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Card and Board Games
Todd Kerpelman
Creative Director, EA/Pogo
Card n’ Board Games – The Unsung Heroes!
• If you look at Pogo's 20 most popular games…– Six are Card and Board Games– Eight if you include the Bingo games– Twelve if you include Solitaire games
• More than any other category
• Poppit!• First Class Solitaire• Tri-Peaks Solitaire• Word Whomp• Scrabble• Mahjong Safari• World Class Solitaire• Mahjong Garden• Monopoly• Canasta• Yahtzee• Everyone Wins Bingo
• Hog Heaven Slots• Bingo Luau• Spades• Lottso!• Jungle Gin• FreeCell• Sweet Tooth 2• Jigsaw Treasure Hunter
• Poppit!• First Class Solitaire• Tri-Peaks Solitaire• Word Whomp• Scrabble• Mahjong Safari• World Class Solitaire• Mahjong Garden• Monopoly• Canasta• Yahtzee• Everyone Wins Bingo
• Hog Heaven Slots• Bingo Luau• Spades• Lottso!• Jungle Gin• FreeCell• Sweet Tooth 2• Jigsaw Treasure Hunter
• Poppit!• First Class Solitaire• Tri-Peaks Solitaire• Word Whomp• Scrabble• Mahjong Safari• World Class Solitaire• Mahjong Garden• Monopoly• Canasta• Yahtzee• Everyone Wins Bingo
• Hog Heaven Slots• Bingo Luau• Spades• Lottso!• Jungle Gin• FreeCell• Sweet Tooth 2• Jigsaw Treasure Hunter
• Poppit!• First Class Solitaire• Tri-Peaks Solitaire• Word Whomp• Scrabble• Mahjong Safari• World Class Solitaire• Mahjong Garden• Monopoly• Canasta• Yahtzee• Everyone Wins Bingo
• Hog Heaven Slots• Bingo Luau• Spades• Lottso!• Jungle Gin• FreeCell• Sweet Tooth 2• Jigsaw Treasure Hunter
The Golden Rule
• The #1 rule for creating Card and Board Games is…
Give players what they expect
Making a chess game? Make the bishops move diagonally
Wait a Sec…
• “I paid $799 to hear that bishops should move diagonally?”– No refunds.
• You need somebody to tell you this
Hey, I need three bullet points to show what’s great
about your new chess game.
Pressure
• Your peers• You• Marketing folks
I gotta show the world I’m an innovative game
designer!
Every game has diagonal-moving bishops. How can we turn this design on its
head?
OMG! EA Hates Originality! LOLZ!!
Different Value Sets
Orig
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ity Fun
Not
look
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nt o
f ot
her
peop
le
Our Players
Orig
inal
ity
Us
What You Imagine
Holy cow! Non-diagonal bishops!
What a unique and original game concept!
I’m going to give the developer all this extra
Google stock I have lying around!
What You Really Get
Okay, I’m going to move this bishop
diagonally…
I feel stupid and embarrassed.This game sucks!Error. Illegal
move. Go back and play the tutorial.
Don’t Forget the AI
• Again, maybe something we don’t value– We prefer the craftiness of a real life opponent
• But they offer a lot to a new player– They can learn to play in a judgment-free environment– The empty dance floor problem– The sore loser problem
Okay, So How Do I Stand Out?
• So if the big rule is to make the game people are expecting…
• …how do you stand out among the 30 other chess games where bishops move diagonally?
What Would Apple Do?
• New features of the original iPod…– It came with a solitaire game– (This space intentionally left blank.)
• Traditional games are, by nature, very complicated– Pogo’s “Three bullet points rule”– Good luck applying that to Monopoly
• So spend time on interface work– This is work you should be doing anyway
• But might not be because you’re too focused on game design
Take Advantage of Your Platform
• Badge, ranks, and tokens were Pogo’s Blue Ocean – For a while, anyway
• Facebook games have defeated the “Internet Dickwad” problem!
Why Scramble (Boggle) Works…
• It’s tough to make an online Boggle game– So easy to cheat
• But who would cheat with their friends?– Or who wants to let their friends know they’re a cheater?
• So Scramble actually works!
Facebook as a Platform
• Yes, Facebook has high score lists and viral features…
• …but it’s also got an honor system.• Make games you couldn’t do without it!
– Balderdash– Scattergories– Wise and Otherwise– Trivia
Facebook as a Platform, cont’d
– And maybe one day, a Pictionary game where people don’t just spell out the freakin’ words.• Maybe that’s just a pipe dream
