DOCSLIB.ORG

The White Box Essays Jeremy Holcomb

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The White Box Essays Jeremy Holcomb The White Box Essays Jeremy Holcomb In its printed edition, The White Box Essays is distributed inside The White Box, a game design workshop-in-a-box that also includes components for game prototyping like cubes, meeples, and dice. References to “The White Box” in this book refer to that larger kit. GAMEPLAYWRIGHT Contents Foreword . 4 1. Welcome to The White Box . 7 2. Protecting Your Ideas & Why You Don’t Need To . 11 3. Danger! Danger! . .18 4. Story or Mechanics? . .24 5. The Roll of the Die. .27 6. Writing Effective Rules . .33 7. Bits Matter . .45 8. What to Do When You are Worried About Your Game Being Balanced. .50 9. Bang for the Buck . .60 10. Playtesting . .66 11. How To More Than Double Your Game’s Sales . .74 12. Self-Publishing . 80 13. The (Semi-)Magical New Age of Crowdfunding . 90 14. Designing an Effective Game Box . 110 15. The Lies Game Boxes Tell . 118 16. Box Details . 124 17. How to Promote Your Game at a Convention Without Losing Your Shirt . 129 18. What a Sell Sheet Is . 138 19. Six Things You Can Say to End Your Game Pitch . 142 20. How to Network at Conventions . .148 21. How to Get Your Game Into the Marketplace . 152 22. On the Dotted Line. .159 23. Six Board Game Accessibility Fails, and How to Hack Them . 168 24. Pacing Gameplay: Three-act Structure Just Like God and Aristotle Intended . 173 25. The Economics of Game Design and Design of Game Economics . 182 In Conclusion . 191 Acknowledgments . 192 About the Author . .193 Foreword Game design is one of those odd fields that somehow inspires everyone. It is similar to writing in this respect. Everyone thinks they can be a writer. You just put down some words on paper and abracadabra, you are a writer. However, very few people can write like J.K. Rowling or Stephen King right out of the gate. For most, the just-getting-started level of writing is closer to Fun with Dick and Jane than it is to The Catcher in the Rye. For game design the situation is similar. While everyone has the potential to be a great game designer, the quality level of most first-time designs is relatively low. Which is expected, and as it should be. You’ll grow, and your designs will improve, through study and practice. (And playtesting.) One thing game design is not like is sculpting. There is a saying in sculpture that the finished work is already there and you just have to remove the excess rock to get to it. If you try to do that with a game design idea, you will end up with nothing, because game design is not sculpting, and the idea has to be supported and built up, not pulled out from a larger context. You can, however, pull pieces of a game design from various sources, doing what I call the “chocolate and peanut butter method” since I don’t want to get sued by a candy maker. You take one element from one game and combine it with a different element from another game, and often this creates a new game with a different play pattern. I often get started with this approach at game conventions. I wander around without any particular aim and look at various games that are being promoted by the various booths. The path I take results in an association pattern where I link mechanics from one game I see with other mechanics I see later. This has worked for me on over a dozen games. I frequently go back to this method when I get a creative block. There are two types of design. Top down, where you work on a game based on an existing intellectual property, and spec design, where you build a game from scratch based on your own ideas. It is known as spec design (from “speculative,” as in, “involving a high risk of loss”) for a very good reason: most spec designs never see publication. I have had over 50 games published, but for every one of those, I have two designs sitting in boxes in either my garage or my office. Most of these will never be published and I should probably just throw 4 The White Box Essays | Foreword them out, which is what my wife tells me when she is trying to reclaim space in the garage. But the point, other than to make sure you live in a house with a big garage, is that you should expect a large number of misses when working in the game design field. But clearly this has not scared you off and you are ready to throw your hat into the ring. (Note, the throwing-a-hat-into-a-ring game has already been done so don’t use that concept.) The White Box contains components you can use to create games, but many times the key to creating a game is a random inspiration. This inspiration starts the design process. The design process is usually a multiple-step process and everyone has their own method. I often start by imagining how the game idea would translate to interpretive dance. This doesn’t often yield anything useful, but it reminds me of all the steps I have to take to get a game from my head to a game box. My early steps involve research to see if anything similar has been published already. There are a lot of games out there; don’t be surprised if you find out early (or sometimes after quite a bit of work) that someone else has published or is publishing a game similar to your idea. When this happens, you must usually adapt your game to find points of differentiation, or shelve the project and start over. So how can you increase your odds of producing the next masterpiece instead of the next flop? Like painting, writing, and every other creative skill, you get better the more you do it. Your first game may have problems like too much downtime or a first-player advantage. Probably the most common problem is excessive complexity. With some exceptions, most games are improved by reducing complexity, and the ability to preserve fun while eliminating complication is an area where experience helps out a lot. If you’d like to take a shortcut to game design mastery, focus on learning from past mistakes. Not just your mistakes, of course. It would take you forever to make the thousands of mistakes that have already been made by designers over the years. Rather, learn the lessons from years of game design by other designers. Analyze published games created by previous designers, and apply Jeremy’s analysis and conclusions as presented here to learn those lessons even more quickly. I taught alongside Jeremy at DigiPen for a semester, and at one point I asked him for help on how to grade what I considered subjective assignments. Jeremy developed several grading charts that broke down many of the elements to a very basic level. I was completely