Over the years Sovereign Wars has gone through many iterations however the one thing that has been the same are the principles by which the game was designed. These principles are carried over into all other games that are created by JD Game Design.
Here is a little look into how I think of game design and what make a good game design for myself.
- Mechanics should be easy to learn but difficult to master. When looking at a games rules they basic mechanics should be easy to understand and take up the lease amount of pages. Good game design should free the players from the rule book when it comes to basic things.
- Use everything you put into the game. Basically if a designer goes to the trouble to crate a attribute or statistic for something use it as much as possible if something only has one specific use that may only come up every 20th game it may be worth thinking about changing it or removing it.
- If it is “clunky” or doesn’t work throw it out. Basically if gameplay is interrupted or extended by a mechanic that just doesn’t work very well or is just difficult to implement in a fair manor but it out and try with out it.
- Charts for reference not mechanics. This one is a pet peeve of my charts should not be used to generate random effects. Having a bunch of charts in a game can but fun but for me its and easy out for a more elegant solution. I am not saying don’t use Charts in your game just keep them for reference purposed.
- Where every possible make the game predictable to a certain degree. On thing I see a lot of games doing is adding random events to spice up the game or making activation random. All of these have their place but make sure they fit the game. For example Sovereign Wars is a space combat table top game set far in the future where there is very little a ship doesn’t know about his opponent. Having random unit activation in the game would be very frustrating and would completely destroy the strategy of the game. Now same a fantasy game depicting the total chaos of battle random activation is more than welcome there and even encouraged.
Those are just some of my design principles they are by no means the only way to make a game they are just how Sovereign Wars is being built and the game is looking great.
Stay posted for more information regarding the future of Sovereign Wars
