Board Game Designer: Writing Game Rules You Love to Follow (and break)

Imagine a job where you professionally argue about imaginary rules, where your job requires serious playtime and where designing fun is a full time gig. in these instances strategic thinking is like a superpower. Crafting a game from scratch requires a whole lot of imagination, critical and out the box thinking to achieve game balance, player engagement, challenge and reward, decision-making and replayability.

Game mechanics are the rules and systems that guide gameplay. It is these simple set of rules and components that guides strategic thinking. The way you interact with other players in a game has to do with the mechanics set up in that game but the competitive edge, player engagement and integration is all strategy. Take for example, the path to victory, how will movement affect players long-term interest?

Players who likes to be intellectually engaged have to have a well-designed strategy to make the feel like they have an edge and can get ahead with an informed plan/decision.

Rewarding players who have overcome the challenges within the game can be satisfying for players and is an incentive to return.

Every game designer wants players to come back over and over again. Therefore, replayability is vital to the success of a game. In terms of strategic thinking, offering players different strategic options to win provides strategic depth, allowing them to appreciate the game's nuances and complexities. Ultimately, a well-designed strategy game keeps players interested and coming back, making it last and stay popular.