As gamers we like, by definition, to play games. Some of us then like to get good at those games, and a few really value achieving a level of mastery of those games. I’ve been thinking about what exactly that means, and in particular what it means in relation to games, meta-games and heuristics. Last first of that list, for those who don’t know, heuristics are the rules of thumb that a player uses to make themselves better at a game. They are the bits and pieces of general ru

Okay, bear with me a minute here. My first self-released game, SSO is a semi-co-op, but in an unusual way. Generally what semi-co-op means is that the game has an all lose condition, but that of the players that win, some win better than others. In SSO, players have to work together to win, and can all win equally, but win or lose as individuals. You don’t win better than someone else, but sometimes your win is dependent on their loss. However, it does mean that I’ve ended up

I’ve been thinking about competence in a system recently for various reasons and thought that I’d like to talk about it in relation to game design for this blog *dusts hands and walks off*. For those that find that to be an introduction lacking in clarity a quick explanation of competence in a system is probably a good idea. Imagine a very simple game where you have to guess odds or evens then roll a standard d6 and win if you were right, then imagine a game where you roll th

An active Kickstarter comments board boosts your project in Kickstarter’s algorithms. But attracting people to see a comments board with complaints and negativity can be worse than an empty board. So, how important is an active comments board, and how can you get yours to be a place of support and positivity? What matter? An active comments board has two major areas of benefit to a campaign, its effect on algorithms and its effect on backers. The first is a relatively simple