Check out my early combat playtest The core mechanic I’m experimenting with right now is a high-risk, high-reward movement system:

→ Dodge at the exact moment of impact
→ Trigger a short-range teleport (think instant blink, almost like becoming a flash of light)
→ Reappear behind or beside the enemy
→ Catch them completely off guard for a counterattack

Timing is everything. Miss it, and you eat the hit. Nail it, and combat flows like a dance—fast, reactive, and brutal.

Using Game Balance by Ian Schreiber and Brenda Romero as a reference, one of the most interesting takeaways is that players trade because resources have different value to different players depending on their current situation. That’s what makes trade meaningful in the first place. Designers create that need by making sure players don’t always have everything they need, when they need it. The book also points out that in competitive games, trading often works like a negative feedback loop: players are usually more willing to make favorable trades with weaker players, while leaders get worse offers or no offers at all. So trading can actually help stabilize balance , but only if the system is carefully designed. Another really important distinction is trade vs gifting. A trade means both players exchange things they already own. Gifting, especially in F2P, often means players are sending resources they don’t truly own from a daily allocation system. In that case, the purpose is usually not balance through exchange, but retention, reciprocity, and virality. What I like here is that the book doesn’t stop at “let players trade.” It breaks trading systems down into real design levers: limits, information, costs ,futures. Those details decide whether trading creates strategy, slows progression, prevents exploits, or opens the door to abuse. Big picture: trading systems affect far more than economy. They affect pacing, fairness, progression, monetization, and even community behavior. Open trade can make a game feel alive and social, but it can also let players buy time, find exploits, or bypass intended progression if the system is too loose. So for me, the design question isn’t “should this game have trading?”
It’s: What behavior is this trading system meant to create and what parts of the game’s balance is it allowed to disturb in order to create it?

I was watching a video recently that broke game design down into two core pillars: engaging (fun to play once you're in) vs. appealing (enticing enough to start). Simple split, but it clicked in a way that made me immediately look at my own project differently.

The part that stuck with me most was the idea of the "toy factor." That the best games feel like toys strung together with challenges. The example was a sword with a satisfying swing and screen shake. Before any game loop exists, swinging it is just fun. That's the toy.

It made me audit my own game. I have a mechanic where you select tiles and they appear where they need to go. Functionally it works, but it's kind of instant and inert right now. Some haptic feedback, no personality. I started wondering: if I add a little animation - a slide, a pop, a satisfying settle, does it cross the threshold into feeling like a toy?

The video also talks about the "power of but" — that interesting decisions come from competing goals, not just challenges. A game isn't engaging just because it's hard; it's engaging because you're choosing between things that both matter.

Curious what your toy moments are in your own projects. What's one mechanic you kept playing with before the game loop even existed? And has anyone else found that something purely cosmetic ended up being load-bearing for engagement?

I've been working on my game for a while and this is what ive made this is very roiugh rules expect changes but i need some initial feedback. it is a lot so sorry about that. would love feedback. If its too long the short summary is you build a wild west town by gathering and managin resources whilst defending from other players tryna raid your town. During high noon its your time to invade your enemys. person wiht the most gold at the end wins!

**BOOM TOWN**

**Official Rulebook - Prototype v0.1**

*A Wild West Town-Building Card Game for 2–4 Players*

**QUICK OVERVIEW** Build your western town. Gather resources. Hire outlaws. Survive High Noon. Raid your enemies. Protect your vault. The richest sheriff standing at the end of 10 rounds wins.

**1. COMPONENTS**

**Card Decks**

* Event Draw Pile - Drawn once per round after all players have taken their turn.

* Buildings Draw Pile - Buildings available to purchase and place in your zone.

* Bounty Draw Pile - Outlaws cards available to hire and place in your crew (hand).

* Wanted Posters – Wanted Posters available to drawn and collect.

**Resource Tokens**

* Gold (G) - Primary currency. Used to purchase buildings, outlaws and pay costs.

* Timber (T) - Construction resource. Required by most buildings.

* Ammo (A) - Combat resource. Used only to hire Outlaws in conjunction with Gold.

**Other Components**

* Wanted Poster Cards - Placed in front of raiders after successful or failed raids.

* Worker Tokens - Represent workers sent to the dead zone to gather resources.

* Sheriff Cards (x6) - One per player, chosen at game start.

* Emergency Outlaws – 5 Outlaws to be used in dire situations.

