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Author Topic: Opinionated Gamers interviews Donald X. on game design  (Read 2131 times)

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theory

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Opinionated Gamers interviews Donald X. on game design
« on: May 11, 2012, 11:41:23 am »
+1

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rrenaud

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Re: Opinionated Gamers interviews Donald X. on game design
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2012, 11:56:46 am »
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Quote

[Liga] It’s not fair: I really have to satisfied by “exotic” ? I hope you’ll get a publishers since new ideas are always welcome! Of course you are considerated the father of “deck-building” mechanism in the boardgame, so it could seems you are more mechanic than theme oriented. Is is true ? Which are the weight of theme and mechanic in your design ?

[Donald X.] I think of games as having three main pieces: mechanics, flavor, and data. And usually I make them in that order. The mechanics are, you know, what you do, the main part of it anyway. Flavor is the theme. And then data is just the information in the game. For example in Puerto Rico the mechanic is “pick an action, we all do it, it’s better for you.” There are other mechanics but they are secondary. The flavor is plantations in the New World, and then the data is, you have a certain amount of money and corn and indigo and colonists and so on, you have a certain set of plantations and quarries and buildings, and pairings of colonies with buildings.

The mechanic comes first because it has the most to do with how fun the game will be. Then the flavor tries to tie into the mechanic. Then the data tries to make the flavor feel more flavorful, to make it feel like you are doing whatever you are doing. The data matters the least so it’s last.

And this order is pretty meaningful. You can only maximize one variable. At some point you will have to make a decision that leads to better mechanics or better flavor; if you pick better flavor then the mechanics won’t be as good as they might be.

I do like good flavor though, I try to have good flavor, and in some games flavor comes first. I have worked out card names and so forth without having mechanics picked. In general though mechanics are first.

Dominion is a special case because of the premise. Data is first there – it’s a game about building a deck of cards, where everything goes in the deck. This puts flavor last. It is still possible to have good flavor there though, to have cards where the name really fits the functionality.

This is interesting.  I'd personally say I care maybe 65% about the data, 30% about the mechanic, and 5% about the flavor.
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olneyce

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Re: Opinionated Gamers interviews Donald X. on game design
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2012, 02:21:15 pm »
+3

It may be a troubling demonstration of how much Dominion I've played, but I tend to think of Dominion cards as being the 'true' meaning of a word, which then add flavor to the real world.

Meaning: when I see the word Caravan, I don't think "hmmm, a bunch of people traveling together."  I think "cantrip this turn, free Lab next turn."  And it's only a secondary thought to consider what the world means for the non-Dominion world.
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Kirian

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Re: Opinionated Gamers interviews Donald X. on game design
« Reply #3 on: May 11, 2012, 04:02:25 pm »
+5

Ouch.  That needs a pass through at least two copy editors; I couldn't get past the first paragraph.
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Kirian's Law of f.DS jokes:  Any sufficiently unexplained joke is indistinguishable from serious conversation.
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