My former roommate and I are teaming up right now on a Black Swan game design. At the moment, it’s a(nother infamous Richard) card game that tries to parody the Survivalist mentality while simulating the collapse of global society as a consequence of the collective exploitation of Earth. I’m not exactly sure whether its supposed [...]

I think that Stones is my version of Mancala or Backgammon. It is a cafe game which requires a certain casual atmosphere and relies upon its tactility and portability. It could definitely work as a gambling game like Backgammon where people use the stones to represent real money, or as a quick multiperson activity for [...]

So, I’ve decided to rethink the game. I don’t have a new design yet, but I do have some thoughts. I have been thinking about the game more teleologically, asking myself what I want it to do… how I want it to feel… what kind of experience I’m looking to create. These questions have gotten [...]

Any type of strategy where you try to prevent other people from winning is going to fail in a multiplayer environment. It is far better to focus on winning yourself and let other players make the mistake of expending resources to deny another player resources. Of course, such a calculation when understood by all will [...]

I have been thinking about a new design for Houses of Orion. It will inevitably bare some resemblance to the existing ones, insofar as many of the components of draw and play games are similar. And, at this point, I’m pretty convinced that it will NOT be a deck building game. As you said, the [...]

Thoughts that I’ve had recently: Alternative game ending mechanic: The special action of a 9 card is to provide votes, 1 each time it is played. Instead of ending the game when one of the piles has been exhausted, the game is over when one player reaches 20 votes. Or, instead of positive votes, council [...]

In hobby gaming, the distinction between European (Euro) and American style games relates as much to the players as to the games themselves. But, insofar as different types of personalities are drawn to different types of experiences, the difference between Euro and American gaming revolves primarily around the role of chance. American games require you [...]

To answer your question: I find that I constantly struggle with the law of unintended consequences when I design games. Unless the skeleton of the design is extremely well structured, the more rules that there are, the more likely it will be that a perverse incentive structure will emerge in permutations of play that I [...]

As I see it, what to do if you encounter this scenario hinges upon how you interpret rules infractions of two rules in the rulebook: (1) “Whenever either player cannot play a card, the game ends immediately.”(2) “When you play the Jester, you must choose a value for him between 1 and 10.”For the first [...]

Use of resources is auctioned off Proceeds accrue to a treasury Treasury can be dispersed (to losers of the auction)