Is there a good book on the design of board and card games?
Conversation
Replying to
has a great concise thing about this, with a few references for further reading: raphkoster.com/gaming/gdca200
2
3
6
Hm this is basically discrete math and complexity theory 101. I didn’t get much intuition about game design.
1
Did you get to the examples of each problem used in various games? That said, I wouldn’t have started here either. :)
1
1
I liked the first few slides, reminded me of OODA loop models. But the rest.. I mean I get the connection between for eg knapsack problem and inventory style games, but it doesn’t get at what makes particular knapsacks interesting for eg. But perhaps that’s too domain specific?
1
Like I’m aware of a result that Tetris with only z and S pieces is np hard so Tetris tuning knob becomes percentage of those pieces. But are there principles for coming up with those 6 tiles (s, z, L, J, I, T, o) as a great game set?
In the case of Tetris, it’s literally every permutation of four units. Five would be too many, three is trivial. And board size matters too. So yeah, there’s a significant tuning factor even once you identify the problem, defining the extent of the problem.
1
3
Ah yes. So some mix of number theory and insight
1
Show replies
Personally, I like choosing a constraint like Tetris has (every combo of four units) and generating every possibility. That sort of thing is how you get a deck of trad cards, dominoes, etc.
2


