When the opportunity to write this came up I was unsure how to approach the topic. Do I pawn myself off as an expert and hand down my beliefs on stone tablets or do I stammer through hmmming and hawing. Finally I decided to just explain my thought process on a couple of games I have designed. One of the games, Flapjacks and Sasquatches, is produced and on game store shelves where as the other one is about to , hope hope, be produced.
First let me say I came at these games from different directions and in a round about way. I in my unnerving geekness had wanted to design a game for many years. I had tried out a few ideas in college, where I was the Vice President of my games club, I know I know but some how I still attracted my wife. Any way I had a few concepts and themes I explored. They ranged from rpg's centered on a condemned apocalyptic New York to farming on another planet, I know who would play a game about farming, crazy. All these ideas seemed to fall by the wayside. School demanded more time, my girlfriend became my fiancée, and life progressed ever forward. I continued to write short stories and plan out rpg campaigns that no one would ever play, but game design had dropped into the black hole of lost notebooks and dust covered game bins. I had two awesome kids (three now and all girls Yikes) and really started playing games again. I played Candyland and Shutes and Ladders with my kids and more complex games with friends. My friends and I started having a guys game weekend once a year and I made my return to Gencon. Having delved back into the world of my zit faced childhood I ventured back to game design.
I tried to come up with an original game concept. I looked at dice, cards, this new worker placement stuff I had heard about that all the kids were playing but everything I thought up seemed to just be a revamped something else. So I decided to go from the other side of games the all important Ameritrash concept of theme. I hoped to come up with an awesome theme and encapsulate it so well that everyone would rave about how it was really like farming on another planet. In looking for a theme I saw a messing with sasquatch commercial and thought I want to make a game that has a crazy Sasquatch in it, but where could Sasquatch roam free to cause havoc with the world. That is when it hit me. I don’t know if it was years of Monty Python or a childhood spent vacationing in a cabin in Brainard just miles away from Paul Bunyan Land. Yes all you non Minnesotans there is a Paul Bunyan Land where a 20ft tall Paul talks to you by name as you come through the gate. But either way Lumberjacks were the key.
I am a very visual thinker and so images started flowing into my head and being a gamer I needed to turn all the manliness that is lumberjacking into homophobic childish jokes. It started with an apprentice and me thinking hey how can they lure him away. Well flapjacks would be cool, wow there’s my title but it isn’t funny. I know a fat guy in a bikini standing in a pin up pose. From there I rolled with all the Sasquatch cards hoping to encapsulate the “Messing With Sasquatch” humor but in reverse. Notice in my infinite genius I still didn’t have a game mechanic. That is when I split from one deck to two and decided that I wanted dice rolls in the game. The decision to add dice was for one simple reason, this game is humorous, silly and a very spiteful game and I find dice are the ultimate spite shot to the groin. You can do everything right in a game and end up rolling the critical failure. With that I took it a step further. Yeah I need chops, and misses but how about I add salt to that groin kick and have a way to break your axe.
You may think man he must really like spite games and you would be absolutely right. I love teaching this game because it only takes one or two turns to see spouses turn on each other and kids to get mom and dad (mad gleeful cackle). I know there are those of you who think man this guy deserves to get ripped up on his own game well I did not win one game in the first 40-50 games I played, and my partner loves to tell all people playing the first time that if you play Tree Hugger on me in the first turn you will have good gaming luck the rest of the day.
Now I’d like to say I play tested the hell out of this game, and that I had focus groups and surveys to tell me how great it is. I’d like to but I was blissfully stupid on how to go about game design. The game clicked right away. I ripped it apart doubting myself as others said it was great. I changed more myself then anyone else wanted. Luckily it worked. Every game since this one has not just fallen into place. But I'll save those for part 2
So until next time keep geeking.
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