blown away by the level of detail. I kept grading subjectively, but the experience showed me that there could be a method in the madness, and that some of the things I thought were subjective 5 The White Box Essays | Foreword could actually be broken down into definable blocks, where they could be evaluated and improved in a methodical way. It also taught me that I should stick to game design and that teaching is not one of my core skill sets. You should constantly look at other games and try to identify the strengths and weaknesses. Study the designs of legendary designers like Reiner Knizia, Stefan Feld, and Antoine Bauza. Identify the fun elements in every game you play and add that knowledge to your design skill set. Many people start the path to game design by tinkering with published games and making house rules before moving on to making their own game designs. While playing games is fun, game design is a more meticulous task like shaping a bonsai tree. You start with something rough and slowly shape it into a breathtaking masterpiece! (Or it dies because you cut the wrong branch.) You have these essays to augment your design knowledge, and in front of you is a box of components just waiting to be molded into the next award-winning game. Let’s see what you got! — Mike Elliott 6 Chapter 1 Welcome to The White Box Playing games is fun, but you want to do more. You can’t stop thinking about how games could be different, be better — maybe you even have some ideas for a few new games you want to bring into the world. You want to be … a game designer! You are about to start on a lengthy path. That path is longer than it looks and has more dark corners, twists, and dead ends than you may expect. The end of that path could be a great game, or even a career in game design. The White Box hopes to provide some guideposts, to highlight some of the scarier pits and traps, and to help you get yourself to where you want to go. But where do you want to go? The first step is the most important: to learn about yourself. People design games for many different reasons. Maybe you have a golden idea inside you burning to come out. Maybe you want to design a game to tell a particular story or explore a thorny problem.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Major Developments in the Evolution of Tabletop Game Design
    Major Developments in the Evolution of Tabletop Game Design Frederick Reiber Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences University of California Irvine Irvine, USA [email protected] Abstract—Tabletop game design is very much an incremental these same concepts can and have been used in video game art. Designers build upon the ideas of previous games, often design. improving and combining already defined game mechanics. In Although some of these breakthroughs might be already this work, we look at a collection of the most impactful tabletop game designs, or games that have caused a significant shift in known by long time game designers, it is important to formally the tabletop game design space. This work seeks to record those document these developments. By doing so, we can not only shifts, and does so with the aid of empirical analysis. For each bridge the gap between experienced and novice game design- game, a brief description of the game’s history and mechanics ers, but we can also begin to facilitate scholarly discussion on is given, followed by a discussion on its impact within tabletop the evolution of games. Furthermore, this research is of interest game design. to those within the tabletop game industry as it provides Index Terms—Game Design, Mechanics, Impact. analysis on major developments in the field. It is also our belief that this work can be useful to academics, specifically I. INTRODUCTION those in the fields of game design, game analytics, and game There are many elements that go into creating a successful generation AI. tabletop game.
    [Show full text]
  • Developing an Instructional Video Series Teaching Tabletop Games
    Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects Instructional Psychology and Technology 2020-04-02 Developing an Instructional Video Series Teaching Tabletop Games Sam Jackson [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ipt_projects BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Jackson, S. (2020). Developing an Instructional Video Series Teaching Tabletop Games. Unpublished masters project manuscript, Department of Instructional Psychology and Technology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Retrieved from https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ipt_projects/30 This Design/Development Project is brought to you for free and open access by the Instructional Psychology and Technology at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. 1 Developing an Instructional Video Series Teaching Tabletop Games Sam Jackson Design & Development Project Report Instructional Psychology & Technology, Brigham Young University 2 Table of Contents Title Page ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... 2 List of Figures ...............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Orcacon-2019-Program-Web.Pdf
    WELCOME TO ORCACON 2019 Greetings, OrcaFriends! Wow, it’s already time for OrcaCon again; it seems like just last week we were here playing games and eating delicious food truck noms. We welcome back everyone who’s been with us from the beginning, and offer a joyous hello to all of you who are new to our wee convention. OrcaCon was founded by a group of friends with an idea of a modest friendly convention, focused on being a welcoming and safe space for folks of all ages to play games. We decided early on to focus on bringing diversity, inclusion, and accessibility to tabletop games, and highlighting many marginalized creators who feel left out of other tabletop spaces. For year four, we’re focusing on LGBTQIA+ creators, artists, designers, and more. Be sure to attend their panels and play their games during your weekend. We’re extremely excited to present an amazing guest list, and hope you’ll get a chance to play games with them or have a wee chat. They’ve submitted some great games and panels, so be sure to drop by and see that they’re doing. It’s great to support marginalized creators! We are extremely happy to be back here at the Bellevue Hilton. They’ve been so kind to allow us free parking and to bring in food trucks. They’ve been a delight to work with so be sure to say thanks when you interact with them! Speaking of new things for 2019, we’re also excited about some new Sponsors and groups.
