I have recently started a collage project where we are going to have to prototype a board game and after the pre-production phase, we’ll have to recreate it inside unity with actual graphics , animations, sounds , etc… A complete digital board game to be short. Well, our teacher asked us to do a research about this subject and while I did find a few things online, I was unable to actually find any relevant good articles. I have only found a video on Gamasutra from GDC about board games (news)
So , to start a little discussion about this theme I’d like to ask you a few things :
What would you consider critical for a digital board game.
What do you think that most board games are missing ?
And lastly, why would you say that the top board games are good or why the bad ones are bad.
If it is to anyone’s interest, I’m putting a little document with all the information I can gather, you can take a look at it here : Pesquisa Board games - Google Docs
Feel free to add anything, both to the subject, as to the research.
I feel like digital board games lack two things: the tactile experience of handling actual game pieces, and the social experience of sitting around a board with other people (unless you design your digital game to play this way, too).
Can you find a way to put those two missing elements into the digital experience? Perhaps physical components that interact with the digital game, or a camera that captures real world player actions?
Hmm , I guess the best way I’ve ever seen it done was in “The Eye of Judgement” for the ps3 ( Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlL3-u4zEao
). But still, that aspect of it, remains missing and honestly, I’m not sure if it seems able to be fixable unless you design a game like “keep talking and nobody explodes” , that one looks like a “board game” or would be easely transfered to a board game that would definetly be playable while distant from one another but still feel a lot of close social interaction.
I check out www.bdgf.com it’s a website for board game designers. Lots of good info in there.
When I started my course last year we had to make (write the rules etc) for a fps board game. We had to find a way to represent the fact that each player is doing something at the same time. This brought out some interesting design elements. Of course making your board game turn based is more traditional.
I’d also suggest keeping it to 2 players rather than a board game with 4+ players. Think of 2 player strategy games. Use dice for your rng.
Also check out tabletop simulator on steam if you want to see a traditional digital environment for lots of board games.
Edit: Ticket to ride were worried that a digital version would canabalise their players so the original version on iPad was reasonably high. They found that sales of the board game increased roughly in line with the digital sales & surmised that people bought the digital version to try as it was cheaper, they learnt the rules (since the game enforced them), then went & bought the tabletop version so they could play it & teach it to their friends.
Sorry about that, I miss-typed. Tony gave the correct one above. There are so many board game podcasts as well as the great ones by @Gigiwoo to use as resources.
Another good site is the league of game makers & people on there are offering game mechanics/ideas on the basis that if you use one you tell them & then offer another idea as payment. The board game people are really good at sharing ideas like that & I’m starting to wonder if that is because it is still quite difficult to get a game published so the competition is less & the community is a lot smaller. It’s probably where the digital games industry was a few decades ago (before free game engines & app stores).
FYI, my design partner & I did a paper prototype for an iPad game, took it to a local game shop to get play testers, & everyone liked it & asked for the tabletop version so we are now going to conventions & talking to board game publishers while we are also working on an iPad version in between assignments & classwork.
The simultaneous thing was interesting & I’m actually in the process of revamping it for taking to a board game protospiell to see what board gamers think of it. Every group attacked it differently so I think there were about 7 different ways the genre was looked at. We had no hints how to do it & I think that’s why it worked so well, so not being mean or anything but I won’t say how my group did it because it is a good thought exercise for you to try if you are interested. If you are really stuck the obvious solution is to look at rpg’s & how they all deal with it because that is what they are doing all the time (that’s not how we dealt with it though ).
I guess for your assignment you can either make a board game & then digitise it or, & this might be an easier way, work out the digital game you want to make & document it all then make it into a board game. The first way might be easier though depending how you think but personally the second way is also more interesting because you think you have it all worked out but when making the analog version it really makes you break the mechanics down more.
Sorry for this being so long but I’m finding this whole overlap an interesting area that is taking more & more of my time lately.
I think turn-based simultaneous-move games are fascinating – and rare.
One of the more complex boardgame-based simultaneous-move games out there is Diplomacy. Quite a lot has been written about how to resolve Diplomacy turns. It’s worth researching if anyone has an interest in this aspect of game design. There are a lot of weird edge cases that come up like circular dependencies, and coding an engine to resolve player moves (called “judges” in the Diplomacy world) involves a huge amount of recursion. I have a pretty nice little C# Diplomacy judge I wrote years ago that I keep meaning to build into a game…
Board games are a subset of video games. There are some key limitations.
Graphics cards are limited. You literally have to print on cards
Processing power is limited
Social interaction is normally high
Random generation is limited, but relatively easy
Rules cannot be enforced
Saving the game is impossible
Hiding information from players is difficult
In a way, board games are harder to design then video games. There is very little between the designer and the player. You can’t hide bad design behind visual effects, graphics, or raw processing power. To channel Gigi, board games are difficult to juice.
As to specific advice, make your game ‘modern’. Don’t take inspiration from Risk or Monopoly. Use Settlers and Ticket to Ride as good examples of entry level complexity games. Specifically:
Avoid roll and move
Avoid player elimination
Build in a game ending mechanic
I’d actually suggest targeting a four player game. Two player games require better balance, and are probably harder to design. With four players you can rely on the players to self balance some.
I just read an article on a sort of new genre developing and that is VR boardgames. You might impress your teacher if you propose something similar (but of course different in gameplay). Perhaps you can design it, and implement part of it in Unity as the tech is developing.
I have no experience making board games but this is my perspective as a consumer.
Most board games have cards. in fact I would say most board games are actually card games but with a playing field. If your board game includes cards make sure they are simple to read the more you cater to the illiterate or even people that don’t speak English the better.
Next I would set a game play time frame. are you makeing a board game that a group of kids stay up all night just play once through at a sleep over. (takes me back to axis and allies days). or is this a game that a family will sit down and play a few times after dinner. casual gamer or dedicated gamer?
, It didn’t open correctly here.
).