how would you modify the rules of the board game splendor to meet the criteria in the video with only original parts of the board game?
Intro
hey this is Jamie from stower games and
today I'm talking about something very
close to to to my heart and my game
design career at stower games and that
is what I've called the 12 tenets of
game design game design at still Meer
games so I phrase that in a very
specific way and I'll try to do that
throughout this conversation and I do it
on our website as well these are not
rules for for every game designer um
these These are in no way the are these
unbreakable rules that game designers
need to follow rather they are
guidelines that I try to follow when I
am designing and developing games for
Stow Meer games and that I like if
people are subi games to St games I like
if they take these into account um a lot
of they're just they become part of the
core philosophy of the types of games
that we publish although with almost
every one of these you will probably
find an exception among our games
and so um this list has even changed
over time even actually as as I was
compiling this list for this video I
changed one of the the one of the uh the
descriptions because I thought it it
needed a little bit of updating so what
I'm going to do today is go through
these one by one to talk about uh what
they are why they're important I think
and um and some examples of STM games
that use these these philosophies these
tenants oh and I should say a long time
ago when I originally posted these I
posted them as tenants uh I believe it's
te e a n TS a tenant is someone who like
lives in in a in a like an apartment an
apartment tenant a tenant is uh like a
like a pillar um an abstract pillar uh
and uh a principle and so I I appreciate
someone I believe her name was Julia
corrected me on this a long long time
ago and I fixed it on our website uh so
yeah number one number one is quick
setup and start and I've described as
Quick setup and start
follows we appreciate a streamlined
setup with at most minimal pregame
choices so this ties into a few
different things and the examples that I
I might use here are between two castles
and between two cities both of these
games are designed for very very easy
setup in fact a lot of the setup in
these games is done at the end of the
previous game when you're putting the
tiles back in the boxes when you put the
tiles back in the between two cities box
there that box is designed so they kind
of swim around they get shuffled in the
Box itself and at the beginning of a
round between two cities you draw um I
want to get this right cuz the two games
I believe are different I believe it's
seven tiles it might be nine between two
castles is nine between two cities is
actually they might be both be nine but
you're drawing a certain number of tiles
at the beginning of the round and
they're already shuffled up between two
castles does use an organizer um rather
than having the tiles swim around and I
I think they both work in different ways
it's a little bit harder to shuffle the
tiles in between two castles because you
have to take it out of the insert but
the insert is designed in between two
castles so that each stack is is exactly
the number of tiles you should be taking
I believe it's nine again and so all you
have to do it's even easier just to to
set up the game because all you were
doing is taking a reference card a token
and then a stack of tiles where they've
already determined the box is determined
for you the insert is determined for you
how many tiles you're taking I think a
streamline setup is really really
important to help a game get to the
table more often and I've seen many
games many great games really that have
very elaborate setup processes where you
are randomizing a number of tokens Shuff
a dozen deck of cards decks of cards and
the tokens are going on the board in
certain places and it's fine I think
this is fine this can work in certain
games but I'd rather get get the game to
the T table faster um rather than taking
20 to 30 minutes to set it up and so I
think sometimes you can dial back that
variability a little bit some of the
variability doesn't have as much meaning
as other variability like shuffling a
deck of cards is fine but if you're
shuffling 12 decks of cards is that
really adding to the game could you have
combined some of those cards together
and having have multi-use cards
instead um and also another thing that I
mentioned in this is minimal pregame
choices I think I have a video about
this somewhere but the idea where you
are not asking players to make
significant meaningful decisions before
the game even begins because many times
a player might be learning the game or
they might be uh might have not have
played the game for a long time and to
ask them to make a crucial choice at the
beginning of the game before the game is
even started means that you have to
completely onboard them into the game
you need to let them know all of the
consequences for that decision otherwise
it's very difficult to make and a
classic example of this I don't want to
M bash on any particular game but uh
this is kind of a big example of this is
Katan in Katan you are making a crucial
decision at the very beginning of the
game before you really understand how
the game plays I think Katan gets away
with it because a lot of people know how
to play Katan and even I I haven't
played Katan in years but if I went back
to it I'd be fine just jumping into a
plane I don't need to remember all the
different consequ of the game at the
beginning of the game you kind of just
deal with them as the game goes but uh
yeah I do try to limit the number of G
decisions that players need to make
before they even start playing that's
number one number two I'll try to be
faster here so I don't spend 45 minutes
talking about this but number two is the
