I met a guy at a convention, and he had developed some games, so I thought I would talk straight-up with him about my current game, so I said, "I like it but I feel like it drags a bit in the middle of the game, and I have played it so many times I am not excited about it." And he replied, "That never happens to me, I have loved every moment of every game I ever made."
I was flabbergasted. Had he made that many games? Was he delusional? How is that even possible? And then I realized that some of my great skills at design are the abilities to be critical, unsatisfied, bored, and impatient. Not everyone has those abilities, apparently.
“The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.” ― Theodore Roosevelt.
Especially when you venture onto unknown territory, or attempt to do things you haven't done before, you are going to probably make something that isn't perfect and needs refinement. The more games you make or try to make, the more this will happen. And sometimes it is your job to work on something, and it isn't your favorite project, but you still need to do a good job.
When making games, and particularly on multiple plays, the feelings you have as a player and designer are vital to understanding what to do.
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| Custom dice for the City of Demons. |
So, back to the game I was in the middle of refining, the City of Demons. "It drags in the middle," was how I was feeling. Other things I felt were "It goes on too long and I get a little bored,", "If I die during the game, I feel dispirited," "I sometimes feel helpless near the end of the game, since its not a close game. I wish there was some way to catch up better."
Here's what I did in response to those feelings:
"It drags in the middle." - Previously, I had shortened the game length quite a bit from the original design. I had removed two levels. I didn't think removing more levels was the right thing this time, because it would make it too short. So I added some free resources that players get when they enter the middle sections of the board. So they can level up quicker and more happens on a turn.
"If I die during the game I feel dispirited." - I drastically reduced what happens when you run out of health. This was an iterative process over many plays. I made it so you are "bumped down a notch" instead of "sent back to the start". The in-game idea of your piece being "killed" changed to being "stunned".
"I sometimes feel helpless near the end of the game, since its not a close game. I wish there was some way to catch up better." - Previously, it used to let one player get super far ahead of the other, so I had massively changed what happens on a turn, to prevent that. No more of that answer was available, so instead, I added the Underground Tunnels, which is a new sub-system that lets a player take multiple rolls on a turn as a desperate and dangerous catch-up option.
"It goes on too long and I get a little bored." - The things I did for the above problems really helped with this, but I wasn't entirely satisfied yet, so I radically simplified the turn structure. Now the "atomic" level of the game, the player turn, was much simpler and cleaner, and the rest of the game felt tighter and shorter.
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| Me demoing the City of Demons at Pax East 2024. |
After all that work, I am very happy with how the City of Demons plays, so all the agonizing feelings led me to address the weaker moments of the game and change it for the better. Now the game never drags on and I don't feel dispirited. Instead, I feel excited and interested to see what happens next.