May 13 | 2017

Player interaction pulls in Players

Something I wish I had been more mindful of from day 1, was player interaction. For about the first half of my playtesting there was little to no way of interacting with players unless it was your turn. I observed my playtesters leaning back, or checking their phones once their turn was done and I knew this was a problem. This does not lead to players getting lost in the game, and in an ideal world, a game designer wants the players invested throughout the entire game.

To remedy this, it required a some fundamental changes to incorporate methods of out-of-turn interactions. In hindsight, had I put more thought into this aspect from day 1, I feel it could have taken far less effort to integrate, and the result would have been more central to gameplay.

Some points to consider, from the perspective of your players:

• When it is not my turn, is there anything I can do to influence the game?
• Could I walk away between my turns, and just get caught up on what I missed?

If these are true, chances are you haven’t nailed this concept fully. Now this may not be as crucial in a game like Ticket to Ride, for example, where your turns are fast and come around often. But in the case of my game: Minions of Mordak, player’s turns are a bit longer, and in big player-count games you can go through a few of them before it becomes your turn again.

One of my solutions was to add reaction spells to the game. This has helped a great deal. It means that if it’s not my turn, I can be pouring over my spell hand to look for things I could be doing. Even if I don’t have a reaction spell in my hand, I’m still interested in the game, and might be pouring over my spell hand anyways in hopes that maybe I missed something. After adding this, I made some instant-effect treasures and player abilities to push this concept further. Though there could be other ways to solve this problem, what this solution did do is move the situation:

From:

“There is never anything I can do on other players turns, so I’m going to go get a snack.”

To:

“There are sometimes significant things I do on other players turns, so I better stay attentive!”

I’ve observed this has made a big difference on the engagement of my players, and also made for some memorable moments and great opportunities for multiple player combos in the process (as my game is semi-cooperative, reactions afford me the chance for reactions that buff my allies during their turns, or reactions that hinder my opponents in their endeavours).

Now there are loads of successful games that have little to no player interaction outside of your turn, and I wouldn’t say that it’s the right choice for every game. However if I could design this game again from day 1, I’d start with that as one of my central themes, because I’ve observed it to be fun, interesting and serves to keep my players constantly engaged.

I know that player interaction can also go too far, and create over the top “take that!” sort of scenarios. What are some examples of player interaction you love or you hate? Are you facing any similar problems with your game’s design? I’d love to discuss these ideas in the comments!

Thanks for reading.