Jokerball was my first attempt at designing a game with broad appeal. Normally I just try to discover an interesting mechanism that works as a game (and is simple, unique, naturally finite, decisive, etc.). It's more science than art. My only concern with gameplay is that it be robust. Of course I don't mind if it turns out to have quality gameplay, but that was never the objective before now.
For Jokerball, I included what I thought would be engaging elements: dice, opposing armies, relatable theme (soccer), whimsical, vaguely descriptive name (Jokerball), and a decent skill to luck ratio.
I'm not much of a player. Lately I'm only playing four games of my own design (Jokerball, Blast Radius, Herd, and Oust). I never play games not of my own design, except occasionally Backgammon. So my assumptions about engaging elements are probably a little naive. But the following items were my focus in designing Jokerball.
1. Dice. First and foremost, players love random elements. Especially cards (for hidden information) and dice (for perfect information).
2. Familiar initial setup. Armies lined up on opposite sides of the board is familiar from Chess and Checkers. This puts players at ease. "Aha !! This looks exactly like Checkers. I got this." This setup creates anticipation of marching into battle.
3. Relatable theme - in this case, soccer. Lots of people love soccer. Even if they don't love soccer, they understand it and can easily relate to it. You shoot the ball through the enemy goal. Boom. "I got this."
4. Decent skill to luck ratio. It's hard to determine this ratio with any precision at this early stage. How much skill I've developed with my limited talent is undoubtedly way short of how much potential skill there actually is. Then there's the separate question of how important skill is compared to luck. But I think Jokerball substantially improves on the skill to luck ratio of Herd, my most popular game before I introduced Jokerball.
5. Appealing name. "Jokerball." Has "ball," like football and basketball. Must be a fun competition. Has "joker" like the wild card. Intriguing. "Jokerball" is not weird or meaningless, like most indie abstract game names. It sounds familiar, easy, and potentially fun. A good name is the most critical element in this list for that initial, one second, attention grab window. No second chances for first impressions.
6. No fancy artwork. It draws potential players' attention away from the game and onto something totally irrelevant. "Wow, this is amazing and impressive art. I'm spellbound. But now I forgot what I was doing. I'm hungry. Bye." Skip the fancy, irrelevant artwork. It does more harm than good. Instead, just get the name across, plainly.
...........
There has been tremendous enthusuasm about Jokerball so far - at least relative to my other online games. Jokerball is currently the most popular indie abstract on BGA (that I know of, and I follow indie abstracts closely). I would like to thank the players who are supporting the game.
Jokerball will be a one-off. I wouldn't know what else to do in that direction. That was all I had. Now I'm going back to just inventing interesting mechanisms. And Jokerball is an interesting mechanism (and finite, etc.). I didn't throw out that requirement. But going forward, I won't concern myself with broad appeal in game design. It seems a little graspy, and is not really my thing. But I'm supremely satisfied with Jokerball.
For Jokerball, I included what I thought would be engaging elements: dice, opposing armies, relatable theme (soccer), whimsical, vaguely descriptive name (Jokerball), and a decent skill to luck ratio.
I'm not much of a player. Lately I'm only playing four games of my own design (Jokerball, Blast Radius, Herd, and Oust). I never play games not of my own design, except occasionally Backgammon. So my assumptions about engaging elements are probably a little naive. But the following items were my focus in designing Jokerball.
1. Dice. First and foremost, players love random elements. Especially cards (for hidden information) and dice (for perfect information).
2. Familiar initial setup. Armies lined up on opposite sides of the board is familiar from Chess and Checkers. This puts players at ease. "Aha !! This looks exactly like Checkers. I got this." This setup creates anticipation of marching into battle.
3. Relatable theme - in this case, soccer. Lots of people love soccer. Even if they don't love soccer, they understand it and can easily relate to it. You shoot the ball through the enemy goal. Boom. "I got this."
4. Decent skill to luck ratio. It's hard to determine this ratio with any precision at this early stage. How much skill I've developed with my limited talent is undoubtedly way short of how much potential skill there actually is. Then there's the separate question of how important skill is compared to luck. But I think Jokerball substantially improves on the skill to luck ratio of Herd, my most popular game before I introduced Jokerball.
5. Appealing name. "Jokerball." Has "ball," like football and basketball. Must be a fun competition. Has "joker" like the wild card. Intriguing. "Jokerball" is not weird or meaningless, like most indie abstract game names. It sounds familiar, easy, and potentially fun. A good name is the most critical element in this list for that initial, one second, attention grab window. No second chances for first impressions.
6. No fancy artwork. It draws potential players' attention away from the game and onto something totally irrelevant. "Wow, this is amazing and impressive art. I'm spellbound. But now I forgot what I was doing. I'm hungry. Bye." Skip the fancy, irrelevant artwork. It does more harm than good. Instead, just get the name across, plainly.
...........
There has been tremendous enthusuasm about Jokerball so far - at least relative to my other online games. Jokerball is currently the most popular indie abstract on BGA (that I know of, and I follow indie abstracts closely). I would like to thank the players who are supporting the game.
Jokerball will be a one-off. I wouldn't know what else to do in that direction. That was all I had. Now I'm going back to just inventing interesting mechanisms. And Jokerball is an interesting mechanism (and finite, etc.). I didn't throw out that requirement. But going forward, I won't concern myself with broad appeal in game design. It seems a little graspy, and is not really my thing. But I'm supremely satisfied with Jokerball.