game must be intuitive to learn and
retain those two crucial things learn
Intuitive to learn and retain
and retain the phrase in I say here is
the design of the game takes into
account the accessibility and learning
experience ideally new players can be
resented with a few core rules and start
to take turns due to the presentation
and order of operations retention is
also a factor enabled by few to no rule
exceptions um yeah so this is all about
how easy it is it to onboard new players
into the game are you able to explain a
few Core Concepts and then let players
start taking turns having meaningful
turns but also without ruining their
chance at being competitive in that game
um as as they continue to to understand
the game more and more as you layer on
more and more rules um there are
certainly games out there many games out
there where you have to do a significant
upfront teach for players to understand
anything and even in the still my games
portfolio I think Euphoria doesn't do a
great job at this Euphoria has so many
interconnected systems that is really
difficult for players to start taking
turns without hearing a pretty decent
rules explanation of the game um and the
other side of this is also retention I
think this is something I really try to
keep in mind as a designer not only is
there a chance for any given of a game
that there will be a new player to the
game but there's also a decent chance
that there will be someone who once knew
the rules for the game and now they need
to remember how to play and this is I
think super super important because
there are so many games that I have
played where I play it and then I don't
play it for a few months and I feel like
I have to completely relearn the game
and the game doesn't really help me in
terms of its interface and the rules uh
to help me remember those things and
part of that are rule exceptions if a
game has a lot of fiddly things that
aren't built into the interface for the
game and a lot of exceptions that don't
make sense or don't make thematic sense
then I feel like I have to completely
relearn the game every time I'm going to
play and that is a huge impediment for
me to get that game back to the table
whereas if the game helps to onboard me
every time I play not just the first
time that can make the experience much
better an example I have two examples of
this in the Stow games portfolio um
libertalia and smitten smitten is such a
tiny little game it's very easy to get
to the table very easy to teach very
easy to play and it's also very short so
you can play it Lose It win it and play
it again right away and
libertalia uh libertalia builds the
rules of the game the the round by round
order into the the board itself so it's
right there on the board and uh in
liberala we really took Special Care in
libertario wi of gailcrest in particular
to help onboard players a little bit
better than the original libertalia
instead of giving new player player not
just any players all players nine cards
at the beginning of the game we only
give players six cards and the same six
cards so one player can talk about the
rules for those cards right away with
all other players as they're uh as
they're playing and in libertalia you
really can take even a random turn as
your first turn and it might not work
out great for you for that specific turn
but it doesn't ruin your entire
experience of the game so you can
literally take a random turn in
libertalia to see how it works out see
how it plays and then continue playing
the rest of the game number three is the
ability to plan ahead before taking your
Ability to plan ahead
turn I.E you shouldn't have to wait for
the previous player to complete their
turn to be able to to be able to decide
what you're doing on your turn this is a
challenge in games this is a big
challenge especially games that have
high levels of interaction or even any
level of interaction like in uh in
wingspan if I'm aiming for a certain
Bird card that's face up a certain face
up Bird card and you take that card I
have to re-evaluate what I wanted to do
in my turn do I do I want the card that
was replaced do I uh do I prioritize
something else in the game so if you
have any interaction in a game this is
something that uh that can be hindered
it can make it your it more difficult
for players to plan ahead on their turn
but I think it is still important to
keep in mind from game from a game
design perspective if I can't think
about what I want to do in my turn at
all before it gets to my turn that can
significantly increase downtime and the
entire length of the game and it can
make me feel like I don't need to pay
attention until it comes around to my
turn I can it can check me out of the
immersion of the game and so I really
try to design mechanisms so that you can
at least plan kind of a primary thing
that you want to do in your turn and
maybe a backup thing and example of that
of a game that I think does this really
pretty well is Charter Stone and and I'm
by the way I'm using all examples from
St games today for for this list in
charterstone um there's basically no
blocking in the game it's a bumping
worker placement game so if your worker
is on a space that I want to go to I can
still place my worker there but I'm
bumping your worker back to you so I can
completely decide in advance what I want
to do on my turn uh because I know that
nothing will be blocked the disadvantage
there that I to consider is if you've
put a worker on a certain spot by me
bumping that worker back to you you
don't have to use a retrieve turn you
save a turn similar to Euphoria so that
bumping mechanism allows me to have
complete freedom to plan ahead for my
turn but there is still an interactive
choice that goes into where I decide to
place a worker on my turn and number
four I have limited analysis paralysis
Limited analysis paralysis
with choices displayed on player mats
