Game log and explainers

[cottam]

Has anyone else found that the gam log in DJ is hard to understand. When trying to learn the game there are very few explainers on the board for what symbols mean and what they do.

Also when you look at all the previous moves there are just the symbols for what has happened without an explainer for what each symbol is and why certain things have happened.

I know you can go back and refer to the rules or watch more videos etc but for most games on BGA you can learn by just playing and seeing how the game plays. check the game log, hover over things and you can just work it out.

DJ is a pretty complex game so a shame it does not have these on BGA as it just makes learning the game more difficult which is a shame as I am sure it's a cracker when you fully understand the mechanics.

[JohnnyCyclops]

I found similar on my first play here. I just have to accept it’s an icon-dense game and there is near constant referral to the rule book to unpick what’s happening. Not helped by a few icons appearing similar to each other, at least to an untrained eye. Perseverance is required, a bit like with Darwin himself!

[Suoivax]

Somewhere up by the player info boxes, there is a big circled "?" button. It's a drop-down for ALL the icons in the game. It's not ideal for mobile, but all the info is there. And admittedly, it's a TON of icons

[Cyphen]

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I love icon-based "move history" in this implementation on BGA. I find it much faster and easier to parse than the long text-log in other games (and I love the elegance of the "player color along the left edge of the cell" depicting which player took the action).

I'm not saying that your opinion is wrong. Different people have different experiences, and I totally see where you're coming from.

Definitely use that Icon Dropdown, like JohnnyCyclops recommended above. Another tool that might help is "stepping" through the action history one-step-at-a-time. Seeing the actual actions happen in front of you really goes a long way towards teaching what icon means what!