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As we are preparing for Essen, this is a good time for some piece of advice straight from the heart and mind of Ignacy…
Essen is close. Publishers get a few submissions every day. The show is the perfect opportunity for young designers – they come for 4 days and have a chance to pitch prototype to tens of different publishers. Chances that you’ll find a publisher for your game are as high as they ever could be. This is your time. This is the opportunity window.
There are two main problems though.
First of all – there is an army of other designers. I am serious. There is an army of young designers pitching games at Essen. Your game must be outstanding.
And the other one problem. Your sales pitch sucks.
***
It’s a worker placement area control game about the mafia. It uses the basic mechanism of set collection – players must complete different sets of resource cards in order to complete jobs and earn VP. The game has a unique twist in the scoring system. At the end of each round players loose all Victory Points, unless they used special ability to save them.
That’s an average pitch I receive. I am serious. That’s how you pitch games to me. You say Worker placement. Area control. Set collection. A unique twist. Over and over again the same. Keywords that seem to open every door.
In a fact they shut the door for you.
***
I have this analogy I always present at my Game Designer Workshops – designing a game is like building a house. Game is a house. Game mechanisms are tools. You use worker placement or deckbuilding like you’d use a hammer and saw. You take a bit of set collection like you’d take wood and nails. You have player special powers like you’d have special paint that can be easily washed in the kids’ room.
When you finish your house, you will invite your friends and you will present the amazing outcome. Here is our kitchen, bright and warm with this huge windows. Here we have fireplace – in the winter we’ll play board games next to it. And here are stairs to our attic bedroom…
You’d never say something like – here is our kitchen, I used white paint on the walls and we used this awesome hammer set to put windows in the wall. We also used an automatic screwdriver and glue gun to put firehouse in that wall and those stairs – we build them using 8 inches long nails. Can you imagine?!
I am serious.
Don’t pitch me tools.
Pitch me the house.
***
Robinson Crusoe is not a deck building cooperative game. Robinson Crusoe is a survival game, where players are thrown in the deadly environment and struggle to fulfill goals in 6 unique scenarios.
Imperial Settlers is not a worker placement card game. Imperial Settlers is a card game in which you command one of four unique factions and build your Empire by planting woods and fields, mining stone and gold and building tens of different buildings.
Please, understand – the mechanisms, are just a tools. They are not the game. You use them to build the game.
You haven’t designed worker placement game.
You have designed [super-freaking-awesome] game and you used worker placement mechanism.
***
To sum up. Instead of that way:
It’s a worker placement area control game about the mafia. It uses the basic mechanism of set collection – players must complete different sets of resource cards in order to complete jobs and earn VP. The game has a unique twist in the scoring system. At the end of each round players loose all Victory Points, unless they used special ability to save them.
Talk to me that way:
In this game, you are a head of the family and you work for the don. You’ll send your people to different districts to try to control all businesses in the area. You have more people in the district than other players? It’s your district then! Get free stuff each time any player pays a visit to one of the businesses in this area.
In this game, players will send their people to particular businesses – like stores or laundry to get goods. Players can do Shake business action to get money. To get guns. To get booze. Whatever the business has. Shake them, get stuff.
In this game, you need stuff in order to get jobs done. There is a lot of things to do. Kill other people. Buy other people. Get their stuff. Each time you get the job done, you get money. The money goes to don unless you are smart enough and hide it.
Take control over districts. Get stuff. Get jobs done. Get money. Hide money. Win.
Original post is from Board Games That Tell Stories blog on BGG: https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/69588/tell-me-about-house-you-built-not-tools-you-used
