Challenges to Game Design - Functional

I have to say I really like creating new games, not computer games but good old fashioned cardboard, tokens and cards, board games. I like getting together with friends like those shown above and testing my mettle against them by solving the intricate challenges built into any of a number of these types of games. It seems like lately I have been conceiving a new game almost every two to three weeks. I find myself looking for ways to build a game around specific subjects, mechanics, and goals.

In recent months I have conceived no less than three different games; a deck builder/worker placement dungeon delve, a drafting/worker placement race to build a kingdom, and even a multi mechanic game about game design. The most former of those being almost ready for play testing. I spent much of the previous several years developing and almost completing a Football game that uses real NFL player stats and True to life game mechanics... That is where the title of this Blog comes into play. To be a product designer of any kind, games, Software (my day job), storage boxes (my first product to actually get to market was the Mage Cage), clothes you have to be able to solve many, many challenges. OK, I have no experience in clothing design, but I imagine you would face the same challenges. Some challenges are functional, some are financial, others are artistic, or logistical, some are even personal. Coming up with mechanics is my specialty connecting concepts to function, heck I think I am even pretty good at planning, mapping out the path to get from conception to retail. The latter comes from my experience getting the Mage Cage to market (that was fun adventure, I will have to post that story in the future.).

For this post I will speak of the first challenge Functional. Technically first challenge is coming up with an idea but if you don't have an idea yet you are not yet designing a game.The Football Game, which for now I will refer to as the Football Game, because it has changed names a multitude of times, is my first adult try (I created a fully functional game as a teenager, another story for a later date) at designing a game. It is at the same time my favorite and most hated creation. I think of it as my favorite mostly because it plays really cool, "cool" meaning "realistically" not well and that combined with my love for Football and my honest belief that as of yet no one has made the perfect Football incarnation for the table top makes it the game I most want to finish, well did want to finish. Do not get me wrong I will finish it. I have just finally come to the realization that if I refuse to work on my other ideas until it is done it may be another year or two before any more of my ideas make it to market. Why, you ask if it plays well, do I say that? Good question. The simple answer is, it's too slow. I have yet to come up with a way to keep the realism of football while streamlining the game play to a point where it can be finished in the desired play time. Ideas pop in and out of my head every few days but none have yet solved the problem. I am close. Who knows maybe it will be with me at convention in the near future, but I must progress at something or risk being stuck indefinitely. Functional challenges for me are fun. They are the meat of game design.

When designing a game you must consider things like complexity, is the game going to be meaty with lots of mechanics and/or objectives or is it going to be simple and fast, a race to the end; fluidity, do game actions roll smoothly and sensibly from one play to the next or is there a lot of player analysis slowing things down; Game length, idle time, player interaction, Theme and many other things. I actually have a list of consideration written down that I review when working on these games. Is there a perfect solution? I seriously doubt it but like baking different combinations and quantities of the same list of ingredients can combine to make most people happy but some will like some results better than others and vice-versa. Ultimately, a successful game will appeal to the largest variety of people.

The second key to functional design, in my opinion, is market niche. There has to be a place in the market for you game if you want a hit, which I do. Yes, there can be many other games of the same type if your game has a cool theme or a different mechanic but it probably won't be a hit it will just be one of many at best you can only hope for decent sales but it won't stand out. Sorry, the market has no room for another "hit" Zombie game no matter how unique the mechanics. Find a niche that plays well and like nothing else out there or whose theme has yet to be done right and that is the makings of hit.

No matter how much I like my game ideas, no matter how cool others think they sound. I will not release a game that does not meet these basic criteria and that is why the Football game I very much want to see released will await that epiphany.