How Changing One Word in Cartographer’s Rulebook Could Drastically Improve ItPosted on Published July 1, 2020June 19, 2020 by Jake Frondorf The other day, I saw a facebook post about playing the game Cartographers with the solo rules. The poster hated it. People were agreeing with her. People who otherwise loved this game felt so bad about the solo rules, they vowed never to play it again. Why? Read on to find out. Read More
Game Design by Example: How Lords of Waterdeep was BalancedPosted on Published May 20, 2020May 20, 2020 by Jake Frondorf When a budding writer wants to write a novel, they’ll study novels, and learn their underlying structure. It’s incredibly important to understand how those who came before you worked, so you can stand on their shoulders. When a musician wants to write music, they’ll listen to music, and learn its underlying structure for the same reason. And when a game designer wants to balance a board game, they should study board games, and you guessed it, study its underlying structure. If you want a game balance example, read on. Read More
Board Game Interface SurveyPosted on Published April 29, 2020April 22, 2020 by Jake Frondorf As a graphic designer, a board game designer, and a board game reviewer, I’ve been thinking a lot about how board game interfaces work lately. I’ve also been thinking about how they ought to work. There are so many ways our interfaces are inconsistent, contradictory and downright impossible to decipher. Sure, we can keep memorizing […] Read More
Game Design Topic: How to signal strategy to players with Sign PostsPosted on Published April 15, 2020April 9, 2020 by Jake Frondorf When you design a game, people will judge it by their first play of it. If that first play goes poorly or if they feel lost, they might never want to play again. So part of our job as a game designer is to signal to a player how to play the game well enough to not feel lost, and to have fun. Read More