the game board Etc there is a reasonable
amount of information on display not
dozens of cards and iOS with detailed
text that players need to read from
across the table this is a rule that I
have broken sometimes but I really try
not to break it I when I say I've broken
it I think of Red Rising a little bit
because Red Rising does have a number of
cards on the table that you're trying to
read but at any given time in Red Rising
it's really just the the face up card
that you're looking at the the the four
face up cards that you're looking at in
each of the columns um so yeah analysis
paralysis is is I think generally a
problem in games it can be a player
driven problem you can choose to I think
in general you can choose to have
analysis paralysis or to just make a
decision when you realize that you were
slowing down the game for everyone else
but I think there's also a lot of game
design decisions that can limit analysis
paralysis um and some of them I
mentioned here it it give players what
their choices are in a very clear and
distinct way in the game uh show them
the different paths to Victory so they
can choose which path is important for
them give players short-term goals so
they're struggling to decide what to do
next they have a short-term goal and
maybe they have a long-term goal that
they can choose to pursue at any given
time give players asymmetric abilities
so they can say okay I don't really know
what I want to do in my turn but my
character really likes to move so I will
move my character on this turn um and
also I talk about the amount of
information on display giving players a
reasonable amount of information to
consume at any given time so they don't
feel overwhelmed by the amount of
information out there and part of that
like I mentioned with red Rising are how
many face up cards you you show to
players and this for this example I
wanted to mention viticulture because
one of the criticisms for viticulture
and I get this one of the CR criticisms
is that the cards aren't face up you are
blind drawing from the deck when you are
drawing cards however there's a reason
for this and it's related to analysis
paralysis and your your physical ability
to see across the table what the cards
are in the four decks of cards in in
vulture if we had three of those of each
of those cards face up at any given time
that would be 12 face up cards that you
have to kind of keep track of throughout
the game as they're looking at them and
some of them would be very hard to see
from across the table I think we could
have done this for wine orders and Vine
cards but really the decision point in
viticulture isn't which card am I going
to draw but rather it's the game gives
you a tonch of a ton of different cards
in your hand and you are deciding when
to draw the cards and when to play them
um so if if you draw some Vine cards
you're deciding which of these Vine
cards am I deciding to play so anyway
yeah we try to limit analysis paralysis
through some of the design decisions we
make in our games number five tension
and positive player interaction but not
Tension and positive player interaction, not hostility
hostility I say here we like to limit
the potential for spite while
encouraging various forms of interaction
and tension so this is a big thing um
especially as I've evolved into being
more of a Euro game player where I have
high Agency on my turn and and I am not
doing many things on my turn that can
hurt other players um I seek I found
that I've sought more examples in games
of positive player interaction or
interaction like the type I explained in
wingspan where there are a limited
number of cards on display at any given
time and there's a little bit of tension
as to who will be the first player to
get to a certain card I there's a card I
want out there am I going to prioritize
that and go get that card am I going to
choose something else in my turn knowing
that that card might not be there when
it comes back to round to my turn but
overall I'm trying to limit the
possibility of of Destruction and um an
aggression and spite in games I don't
want players to pursue those elements of
games when they're playing our games I
don't want them to to steal from other
players to destroy something that
another player has built up and worked
on an example of our games is my little
side my little side actually leans into
the idea of friendship in games there's
literally a friendship resource in the
game uh where you can um you can you you
the you can help other players through
this this friendship mechanism
friendship matters in the game um I
think that's really really cool that
that my little side that leans into this
idea of friendship and positive player
inter in a game and I would love to see
more games that really go deep into
positive player interaction and that
that is seen as a good form of
interaction in games in general at
number six interesting choices and
strong agency only a dose of luck we
love agency in games so agency is having
control over the decisions and outcomes
it means that players have control over
their fate random elements are largely
there for variability if there's luck
involved players are opting into it or
are at least able to make decisions
based on random input for example
instead of rolling dice to determine an
outcome so one example of this I
actually the example I'm going to use is
Euphoria but one other example that came
to mind as I was reading that is in
tapestry in tapestry there are different
paths you can take and there there is
Randomness in some of those paths but
for example if you don't if you want
full agency in tapestry you can go after
the tech track because the tech track
you have face up technology cards that
you can draw uh and you can gain and you
can see exactly what you're getting into
with those technology cards even within
that same track you can draw from the
