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Ark Nova Design Teardown #1: Introduction
36 Plays7 days ago
Today on We Got Played, Isaac introduces you to a new series: The Ark Nova Design Teardown! In this lengthy series, Isaac goes through each element of Ark Nova's design to gain some insight into how games are designed, and what makes those designs successful.
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Transcript
Tyler Cowen and the 10,000-Hour Rule
00:00:15
Speaker
For a long time, I've enjoyed reading and listening to the George Mason University economist, Tyler Cowen, over at Marginal Revolution. A few years ago, he reflected on the 10,000 hour rule, which was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers, the Story of Success.
Practicing in Non-Sports Professions
00:00:32
Speaker
Cowen posited the question of what does practice look like in non-sports disciplines? If we're trying to rack up 10,000 hours and get really good at something that's not a sport,
00:00:45
Speaker
what would we do? What does it look like for a CEO to practice or an economist? And I thought to myself, well, how about a game designer? There is no better way to practice at designing games other than designing games.
00:01:00
Speaker
There are many opportunities to do so if you're looking for a structured way to practice designing games. There are contests, the Ion Game Design Competition, the Cardboard Edison Competition.
00:01:12
Speaker
There are unpublished game festivals, like the Boston Fig, the Festival of Indie Games. You could even use a prompt engine, like the deck of cards featuring the game mechanisms from my book, The Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design.
00:01:25
Speaker
But I've found that this process is incomplete, because ironically, as a designer, you don't spend enough time playing
The Role of Playing in Game Design
00:01:34
Speaker
games. I mean, sure, you play your own game.
00:01:37
Speaker
But you typically play it most when it's in its most broken and unfinished state, right? The time when it's hardest to find other people who are willing to play it. But really, you know, you play a lot of your games early.
00:01:50
Speaker
And as the game is rounding into shape, at least I find that I'm typically not playing during those playtesting sessions. I'm watching others play. What to do.
00:02:03
Speaker
So a few years back, I decided that I would choose a game to play and really try to get good at it. I see this as a kind of practice, not for the game or for playing games, but for game design.
Analyzing Games for Better Design
00:02:16
Speaker
Because to get really good, i mean really good, you have to deeply understand the game at a mechanical level. And that kind of thinking and analysis translates pretty directly into designing better games.
00:02:31
Speaker
So sure, you could practice playing a game by playing it lots of times. But when you're practicing it in the way that I'm talking about, you're not just playing, you're analyzing.
00:02:42
Speaker
you're playing and then you're reflecting on what happened in the game and what you might have done differently. um I learned this from watching a stream of Through the Ages Organized Play, which is the first game that I chose for this level of immersion and commitment. um And i was watching a streamer and he actually had brought on a guest streamer. So I apologize. i will try and find the links for the show notes so that you all can can enjoy this as well. But he ah had this other streamer, a much less frequent streamer, but who nonetheless, I think, had won the um the season of Through the Ages competition that year. And that streamer talked about how
00:03:28
Speaker
he would play async and he would look at his position and look at his opponent's position, make his move, and then actually write down what he thought his opponent was going to do.
00:03:41
Speaker
And then when his opponent took his turn, he would look at the notes and look at what his opponent did to see if his opponent did what he had predicted or if his opponent had done something else and tried to understand why.
Understanding Opponent Moves in Games
00:03:53
Speaker
So this is playing a game at a very different level of commitment and a very different style of play. And it really is most suitable for playing async or at the very least on on BGA. i mean, certainly you can't you can't do that kind of write and analyze unless you're playing async. But even just playing in this more methodical and thoughtful way probably is best on something like Board Game Arena so you don't drive your friends crazy.
00:04:23
Speaker
But in any case, um You know, you might have heard of frequent stories of me playing Through the Ages games simultaneously on my phone while also teaching Uli Bleneman to play and playing my own position while Ben and Steve were also there playing. And so, you know, I played a lot of Through the Ages in trying to be a better game designer.
00:04:44
Speaker
And even though I played a lot of Through the Ages, I didn't really break into the top level of Through the Ages play online. I never got into the silver gold levels through CGE's amazing Through the Ages app, and I strongly recommend playing there if that's the game
Introduction to Ark Nova
00:05:00
Speaker
that you choose. But nevertheless, I learned a lot, and I decided to move on to a new game, which is Ark Nova.
00:05:08
Speaker
Now, this series is going to be about Ark Nova. And knowing that I intended to do this Ark Nova teardown series, I set a goal for myself that I would not begin to release content about Ark Nova until I had reached the elite level of Ark Nova play on Board Game Arena in Arena mode.
00:05:28
Speaker
The Elite League is home to about the top 2,000 players. And having reached that threshold, I can at least feel confident that I have a good understanding of the game and I can draw useful insights from it.
