Okay, so, because this got stuck in my head, I’m putting it down for future generations to get a glimpse of how my game design process goes.
Step one: Come up with an idea. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to exist. Its kind of like writing. Your first draft is not going to be the final draft, but if you don’t start, you won’t get there. So, step one: idea.
In this case, we’re going to use the idea for a game I’m calling Rock Rock Rock (rock rock).
Note the originality of the title. Yes, shut up. I meant to do that. It’s deliberate, and I think I’m clever.
Anyway, the idea came from a rather strange conversation at my FLCS/FLGS. Where speaking to the owner, the statement of: “How did cavemen break ties, they couldn’t exactly play rock-paper-scissors.” was floated into the aether.
Thus was born a seed for a new game.
Okay, everyone knows Rock-Paper-Scissors, it’s a children’s game we still play as adults, because we are all children deep down. Also, just about literally everyone has played it. The rules don’t need to be explained to most people.
There’s a simple progression, where each option can be countered by exactly one option and counters the other option. Rock beats Scissors beats Paper beats Rock…
There’s actually a mathematical model for this sort of game, where you can increase the number of options to any odd number and then each move will have (N-1)/2 wins/losses for any given option.
So in the case of R-P-S, there are 3 options.
And the formula becomes (3-1)/2 = 1; So one possible win or loss per option.
So, what happens when we go to 5?
Well, to borrow from the BBT, where you have Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock… You can see that each option has 2 wins and 2 losses. once again, (N-1)/2.
So what does this have to do with game design, it’s obvious that this isn’t new?
Well, a lot of times, game design is adding variation and theme to a game that already exists. And we’ll get into that in the next part.
On to Part 2 >