**2. SETUP**

**The Board:** The playing area is divided into two zones:

* Player Zones - Each player has a 5×2 grid for placing their buildings. Your zone is your town. (Each player zone grid is as big as one card)

* Dead Zone - A shared 8×8 space containing Mines, Forests, and Ammo Stores scattered throughout. Players cannot place buildings here. Workers travel to and from this zone to collect resources. In the 2 diagonally opposite corners of the Dead zone lay the Forest which is where you get wood and take 1 turn for your workers to go and come from. In the remaining corners lay the ammo stores (not to be confused with the gun store building) which is where you get ammo from and also take 1 turn for your workers to go and come from. In the middle of the board is the mines which takes 2 turns to go and come from (except for Ranger Roy which takes 1 turn) and is where you get gold from. Each worker sent collects 2 of that resource when they come back. (The dead zone should be approximately 20x20cm).

**Starting State:** Each player begins the game with:

* 1 Bank card placed in their zone (the vault is part of the Bank).

* 3 Outlaws drawn randomly from the Bounty pile.

* 1 Sheriff card of their choice.

* Starting Gold, Timber, and Ammo. - ***TBD once economy is finalized***

**Sheriff Selection:** Each player chooses 1 unique Sheriff.

**3. TURN STRUCTURE**

On your turn, choose ANY 2 of the following actions:

**TURN ACTIONS - CHOOSE 2**

1. Construct a Building - Draw and place a building to your zone, paying its cost.

2. Hire a Worker - Pay a cost and add a Worker token to your supply.

3. Send a Worker - Deploy a Worker to the Dead zone to collect resources.

4. Recruit an Outlaw - Draw an outlaw from the bounty pile and pay its cost.

5. Turn In an Outlaw - Return an outlaw to the Bounty pile; get half its resource cost back (rounded down).

6. Scrap a Building - Destroy one of your own buildings; get half its resource cost back (rounded down).

**Workers:** When you send a Worker to the middle zone, they take time to travel and return. The number of rounds the worker is away depends on how far their destination is:

* Resources marked '1 round' - Worker returns next turn.

* Resources marked '2 rounds' - Worker returns 2 turns later.

*Ranger Roy's workers always return the very next turn regardless of destination distance.*

**Resource Returns (Turning In / Scrapping):** When turning in an Outlaw or scrapping a Building, you receive half the original resource cost rounded down. Example: an Outlaw that cost 2 Gold and 3 Ammo returns 1 Gold and 1 Ammo. The card goes back to the bottom of its respective pile.

**After All Players Have Taken Their Turn:** Once every player has completed their 2 actions, draw 1 card from the Event Pile and resolve it.

* High Noon cards cannot trigger during the first 3 rounds. If drawn in rounds 1–3, discard it and redraw.

**4. RESOURCES & ECONOMY**

**Gold:** Gold is your primary currency used to build your town and pay various costs. Your Bank produces 1 Gold per round automatically. The Bank can be upgraded to produce more. Gold is also what opponents can steal during raids - protect it carefully.

**Timber:** Timber is used to construct most buildings. It is gathered by sending Workers to Forests in the middle zone or from certain buildings that produce it. Not all buildings require Timber to build.

**Ammo:** Ammo is used exclusively to hire Outlaws from the Bounty pile. Gather Ammo by sending Workers to Ammo Stores in the middle zone or from certain buildings that produce it.

**The Bank & Vault:**

* Every player starts with a Bank. It produces 1 Gold per turn automatically.

* The Vault is built into the Bank and cannot be destroyed.

* The Bank can be upgraded to increase Gold production per turn.

* When raided successfully, your Vault loses half of your gold but is not destroyed.

**5. OUTLAWS**

Outlaws are your fighting force. They are hired using Ammo and are used to raid enemy towns during High Noon. Each Outlaw card has two stats:

* Strength - Used when your outlaws are attacking a town during a raid.

* Defence - Used when your outlaws are defending your town from a raid.

**Outlaw Limits**

* Maximum 8 Outlaws in your crew (hand) at any time.

* If at the cap, you must turn one in before drawing a new one (this does count as one of your turns).