top card of the deck so there's your
choice you choose from these this this
element that you have full agency over
the face up cards or do you go for a
random element at the top of the deck at
the same time in tapestry you can choose
a track that involves a little bit more
more Randomness like the science track
the science track uses a die so if you
like that form if if you like a little
bit of luck um in a game you can choose
to go after the science track and
tapestry but you don't have to the real
example I wanted to mention was Euphoria
and Euphoria it is a game with dice as
workers and you are rolling those dice
because it's fun to roll dice however in
Euphoria you are rolling dice as you
retrieve them not when you place them so
it is input Randomness you know what the
dice are going to be you know what the
dice are you have them in front of you I
have a five and a six in front of me and
I'm using that five and six and placing
those workers on the board rather than
placing a worker on the board and then
rolling a ice to see if I even get to
use the action uh or use the benefit or
what the benefit will be um so this form
of input Randomness I really really like
in games if you are going to have dice
rolling or
Randomness at number seven rewards and
forward momentum not punishment and
backwards movement our games help
Rewards and forward momentum
players feel like they progress during
the game to a superior position than at
the beginning I.E engine building and
the the one of the great examples of
sire games that do this is wingspan in
wingspan everything you do makes you
better at doing that thing for the rest
of the game so for example when I play a
card when I play a bird into the the
forest habitat from then on not only do
I often have an ability on that bird
that I'm activating every time I
activate the forest but I also am
improving the core benefit of the forest
itself I'm I'm kind of sliding over what
the core benefit of that that habitat is
I love this engine building aspect of
wingspan it makes me feel a strong sense
of progression and uh the it builds in
order of operations which habitat do I
want to build out first in this game and
how does that impact my experience with
the game this whole idea of making
rewarding games that make players feel
stronger throughout the game is a huge
part of what still Mario games does
there are Exceptions there are a few of
our games that don't have really engine
building at all there's progression but
but not engine building but I really
like it when games uh allow players to
feel more powerful throughout the game
and that you're not just making only
tactical decisions throughout the game
number eight strong connection between
theme and mechanisms mechanisms are
Strong connection between theme and mechanisms
designed around a theme to keep players
immersed in the experience instead of
the structure of the game constantly
reminding players that they're playing
the game for example we avoid phases and
action
checklists so an example of this is
Scythe so Scythe is a game that
essentially gives players a set number a
set type of actions that they can
complete um there's there's a top row of
actions that's paired with a bottom row
top row is things like like um like uh
producing moving trading um bottom row
are things like building a structure uh
deploying a Mech upgrading your map all
these are built into the interface of
the game itself so your focus is on this
interface that is part of the game
there's even engine building built into
that player map instead of having it be
off to the side on a little list of
actions that you can take I find that
building those actions into the
interface of the game itself whether
it's a mat like inside whether it's work
rep placement on the board itself um I
find that that keeps me a lot more
immersed in the theme itself theme goes
beyond that though theme is also about a
strong connection between uh how the
theme and the mechanisms are combined
and really for every game that we decide
we are constantly asking does this make
sense in terms of the theme does this
decision make sense for the theme or the
experience that we're trying to get
players to have the feeling that we want
players to have when they're playing
this game does this mechanism makes
sense um or if we have a feeling or an
experience what mechanism makes sense
for that that that theme experience or
mechanism so we're constantly thinking
about that in games and constantly
questioning it questioning it yeah
number nine the potential for dramatic
memorable moments in a game is difficult
to achieve but it's a huge plus when the
The potential for dramatic, memorable moments
game allows and encourages them to
happen and uh really as I'm reading this
the example that comes to mind is is
side the rise of Fenris we designed the
rise of Fenris an expansion for size
around big dramatic memorable moments um
and I think that's crucially important
if you're making a campaign game rather
than putting in more sessions of the
campaign game have fewer sessions and
more big memorable moments that that
will stick in players mind
but the example I give here is tap stre
which I already talked about a little
bit before but in tap stre I really
tried to build these dramatic moments
into the game where as you advance along
the tracks uh there are these actions
that become bigger and bigger and more
more powerful and they really really
feel like these big memorable dramatic
moments in the game or at least that's
what I designed around especially at the
very end of the track there are these
big big moments that happen um so yeah
that that's that's what I'm aiming for
here and I almost want to build in the
idea of uh intrinsic motivation into
this idea because I I found that I
really really enjoy giving players the
ability to pursue path in the game in
