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Finding Ingenuity in Redesign

© Joe Jeskiewicz

The intro to this probably sounds like a Zen mantra. Toss in a flower and an easterly wind and it could be. Mountains are Mountains and water is water, they might say and I say that if you start to redesign either one of them you will end up with something totally different.

The same thing holds true for games and game components. Some of the most basic game components are Cards, Dice, Boards, Pegs, Balls, and a few others. These components make up the physical aspect of the game and are prime targets for redesign by graphic designers, computer programmers, and also by the Game designers themselves.

Let's look at the word "WOOD" for a second. Seems like an odd thing to look at but if any of you have ever leafed through puzzle magazines you might recognize a game called Word Ladder. It might have other names but the concept is this. Subtly change WOOD into another word that is given to us. How might we change "WOOD" into another word? One letter at a time. :: WOOD, WORD, WORK, FORK, FORM, DORM, DOOM, LOOM, LOOK, BOOK.

Perhaps there is a shorter way to get from WOOD to BOOK but we aren't interested in that right now. We are interested in the process. You are probably wondering what this has to do with games. Well in the process of redesigning a game, making subtle changes one at a time will eventually produce an entirely different game.

Examine a deck of cards. What kind of attributes might you change about a deck of cards? Color, Symbols, Suits, Number of Suits, Number of Cards, Numbers ON Cards. These kinds of things can help you arrive at a different kind of game. It might take you into the realm of CCGs, or it might take you into an entirely different aspect of gaming.

For example. Let's suppose that we wish to have 7 Suits of Cards, in a 35 Card Deck. That is 5 Cards to each Suit. How might this kind of a deck be used for, Solitaire? Poker? Euchre? Suppose that your cards each only had a single shape on them, you might eventually arrive at a game called "SET".

Look at Dice. The most common die is a 6 sided die. But RPG's have introduced other shapes such as 8 sided, 10 sided, even 20 sided die. What kind of game might be played with just 3 twenty sided dice? What if you add an eight sided die in with that? Game Boards can come under the same kind of scrutinization. Traditional games such as Sorry, or Monopoly, have a generally square playing board. What might happen if you introduce a maze to that board or perhaps an element of 3 Dimensional Choice?

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