitative easing 🤑 from time to time, but bookkeeping and making lists is what we do at work, not what we do for fun. If you’re aim is to make a deep, involved strategic game (see #2 - Dimensions) there will always have to be some element of keeping track of what’s going on but a fun game isn’t going to need you to have your glasses on the whole time.

Bookkeeping falls into two camps:

Shared bookkeeping is like being the banker in Monopoly where anyone can swap in and help to keep the game running smoothly. Ticket To Ride is another great example because everyone keeps track of the score as they go with tokens around the edge of the board. Importantly, it can be done by anyone and also, if you make a mistake, you can just recount. In engineering speak, the score track is ‘redundant’ because it can be counted up at any time if someone knocks the board but it still contributes to how the game is played. This kind of bookkeeping, although best kept to a minimum, works.

Individual bookkeeping is another matter. The family classic Cluedo is a great example. Every player has a little notepad and pencil and you need (unless you have a photographic memory) to keep it up to date. You can’t make a mistake and there’s no way of correcting for them and you can’t go to the loo, even when it’s someone else’s turn, in case you miss something. Also, custom pads are not ideal because it’s the one part of a game that is consumable and will one day run out. This should be at odds with your ambition as a game designer for your creations to be played over and over for generations to come! 💪

I’m happy to say that although there is a small amount of mental arithmetic, both Electioneer UK and Electioneer US don’t need any bookkeeping and I hope this helps to give them a more relaxed and stress-free feeling.