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3/16/2022

I've discovered many things recently while trying to make a boardgame for the first time. Many of them are such fundamental design ideas that I won't list them or describe how I crawled my way through figuring them out while making terrible games. I just made a small tile laying/puzzle game and I realized there's something fun about making a decision, and having the outcome happen later.

In this game, you place tiles with a number and a suit on top of a small grid, and after each round they fall to the bottom of the grid, stacking on top of already existing tiles or combining with matching ones (in the same suit/run of numbers). Lining up the tiles on top of the grid first wasn't completely intentional, but for some reason it's much better than placing tiles directly onto the lower grid and matching them immediately. One part is because it causes a chain reaction. When multiple tiles drop at once, depending on the order you choose to match different rows, you can make a series of combinations. I also think it works better because there's a delay between when you place the tile initially and when it falls to the place where you want it to go. Many times I placed a tile wrong because I lost track of something when holding the multiple steps that would play out in my head. It's like a random element only imposed by your brain, and when your plan does work out it feels good because there was some uncertainty.

I think that committing to a decision and having to wait to see if the outcome works is the reason why the action in Castlevania feels good, and why pick-up and deliver games work, among other things.