* After participating in a raid, Outlaws are placed face-down for 2 turns (rest).  When outlaws are resting, they cannot be turned in or used in a raid. *Hunter Henry's Outlaws rest for only 1 turn.*

**Emergency Outlaws:** If you are raided and have fewer than 3 Outlaws available, you may hire an Emergency Outlaws for free until you have 3 for the duel. Emergency Outlaws have 2 Strength and 2 Defence and are removed immediately after the raid ends. You cannot use a resting outlaw for a raid even if you lack outlaws for a raid, you must hire an emergency outlaw.

***Full outlaw list to be added to a later version.***

**6. HIGH NOON & RAIDING**

When a High Noon event card is drawn, all players take turns raiding in normal turn order. You may choose any opponent to raid. High Noon cannot trigger during the first 3 rounds of the game.

**Step 1 – Declaration:** The active player declares which opponent they are raiding. Both players must be able to field 3 Outlaws. Resting Outlaws cannot be used. If there are under 3, use free Emergency Outlaws (2 Str / 2 Def) to make up the difference.

**Step 2 - Selection & Hidden Order:** Both players choose 3 Outlaws (revealing which outlaws they chose) from their available crew (hand) and arrange them face down in any order.

**Step 3 - The Duel**: Players take turns simultaneously revealing one card at a time resolving any effects in the order of defender first then attacker.

* Compare Raider's Outlaw Strength vs Defender's Outlaw Defence.

* Higher number wins that individual round.

* Ties: the Defender wins the individual round.

Each Outlaw fights exactly once. The overall result is best of 3 rounds.

**Step 4 - Outcomes**

|**Result**|**Consequence**|

|:-|:-|

|Raider Wins (2-1 or 3-0)|Raider takes: 1 Outlaw of raider's choice, half of defender's Gold rounded down (***capped TBD***), destroys 1 building of defender's choice. Raider draws 1 Wanted Poster.|

|Defender Wins (1-2 or 0-3)|Raider loses: 2 of the duelling Outlaws - defender chooses which. Raider draws 2 Wanted Posters.|

|Tie (Somehow)|Raider draws 1 Wanted Poster. Nothing else happens.|

**Step 5 – Rest:** All Outlaws who participated in the duel on both sides are placed face-down for 2 turns of rest regardless of outcome. Hunter Henry's Outlaws rest for only 1 turn.

**7. WANTED POSTERS**

Wanted Posters represent the heat you draw from raiding. They are placed face-up in front of you and are visible to all players.

**Earning Wanted Posters:**

Based on the outcome of the raid, the raider draws:

* Successful raid - draw 1 Wanted Poster.

* Failed raid - draw 2 Wanted Posters.

* Tied raid - draw 1 Wanted Poster.

The Defender does NOT draw any wanted posters.

**Bounty Values:** Each Wanted Poster has a bounty value printed on it. When another player successfully raids you, they receive the bounty value of all your current Wanted Posters as bonus Gold on top of their normal raid rewards. This makes heavily-wanted players extremely tempting targets.

*High Roller Harry's Wanted Posters have +1 to their bounty value.*

**Expiry:** If you are not raided for 3 consecutive rounds, all your Wanted Posters are discarded. You laid low long enough - the heat has died down.

**8. SHERIFFS**

Each player chooses 1 Sheriff at the start of the game. Sheriffs provide a unique passive ability and sometimes a secondary bonus that shapes your playstyle throughout the game.

|**Sheriffs:**|**Primary Ability:**|**Secondary Ability:**|

|:-|:-|:-|

|Ranger Roy|Workers always return next turn regardless of distance.|\-|

|Carpenter Carrie|Rebuild raided buildings at half gold cost (rounded up).|Voluntarily scrapping a building returns +1 Gold & +1 Timber bonus on top of normal returns.|

|Marshall Morgan|Outlaws have +2 Strength / -1 Defence (minimum 1).|\-|

|High Roller Harry|Bank produces +1 Gold per turn.|Wanted Posters against you have +1 bounty value.|

|Mayor Mandy|Exchange up to 3 resources per turn, 2-for-1, any type including same type. Free action, does not cost a turn action.|\-|

|Hunter Henry|Your Outlaws rest for 1 turn instead of 2 after a raid.|\-|

**Sheriff Notes:**

* Marshall Morgan: The -1 Defence penalty cannot reduce any Outlaw's Defence below 1.

* Mayor Mandy: Resource exchanges are a free action and do not count toward your 2 turn actions. She may convert the same resource type up to 3 times per turn.

