The Game Board Four: Mechanics, Story, Interaction, and Dynamics
I have never created or written a board game before except for little awkward things I drew on paper pre-adult. I’ve been asked to write one. Because I know about board games? No. Because I’m a writer and, throughout my career, I’ve been asked to write some crazy things. Add board games to the possible list. I have a friend I would consider a professional board game creator. He and I talked at a party about partnering on the project. He’s in. I’ve yet to go to his house to play games, but I’m working on a story. He’s going to help create it. I don’t know if any writers out there are interested in developing board games, but I thought I’d share my journey in this little endeavor.
The first thing to know about board games is they involve mechanics. When I first heard the word, I thought we were talking about something like that transparent model car I bought as a kid where you built the engine and then got to watch the gears and pistons spin through the translucent body. No, board game mechanics are different. Mechanics are the rules that determine how the game is played. There’s no variance from the mechanics. No options. No one gets special treatment (unless that’s part of the mechanics). The rules are the rules are the rules. That’s mechanics. The turn order you go in. If it is a dice game, how do you roll the dice? How do you win? If it is a card game, do you try to collect or eliminate them? What will your rental house bring? How can you move? If you move, do your game pieces or places on the board have special abilities? How do you break the stalemate if you tie? That’s mechanics.
The story is what I’ve been asked to write (though I also have to consider the mechanics, the player dynamics, and the player interaction to pull it off). The story might be simple, like moving around the board the number of spaces your dice say. Or the story could be elaborate. I’m working on an intricate story. I have to create roles for players to play. I want to create emotional engagement. I have to set a list of objectives (or at least one). I then have to decide how much control I want to have over the story. If I have an embedded narrative, then I get to define the storyline. If I choose an emergent narrative, I’ll allow stories to arise naturally based on players’ choices. What I’m looking for is theme integration. With that, I must design the board game's mechanics to fit the more prominent theme. We’ll discuss the theme in a later post.
Of course, when working on the story, I have to think about the players because if I don’t have players, there is not much purpose in having a game. Players have to engage with each other during the game. There may be teams or only solo players (every person out for himself). Sometimes, players work together to try to beat the game. This is called cooperative interaction. Competitive interaction is when players or teams try to beat each other. Asymmetric interaction, where I’m going with my game design, is where players have different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Another thing to consider is direct interaction, where one player tries to outdo the others. Indirect interaction is where players try to do things that limit or block others. I’m thinking of an asymmetric interaction game with direct and indirect interaction so the players can use different powers and abilities to affect the other players and then cut them off. This style of play is the closest I can come to writing a narrative story, which is where my strengths are.
The last part of the game puzzle is the player dynamics. This, of course, will be affected by the interaction. You can have single-person, solitary games. You can have collaborative games. You can have cutthroat games. I’m thinking of jazzing it up and writing it so characters can collaborate, build alliances, and then double-cross each other in the style of cutthroat antagonists.
How is this all going to work out? I’m throwing the dice, and I’ll keep you posted. And I’ll keep listing my progress here if you also want to write a board game.
So, I’m curious, after thinking about it, what’s your next move?