    [Show full text]
  • “Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop Covers Pre Y
    “Tracy Fullerton’s Game Design Workshop covers pre y much everything a working or wannabe game designer needs to know. She covers game theory, concepting, prototyping, testing and tuning, with stops along the way to discuss what it means to be a professional game designer and how to land a job. When I started thinking about my game studies course at the University of Texas at Austin, this was one book I knew I had to use.” —Warren Spector, Creative Director, Junction Point Studios “This is a break-through book, brimming with ba le-tested ‘how-to’s.’ Aspiring game designers: you will ‘break through’ to the next level when you learn to set, and then test, experience goals for your game players.” —Bing Gordon, Chief Creative Offi cer, Electronic Arts “Game Design Workshop is without a question the most important (and best book) on the topic of game design. Its unique approach is both deep and practi- cal and draws students’ into the very heart of what game design is all about. The emphasis on paper-and-pencil prototyping encourages students to think, quite literally, “outside the box,” and stretch themselves to innovate beyond simply rehashing commercially successful game genres. If the author’s students are any indication, this method has a proven track record of producing both original and successful games. Game Design Workshop is ideal for those starting new educa- tional programs as the book is structured around a design curriculum that can be easily implemented by instructors with no prior game design experience.” —Celia Pearce, Director, Experimental Game Lab, Georgia Institute of Technology “This book off ers a thoughtful and comprehensive look at the fi eld of game design.
    [Show full text]
  • CMON LIMITED (The ‘‘Company’’) (Incorporated in the Cayman Islands with Limited Liability) WARNING
    The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited and the Securities and Futures Commission take no responsibility for the contents of this Application Proof, make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this Application Proof. Application Proof of CMON LIMITED (the ‘‘Company’’) (Incorporated in the Cayman Islands with limited liability) WARNING The publication of this Application Proof is required by The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the ‘‘Exchange’’) and the Securities and Futures Commission (the ‘‘Commission’’) solely for the purpose of providing information to the public in Hong Kong. This Application Proof is in draft form. The information contained in it is incomplete and is subject to change which can be material. By viewing this document, you acknowledge, accept and agree with the Company, its sponsor, advisers or member of the underwriting syndicate that: (a) this document is only for the purpose of providing information about the Company to the public in Hong Kong and not for any other purposes. No investment decision should be based on the information contained in this document; (b) the publication of this document or supplemental, revised or replacement pages on the Exchange’s website does not give rise to any obligation of the Company, its sponsor, advisers or members of the underwriting syndicate to proceed with an offering in Hong Kong or any other jurisdiction. There
    [Show full text]
  • Sometimes It's Just Games: Creating Video Essays to Teach Ethnographic
    DocuSign Envelope ID: 839DEE2A-59F5-4D0B-B2B6-B2CE283022CE “IT’S NOT ALL FUN AND GAMES; SOMETIMES IT’S JUST GAMES:” CREATING VIDEO ESSAYS TO TEACH ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS TO TABLETOP GAME DESIGNERS A Project Report Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Anthropology San José State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree Master of the Arts By Jamieson Mockel May 2020 DocuSign Envelope ID: 839DEE2A-59F5-4D0B-B2B6-B2CE283022CE i © 2020 Jamieson C. Mockel ALL RIGHTS RESERVED SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY DocuSign Envelope ID: 839DEE2A-59F5-4D0B-B2B6-B2CE283022CE ii The Undersigned Graduate Committee Approves the Project Report Titled “IT’S NOT ALL FUN AND GAMES; SOMETIMES IT’S JUST GAMES:” CREATING VIDEO ESSAYS TO TEACH ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS TO TABLETOP GAME DESIGNERS By Jamieson C. Mockel APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY ______________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Jan English-Lueck Date ______________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Roberto Gonzalez Date ______________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Stephanie Coopman Date DocuSign Envelope ID: 839DEE2A-59F5-4D0B-B2B6-B2CE283022CE iii ABSTRACT For this project, I created a series of video lectures to distribute on YouTube to teach basic ethnographic methods to tabletop game designers to supplement their game design processes. I developed my research methods using a communities of practice lens, uncovering how game designers leverage a combination of personal experiences, professional skills, and social relationships in their practices. Due to the social nature of playing tabletop games, their development is often a communal process of play, feedback collection, and iteration based on playtester experiences and reactions. In the San Francisco Bay Area, tabletop game designers attend public events where players test their prototype games.
