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Have you noticed that a lot of the top ranked games have mandatory and voluntary problems? New game designers when starting out often create games without any problems or dilemmas. They may create an interesting theme, however you can get any thing you want, any time you need it. Perfect! But it mostly creates boring gameplay. Experienced game designers create problems for players.
The Wonderful Problems Of Ticket To Ride
Let's look at a best selling game, Ticket To Ride. You start with mandatory problems called tickets. If you don't complete these tickets, connect city A to city B, you get negative points that can make you lose the game. During the game you can pick up even more tickets of your own free will. Why would you do such a crazy thing? Well, if you do complete those tickets you add those extra points instead of deducting them. They can cause you to win the game.
In Ticket to Ride you even have imaginary problems that might never happen. You constantly imagine your preferred route will be blocked.
Lost Cities
In Lost Cities you create columns of your own cards that represent archaeological expeditions. The mandatory problem is that each expedition you start costs -20 points. The cards go from 2 to 10. If your row contains 2, 3, 4, and 7 value cards you score is 16 points minus 20 for a grand total of -4 points for that expedition. Putting together an expedition is risky.
In Lost Cities you can also choose to play special cards that double or triple your expedition score, but you can only play them at the very start of creating that column. It can change a -20 into a minus -40 or even a -60. If your score is positive you get a big payoff. The designer, Reiner Knizia, gets your heart pounding by allowing you to choose the problem of starting an expedition with a minus 60 score, and it feels fantastically wise when you turn that into a big positive score.
You create even more problems by holding on to useless cards. You want to hold on to a useless green 8 card instead of getting better ones for yourself, because when you place that card face-up on to the discard pile your opponent can then take it on their turn, and add it to their long green expedition. It clogs up your hand, which has a limit, along with the other "useless" cards that you are keeping, waiting, hoping, for your opponent's expedition to go higher than the numbers you are holding on to, so you can safety discard it when it's finally useless for them too.
Who's Fault Is It?
Mandatory problems make a game interesting, and optional problems are tantalizing. If optional problems become catastrophic, who is to blame? The game, the player, the designer? The player of course. Well, that's what the player thinks.
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In Scythe if you produce too many resources you're tempting attacks (even if it's just in your imagination). The attackers have the problem of losing popularity. At the start you can't cross rivers and only move across 1 hex. In Tzolk'in and Agricola getting more workers means you need to produce more food. In Viticulture how will you best synergize your random combination of Visitors, Vines, and Wine Orders.
Next time you play, look out for your favorite problems.
Do you find game design fascinating, and want more in-depth nuggets and tips? If yes, then welcome to the Game Nuggets blog. I'm Gerald the designer of the soon to be released Banker of the Gods.
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