**9. BUILDINGS**

Buildings are the backbone of your town. They provide passive income, resource bonuses, defensive effects, and synergies with other buildings. Buildings are placed in your 5×2 Player Zone.

**Placement Rules**

* Each building occupies 1 tile space.

* Buildings cannot be placed in the middle zone.

* Some buildings may have restrictions on adjacency — check individual cards.

**Building Costs** Buildings cost Gold and sometimes Timber. Not all buildings require Timber. Costs are shown on the card. When scrapping a building you receive half the original cost back rounded down.

**The Bank (Starting Building)**

* Every player begins with 1 Bank.

* Produces 1 Gold per turn automatically.

* Contains your Vault — cannot be destroyed.

* Can be upgraded to increase Gold production.

***Full building list and synergies — to be added in a future version.***

**10. EVENT CARDS**

One Event Card is drawn after all players have completed their turns each round. Events are public - all players see and are affected by them.

**Event Types**

* High Noon - A raid phase begins. All players take turns raiding in turn order.

* Other Events - Various effects including resource bonuses, catch-up mechanics, hazards, and special conditions. ***Full event list to be added in a future version.***

**High Noon Protection:** High Noon cards cannot trigger during the first 3 rounds of the game. If a High Noon card is drawn during rounds 1-3, discard it back to the event card pile and draw a replacement card instead.

**11. WINNING THE GAME**

The game lasts 10 rounds by default. Players may agree before the game starts to play more or fewer rounds.

After 10 rounds, all players count their total Gold supply. Players also scrap all their buildings, turn in all their outlaws, collect any resources from workers that were send and exchange timber and ammo to a 1:1 ration into gold. The player with the most Gold wins.

Gold sources at end game:

* Gold held in your vault/supply.

* Gold produced by your Bank and other buildings during the game.

* Gold collected from successful raids.

* Bounty Gold earned from raiding Wanted players.

* Buildings Scrapped at the end of the game.

* Outlaws turned in at the end of the game.

**Tiebreaker:** If two or more players are tied on Gold, the players will draw 3 new outlaws and have 1 final duel with them. The winner will come out on top.

**12. QUICK REFERENCE**

**Turn Summary**

* Choose 2 actions from the Turn Actions list.

* Actions: Place Building /Construct Building / Hire Worker / Send Worker / Recruit Outlaw / Turn In An Outlaw / Scrap Building.

* After all players act - draw 1 Event Card and resolve it.

**Raid Summary**

* Both players pick 3 Outlaws and arrange face-down in secret order.

* Flip simultaneously, in any order they want.

* Raider Strength vs Defender Defence - higher wins each round.

* Ties go to the Defender.

* Best of 3 determines overall winner.

* All duelling Outlaws rest for 2 turns after (1 turn for Hunter Henry).

**Wanted Poster Summary**

* Win raid = 1 poster / Lose raid = 2 posters / Tie = 1 poster.

* Posters add bounty bonus to anyone who raids you.

* Expire after 3 rounds without being raided.

**Key Limits**

* Max 8 Outlaws in hand.

* Outlaws rest 2 turns after a duel (1 turn for Hunter Henry).

* High Noon blocked in rounds 1-3.

* Game lasts 10 rounds (adjustable).

* Mandy: max 3 resource exchanges per turn.

* Morgan: Outlaw Defence minimum 1

Like in the title, I feel like games are divided into 2 design strategies, either focusing heavily on strategy play and outplays with tons of cool mechanics, or mastery design, where in order to be good and have fun - you have to completely master something, either in racing games it's a track and vehicle controls, in shooters it's aiming and so on.

I don't see anyone mention it at all, and I'm pretty confused on how both actually work, and if one is better than another, since both lead to fun games overall. Any thoughts on this from game designers who had to deal with these designs and what's their deal? I wanna study both for future games I make, so info from experienced people would be very helpful:)

a while back I had created a card game which I could easily pick up a deck of cards and play with friends and family. it used a smaller deck, similar to euchre, being 10, J, Q, K, A, and 2 of each suit. meant to be a two player game

each player is dealt a 4 card hand, they then put each card face down in a row in front of them.

once each player does this, they flip each card over, normal war rules other than 2's beat aces, in cases of a tie, check for any 2's beating an ace, if none, take the values of the cards and put them together, the person with the most points in value, wins the hand. if any 's beat an ace, in the event of a tie, the player that played the two wins the hand.

the cards for this hand are then discarded and each player repeats until all the cards in the deck are discarded, or in other words, they get three hands.

some questions I've got for the improvement of this game:

1. it hasn't happened yet but it's possible that it could happen, in the event of a true tie, what should the tie breaker be? how should I resolve this situation?