    [Show full text]
  • PLACING Sole Sponsor
    CMON Limited (incorporated in the Cayman Islands with limited liability) Stock Code: 8278 CMON Limited CMON CMON Limited PLACING SOLE SPONSOR SOLE BOOKRUNNER AND SOLE LEAD MANAGER CMON Cover IPO-OP.indd 1 22/11/16 上午11:32 IMPORTANT If you are in any doubt about any of the contents of this prospectus, you should obtain independent professional advice. CMON LIMITED (Incorporated in the Cayman Islands with limited liability) LISTING ON THE GROWTH ENTERPRISE MARKET OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE OF HONG KONG LIMITED BY WAY OF PLACING Number of Placing Shares : 323,000,000 Placing Shares (comprising 306,000,000 New Shares and 17,000,000 Sale Shares, subject to the Offer Size Adjustment Option) Placing Price : HK$0.23, plus brokerage of 1%, SFC transaction levy of 0.0027% and Stock Exchange trading fee of 0.005% (payable in full upon application in Hong Kong dollars and subject to refund) Nominal Value : HK$0.00005 per Share Stock Code : 8278 Sole Sponsor Sole Bookrunner and Sole Lead Manager Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited and Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company Limited take no responsibility for the contents of this prospectus, make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this prospectus. A copy of this prospectus, having attached thereto the documents specified in the section headed ‘‘Documents Delivered to the Registrar of Companies and Available for Inspection’’ as set out in Appendix V to this prospectus, has been registered by the Registrar of Companies in Hong Kong as required by section 342C of the Companies (Winding Up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Chapter 32 of the Laws of Hong Kong).
    [Show full text]
  • Whitmer Makes Campaign Stop in Ironwood by RICHARD JENKINS Versity of [email protected] Michigan
    Mostly cloudy High: 30 | Low: 21 | Details, page 2 DAILY GLOBE yourdailyglobe.com Thursday, February 16, 2017 75 cents THE ROAD TO 2018 Whitmer makes campaign stop in Ironwood By RICHARD JENKINS versity of [email protected] Michigan. IRONWOOD — Democratic “I’m someone gubernatorial candidate who really Gretchen Whitmer visited Iron- cares about the wood Wednesday, part of a swing state of Michi- through the Upper Peninsula as gan,” Whitmer she campaigns for governor in said. “I love this the 2018 election. state, I love the Whitmer visited the Daily people of this Globe, after which she attended a state, and I Gogebic County Democratic Gretchen think we Party event. Whitmer deserve better “I wanted to make sure people from our lead- know I’m very concerned about ers.” the U.P., and I want to be a voice She credits being a life-long for everybody in the state,” Whit- Michigander for inspiring her to mer said. “So it was important to run for Governor. spend some time in the U.P., “I think about the Michigan in Richard Jenkins/Daily Globe early on.” which I grew up in,” Whitmer DEMOCRATIC GUBERNATORIAL candidate Gretchen Whitmer talks to a crowd of local Democrats in Ironwood Wednesday. A Michigan native, Whitmer said. “We used to be leaders in ward if we have so many people skills necessary — and I think that don’t tell the truth,” Whit- ple, that’s why I got into this race was born in Lansing and grew up education, where our K-12 struggling just to get by.” that starts with education.” mer said.
