Game Design #38: Immune

Introduction: Threats to the body are many and diverse, and a strong immune system must be prepared to fight off any kind of infection at any time. Build your body’s defenses and be shrewd about how you employ that strength, and you will live a long, healthy, victorious life!
Players: 3-5
Materials:

Regular-sized bags of identically-shaped, multicolored [...]

Getting it Wrong

From a recent post by Yehuda with some simple but important advice: how to recognize hack game design. Too many games, digital and non-digital alike, fall into at least one of these traps. As the designer of more than thirty quick game designs on this blog, I am well aware of the easiness of hacking [...]

Game Design #37: Scrub

Introduction: Designed in honor of the brilliance and success of the newly-released independent game Braid, a game about snap time reversal and the value — and danger — of being able to “undo” everything you just did. In this game, players compete to rid their hand of cards before the time runs out. However, unlucky [...]

Riches to be Found in Cooperative Games

Cooperative games, or games that don’t result in one player winning and all others losing, are fascinating. There are precious few of them in the board and card game world. Many competitive games feature elements of cooperation, or at least opportunities for mutual gain among players, but few really pit players on the same side [...]

Back in Action, One Last Time

Just returned from my sojourn in northern New Hampshire and my working vacation from all things game-related to my university, SCAD, for one last quarter. When I enrolled as a MFA candidate, I was assigned three preliminary undergraduate courses to complete before I could commence graduate study — this because my undergrad experience featured precious [...]