00:05:41
Speaker
I am far from a world-class Ark Nova player, and I don't mean to suggest that, you know... everything I say is coming from that sort of grandmaster level of play. But at this point, I do feel confident, and I feel like what I have to share has validity. And I hope that you'll learn something from it. And remember that we're trying to learn about game design more than about game play.
00:06:09
Speaker
So we're going to be diving into specific topics. and Here's how it's going to go. Each show, I'm going to discuss some aspect of Ark Nova. For example, the next show will be about the victory point system.
00:06:22
Speaker
I'll briefly explain how the mechanism works, its role in the game, how it impacts on player interaction and strategy, and so forth. One topic I'll frequently come back to is how the mechanism is experienced by new players, on the one hand, versus experienced players.
Designing Heavy Games for All Skill Levels
00:06:39
Speaker
I have this broader thesis that a smash hit heavier game, something like Ark Nova or Terraforming Mars Before It or or maybe SETI since, a heavier game like that needs to be great for new players, but it needs depth and replayability for experienced players.
00:06:59
Speaker
The thing is that that game itself, the experience of the game, the kinds of choices you make in the game, the dynamics of the game, they really can change pretty dramatically as you go from novice to expert play. And I don't want to belabor this point here, but imagine chess. I mean, if you watch...
00:07:17
Speaker
ah players playing chess who have not played many times before, their games don't really make a lot of sense. They're moving pieces around, they're observing the rules of chess, but they don't quite know how to use pieces in combination or how to create um a formation, how to use pawn structure. They're missing out on most of the game.
00:07:38
Speaker
when you watch experienced players, you see a game unfold in a very different way. And when you watch the most advanced players, if you haven't done the study, you might not even understand why they're making the moves that they make.
00:07:51
Speaker
So this... ability for a game to be a chameleon and play interestingly and compellingly for players at different skill levels is I think, a key ingredient in making a hit game, a heavier hit game. So I really want to unpack that as we go, because ultimately that's kind of our goal, right? As someone trying to design games, I'm trying to learn what are the patterns that make for great games that will stretch me, that will go beyond make compelling mechanisms and will kind of go beyond the basics. there's There's a lot of great game design content for the 100 level.
00:08:31
Speaker
I'm hoping this is more like the 300 level. I'm hoping that this is for really anyone interested in design, but that it really has something to say to experienced designers.
Playing Ark Nova on Board Game Arena
00:08:41
Speaker
So if that's you or if you're interested in experience design, i hope you'll stick around.
00:08:46
Speaker
These shows are going to go out on the main feed of We Got Played, and so I'll keep them to a similar length. This intro is a little shorter, but generally speaking, we're aiming for 20 to 30 minutes.
00:08:58
Speaker
And they're going to be single voice recordings. It's it's just me. Maybe if this takes off, I do have some ideas for bringing on guests in the future. So if there's interest, ah please let me know and and we'll work on that. But I think it's going to be, for the most part, single voice recordings.
00:09:17
Speaker
That's going to do it for this time. If you'd like to play some Ark Nova with me, I'm Kind Fortress over at Board Game Arena. Feel free to invite me. My requests, if you invite me to play, is only two and three player games, please. i don't really play four player games.
00:09:33
Speaker
and please async games and longer amounts of time. I'm happy to play with lots of folks, but I'll need a little bit more time. If you actually want to play like one-on-one with me in a ah live game, we can certainly do that as well. Just, you know, friend me and message me and we can we can make that happen. And, you know, I recommend if you're interested in this, join the arena and play an arena play. It's all one-on-one this season it's all marine worlds so it's with the expansion and i'll certainly be covering a lot of expansion material in in the next few sessions but i think you'll learn a lot and you'll get a chance to play a lot and you know once you really get in the groove it doesn't take more than 40 45 minutes to play a game of arcanova which is crazy
00:10:18
Speaker
for such a heavy game that on the table can easily take two and a half three hours. But you can knock them out in 45, even in an hour, right? An hour to play a heavy game like that, I think, is well worth it. So I hope you'll give it a try. i think it will add a lot of richness to what we're discussing, because I'm i'm not going to do deep dives into rules. I'm not going explain how everything works, except briefly. I'm assuming that you as the audience are interested in Ark Nova and in game design enough that you've played the game at least once, if not several times, and are familiar with the rules. So maybe this is a little homework for you. Go sign up for BGA. Go play Ark Nova. I know it's a premium game. So again, if you need somebody to host you, let me know. I'll be happy to. I guess that's about it. Thanks for listening.
00:11:00
Speaker
And I hope you'll join me next time for a deeper dive into Ark Nova scoring. I'm Isaac Shalev, and thank you.
Listener Engagement and Feedback
00:11:09
Speaker
Do you have any questions or comments about this episode? Do you know something that we didn't say or know that something we said is false? Do you have a fun fact that you desperately want to share but can't find a way to bring it up in conversation naturally?
00:11:26
Speaker
Send it to us at feedback at wegotplayed.games. That's feedback at wegotplayed.games. Thank you for listening.