    [Show full text]
  • AN INCLUSIVE, DIVERSITY-FOCUSED GAMES CONVENTION BELLEVUE, WA JANUARY 12Th - 14Th
    018 N 2 CO A C OR AN INCLUSIVE, DIVERSITY-FOCUSED GAMES CONVENTION BELLEVUE, WA JANUARY 12th - 14th WELCOME TO ORCACON 2018! We made it to year three and we’re so glad for your support. We welcome back everyone who’s been with us from the beginning, and offer a joyous hello to all of you who are new to our wee convention. OrcaCon was founded by a group of friends with an idea of a modest friendly convention, focused on being a welcoming and safe space for folks of all ages to play games. We decided early on to focus on bringing diversity, inclusion, and accessibility to tabletop games, and highlighting many marginalized creators who feel left out of other tabletop spaces. Each year, we feature marginalized creators and for 2018, we’ve focused on indigenous creators. Be sure to attend their panels and play their games during your weekend. We’re extremely excited to present an amazing guest list, full of marginalized creators. They’ve submitted some great games, panels, and workshops, so if you’re in between games, be sure to check them out. We are very thankful to the Bellevue Hilton for taking us on at such short notice. They’ve been so kind to allow us free parking and to bring in food trucks. They’ve been a delight to work with so be sure to say thanks when you interact with them! Speaking of new things for 2018, we’re also excited about some new Sponsors and new game groups, such as Tabletop Co-Op.
    [Show full text]
  • Effects of Digital Prototyping Tools on the Attitudes and Behaviors of Tabletop Game Designers
    Prototype Gamer: Effects of Digital Prototyping Tools on the Attitudes and Behaviors of Tabletop Game Designers A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Drexel University by Joe Baranoski in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Digital Media February 2017 ii © Copyright 2017 Joe Baranoski. This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license Version 3.0. The license is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. iii Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................... v ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................................... vi 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1. Informing this thesis – a very particular set of experiences ..................................................... 1 1.2. All this over… Monopoly? ......................................................................................................... 2 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................................ 5 2.1. On the remediation of board games through digital media ..................................................... 5 2.2. Spreadability ............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Game Registration
    DunDraConDunDraCon 3737 February 15-18, 2013 A Pleasanton LARPs H Salon D Salon E Pathfinder B G Danville LARPs Dealers’ Open Miniatures War College San Ramon Pacific C Room Gaming F Buyers’ Bazaar Pathfinder Freecycle Salon 2 Central LARPs Blood Drive Kids’ Room Massage Hallway Tables (Saturday only) atio Bishop Grill P Restaurant Salon 1 Martial Arts Demo Area Restrooms Games Reg Rest- Board Games Info rooms Table Hotel Front ATM Lounge Desk Pre-Reg Snack Bar Main Con Entrance Enjoy your stay at DunDraCon 37! Elev Reg Mt Diablo Martial Arts Elev Elev Demos stairs Your questions about the Con can best be answered by this program Health stairs Club book, the folks at the Information 143 Table opposite Salon 1, or any staff 145 member in a green DunDraCon 147 Staff shirt. 381 379 377 149 375 The San Ramon Marriott is a 152 151 3rd floor gaming rooms non-smoking environment! 154 Elev 378 376 374 You must wear your DDC badge Tri Valley 2 Tri Valley 1 in all function areas. Seminars Animé 160 159 There is an ATM in the business Rooms 508 & 570 are on the 5th floor center, next to the Front Desk. 162 161 Room 608 is on the 6th floor 168 stairs 163 170 165 You can register for events online Teen Room 164 at http://www.dundracon.com 171 166 DunDraCon Rules & Survival Tips Convention Rules General Good Sense • Wear your Con badge. Wear your Con badge where it can • Sleep some of the time. Your body needs rest, even with non- be seen.
    [Show full text]
  • Glossary for Game Designers Copyright 2010 Lewis Pulsipher
    Glossary for Game Designers Copyright 2010 Lewis Pulsipher Typically, game glossaries are written for gamers. This glossary is written for game designers, which means it has many entries that apply to game design (but not game marketing, or video game production). It still has many entries of interest to gamers in general. Furthermore, it is intended to cover both tabletop games and video games. (Note: I use “computer games” and “video games” interchangeably to refer to PC, console, and handheld gaming.) AAA list games–- these are video games that we see advertised frequently and sold in a great variety of non-games stores such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Their budgets are generally $20 million or more (much more for MMO’s). The most successful ones sell many millions of copies. The most successful pay-to-play MMO has over 11 million subscribers. Abstract--Bearing no relation to/connection with the real world. Checkers, Go, and chess are abstract. (Chess is supposed to have reflected warfare at some distant date, but that reflection has been lost over time.) Although Monopoly really has nothing to do with the real world, it is intended to represent real estate dealings and is not regarded as an abstract game. Accessibility-- an accessible game is easy to learn to play, though not necessarily easy to master. Chess is an accessible game that is hard to master. Video games are often accessible, as players don't even need to read rules to play. Adapter (a player type)–Some people play a particular way regardless of which game they’re playing.
    [Show full text]