Bullet Proof Games – Designing Around User Error
On Tuesday, I learned that I’ve been playing CLANK wrong. This is after writing an entire post about it, and getting a couple hundred eyeballs on my take on the mechanic in question (I think the article is still pretty solid, despite my snafu).
On Wednesday I was watching This Game Gets Dicey play Viticulture, on the GenCon twitch channel. Matthew and Paula had some confusion over legal worker placement. These are veteran gamers, and even they sometimes mix up the rules.
Viticulture - photo by @rascozion via Board Game Geek
It got me thinking about how fragile our games can be to user error. We, as designers, can spend hundreds of hours working on a game, iterating on mechanics, tweaking interactions. We often rely on players executing our rules as intended and written.
But what happens when we recognize that sometimes things go wrong, that sometimes instructions are misread, misinterpreted, or outright forgotten.
How can we design bullet proof games?
Intuitive Mechanics: I am a big proponent of simplifying games wherever possible. This extends to designing mechanics to be intuitive, and for interactions to be uniform within a gaming system. Sometimes we need to tweak a mechanic so that the game works, but wherever possible, we should be working our hardest to make sure that we work with peoples’ natural tendencies.
Graphic Design: Graphic design can make or break a game. Player aides, intuitive iconography, and reminders all increase the playability and reduce confusion. But, we can’t iconograph every potential interaction in a game. Which is where playtesting comes in – identify crunch points and make them obvious. We had this challenge with a specific interaction in Nut Hunt, and luckily, we have a top-notch graphic design partner in Christine Santana – who is a whiz at solving tricky play problems.
Make it Work when Played Wrong: What struck me about my incorrect play of CLANK, is that I love the game despite messing up a rule. That is, the game is better the way it’s meant to be played – but it is a great enough game that it works even with user error. While some errors or rules missteps will ruin a game, sometimes, it’s ok if we play it wrong.
What strategies do you use to design games around user error?