fact I'll get to this in a second I'll
come back to that that one because there
is a place where I can put that um
number 10 is a distinctly tactile
experience we love games with appealing
Distinctly tactile experience
exciting components ideally accomplished
in an eco-friendly manner it can be as
simple as the cardboard texure style
pieces and Patchwork or as complex yet
important as the wheels in soen and the
example I want to give here is in
Pendulum In pendulum there are uh the
these hourglass components that we try
to make really nice hourglasses and we
also have a few metal components in
pendulum because we want it to feel
players to feel really special when they
have a certain achievement and they get
this big special beautiful metal token
um we we think about and metal isn't
particularly ecologically friendly but
we do make exceptions for that we put
the experience first um but yeah I
always thinking about what is the
component hook of this game both
visually and in terms of what players
are picking up and touching throughout
the game are they enjoying what they're
picking up and touching and moving
around these these mechs inside um even
cubes cubes can sometimes be a really
Pleasant thing to pick up and touch but
sometimes it's nice to have a custom
wooden token like in in VI culture we
have all these custom wooden tokens as
buildings in the game so I really try to
focus on this this tactile experience
that we're having at the tabletop
together a reason where you're walking
along you know at a game store at a
convention you see game on the table and
you're drawn to it immediately because
of how it looks and the things that you
want to pick up and touch as you are as
you're looking at that game number 11 is
variable factors that create
replayability talked about this a little
Variable factors that create replayability
bit earlier with variability in games
variability and luck um but the way I
say it here is that you cannot play the
same exact game twice even if you
try and an example of this is rolling
Realms so in Rolling Realms even if you
have the exact same combination of
Realms which is difficult to happen
there are so many different combinations
of three Realms that can come out in
Rolling Realms even if you had the exact
same combination of Realms that come out
the dice I think the odds are
astronomical but the dice would be the
exact same roles as the previous games
exact same roles in the exact same order
and so in Rolling Realms you are sharing
this element of variability together all
players have the same exact three Realms
and they're sharing the same dice
they're using the same numbers that pop
up on those dice all of our games are
designed around this concept that you
can definitely go into a game that
you've played before and say this is a
strategy that I want to take I want to
prioritize this realm in Rolling Realms
I want to prioritize this track and
tapestry but the cards that you Shuffle
in tapster are going to be different the
dice that you roll in Rolling reals are
going to be different and so I like
throwing that those different puzzles at
Players so that they they can have a
goal they can have a strategy they can
have their intrinsic motivation the
thing that they want to pursue in that
game but the game is going to throw
different twists and turns at them every
time they play and last going back to
the intrinsic motivations again multiple
paths to Victory various game subsystems
Multiple paths to victory
are balanced through play testing and
data analysis to be equal in their
ability to reach the winning criteria
I've said this in a very dry way in in
passage on our website but really this
is about giving players options
different options that they can pursue
that are exciting and compelling and
give them a legitimate chance at winning
the game um I like to give players those
options various ways that they can
pursue a victory condition in the game
and red ryzen I think is a great example
of this in Red Rising you start with a
random hand of character cards and you
are building that same hand throughout
the game you're getting rid of some
characters uh at the moment where it's
best time to the best time to deploy
them and you're gaining new characters
to your hand so that you end up with the
strongest hand at the end of the game
not only are there there's a vast
variety of characters that you can build
around in Red Rising but there are also
different strategic paths on the board
itself do you do you pursue the fleet
track do you purs pursue helium
influence at The Institute uh what are
you deciding there to pursue um can have
a big impact on your game and making the
game feel a little bit different every
time you play and that's tied to those
random characters that you're getting in
your
hand that's it those are the 12 I think
they'll continue to change over the
years in little ways but um but they've
stayed largely the same for a long time
now and uh and I I really like how they
have manifested in our games and I'm
constantly drawn to other games from
other designers and other Publishers
that use many of these core tenants as
well but again that is not to say that
these are the tenants for any other
designer to follow these are this just
the tenants that I seek to follow in the
games that I design and the games that I
publish I'd love to hear your thoughts
in the comments below about our games
about other games that uh that you love
that use these tenants or tenants that
you want to challenge if there's one of
these and really for any there these
there are examples of games that I love
there are exceptions I have a video
about this exceptions to to like the
gaming rules and guidelines that I have
um feel free to mention those in the
comments as well yeah we'll have a we'll
have a good chat about this in the
comments I hope let me know your
thoughts in the comments below
thanks