The Perfect Game

I was talking to a fellow designer a few weeks back, and we were discussing the designing a game for a specific audience. While we both agreed that it’s very important when marketing to someone, he didn’t think it was as important when designing. I felt that in any kind of creative design, it’s important to know who the final product is intended for. He felt that he would rather design something that taps into the essence of fun, the very core of what it means to have fun, when designing a game. I said this was impossible.

We both agreed the perfect game, that is fun for all, has not yet been designed yet.

But with this in mind, and based on recent conversations, I have been mentally preparing a list of games that are close to perfect. These tend to fall into three camps:

• Great after a few tweaks to the rules as written
• Great except for an untweakable flaw
• Just plain great.

These are just my opinion of games that fit into these categories.

Great after a few tweaks

Loopin’ Louie

A game of pure skill. Succeeds great at being an easy to play, tough to master dexterity game. Surprising depth and skills needed to play masked by an innocuous looking theme.
Tweaks needed: Tournament play (with its built in catch-up mechanism). Also, eliminated players should probably not be allowed to keep playing to minimize Kingmaker.

No Thanks!

Elegant and heart-breaking at the same time, with every turn being filled with tough decisions (and if not, a quick toss of a chip.)
Tweaks needed: The number of cards to remove per round is questionable, balancing between some amount of strategy without being totally open. Also, scoring/number of rounds needs to be considered so as to minimize king-maker. And please don’t play Hidden Trackable.

Quo Vadis?

As pure of a negotiation game as they get, with simple and elegant rules leading to cut-throat situations.
Tweak needed: Hidden trackable ends up being more hidden than trackable, but relatively easy to fix.

Space Dealer

Innovative, it bridges the gap between the fast-paced computer game world and the decision-filled world of the board game.
Tweaks needed: The rules as written are a mess and don’t seem to accomodate for how the game actually plays. They seriously expect you to track your score as you play, in the center area where everyone is constantly grabbing? There are also a few funky exceptions that need to be purged to give new players a chance at playing without having to ask “hey, can we pause the timer while I ask some questions?”

Great except for an untweakable flaw

High Society

One of the best light bidding games out there, with the person who appears to be in the lead probably being the most likely to go bust at the end.
Flaw: The game needs an uncertain ending to avoid all the nasty end-game issues, and 1/4 of all games lack an uncertain end, with no easy way to fix it.

Werewolf/Mafia

A huge hit at many a convention, and the best of the psychological games out there. Too subtle or nasty for many players, it still succeeds wildly in the genre.
Flaw: Elimination means that people often don’t get to play, or lose fairly arbitrarily. However, elimination is also what gives the game an extra psychological edge.

Acquire

A classic game that partially invented the economic genre. Simple to play- place a tile, buy up to three stocks, draw- that rewards planning and allows influence over how stocks do.
Flaw: Strategy goes out the window if you don’t draw the tiles you need to merge, especially if you spent everything early.

Magic: The Gathering

The game that controlled many years of my life and bank account, the first CCG has mastered how to create a game of infinite combinations and strategies.
Flaw: The game is nearly impossible to teach new players. And even if they’re able to get a grip on the rules, you can’t cover all the combinations of cards that come up. Even long time players need to consult the massive online database of cards fixed for the current edition.

Just plain great

Mama Mia!

A memory game that was designed as a memory game, with all the mechanisms playing well to fit into this core. With the extra hand management and random elements, this game still works even when the memory element is removed!
Not perfect because: The memory aspect is enough to turn off many players, and there’s not quite enough depth in the rest of the game.

Lost Cities

Knizia’s masterpiece two player game combines planning, hand management, luck, and the ever impending sense that time is running out.
Not perfect because: It’s a two player game only.

Uptown

The game on the list I’m completely biased towards. However, I do really feel like this game has tons of depth, while being extremely easy to teach and play.
Not perfect because: There is no real theme, and it resisted any attempt to become themed. Many of the games on this list can be accused of having no real theme, but this is the game that to me most resists theming, and so there’s nothing outside that can help the metaphor.

Conclusion

I could go on and on, of course, picking apart every game I’ve ever played and putting it into one of these categories (or the all-purpose “not even close to perfect” category.) The factor that all of these games share is that they are very succesful to their audience, who are more willing to dismiss the flaws (or even claim that the flaws are a benefit.) By considering your audience, and striving to make the best game you possibly can in that area, you can come out with something succesful (and close to perfect.)

…And of course, if a game isn’t perfect, I’ll be happy to tell you why!