2. some of the people that I have play tested the game with cite a lack of strategic depth, do you all think this is a problem or is the current strategy good enough.

I apologize for the minor word vomit, a friend suggested I ask a subreddit for their opinions and its difficult to get the game rules out in words without an example, which I guess could be another issue.

Hey everyone! As the question suggests, I was wondering what you think makes a good collectathon. What are your favorite games in this genre, and what do they do well in your opinion? On the other hand, which games fail to be engaging, and why? What key elements and small details define a good collectathon for you?

Context:

I'm making a game inspired by papers please and recent real world events. Almost all gameplay takes place through a terminal where you receive requests for access to websites and have to approve or deny based on a growing list of criteria starting with OS age attestation tokens. Over the course of each day you are exposed to different news articles, briefings, and interactions with 'VIPs' during which you can save pieces of information as evidence. Eventually you're given the option to go home to family or stay late at the office connect these pieces of information into 'threads'. Your ability to identify information, save it, and integrate it into the bigger picture of what is happening in the background is key to obtaining some of the endings.

Problem:

How to first introduce this mechanic to the player without bashing them over the head with it so to speak. Ideally I would like to implement this in such a way that the player can feel like they have discovered something while also keeping it accessible.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

any take this class at fullsail what do they teach is it coding the class description is Project and Portfolio I: Game Design, students will construct a basic software program using code outside of a game engine. Through this work, students will gain experience with procedural logic in a scripting language, linear thinking, and data-driven behavior. They will then revise their project inside of a AAA game engine to illustrate the difference between working with an engine and without one. By the end of the course, students will understand programming fundamentals and game-engine basics.?

Been thinking a lot about making a game that my little sister would have loved if she were still here. She passed away when she was young, and sometimes I imagine what would have made her smile, what kind of game she'd enjoy. I remember the stuff she liked from our childhood... Spyro, Ratchet and Clank, Sonic, a few racing games, Kingdom Hearts especially Re:Coded and 358/2 Days. She loved going fast and blowing stuff up, she was at that adorable childish phase when she thinks some kid's stuff is too childish but other kid's stuff is mature and cool now. Axel and Roxas were the first male characters she wanted to see kiss. She went from a Shadow The Hedgehog fangirl to a Shadow hater. Then she got into Hetalia, Black Butler, the butler club show, and a few others. She used to pause Tokyo Mew Mew to read the subtitles but she read faster over time. I remember when we played Disney Princesses for the PS2 I plugged my controller into the second port because I wanted the red magic blasts. Or orange I can't remember. I shared my GBA and DS collection with her, we both had DSes. She loved Piplup. Beat the Elite Four with a level 80ish Piplup and Shinx. We also had a gamecube and the 3 best games for it, Pokemon Coloseum, Melee, and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. She was into creepypastas and she was terrifed of Slenderman and I remember telling her "If you draw a face on Slenderman he dies" and she got mad because that's how you beat the aliens in Hetalia and I said "where do you think they got it from?" and she believed me. I don't remember her mentioning another nightmare about Slenderman again. I beat 358/2 days before her but I remember how whenever she unlocked a new world she'd run over to me and show me. Look, we're in Wonderland now! We went to Neverland and I'm flying! She was so cute! 358/2 Days was the first Kingdom Hearts game we played so we knew nothing about Roxas or Xion or the big twist at the end. It really got to her, and she hated the ending. I think about her a lot. She was the only good thing about living in that hellhole. Sometimes I think of making a game for her but I'm never sure what she would love enough to want in that game. I wish I could have shown her Frieren, she would have loved it.

I get it—part of the problem is me. I’m not good enough yet.

But at the same time, game design-wise, if only a small percentage of players can realistically progress, doesn’t that normally lead to player drop-off?

In most games, if difficulty is tuned so that only highly skilled or “hardcore” players can get through, it’s considered bad balance because it pushes players away.
But Souls-like games seem to do exactly that—and instead of being criticized, they’re praised for it.

So where’s the line?

Is this actually good design that creates mastery and long-term engagement?
Or is it just a genre where players accept frustration because that’s what they signed up for?