The Board Game Design Lab How to Design an Engine Building Game with Elizabeth Hargrave
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Feb 19, 2024 Elizabeth Hargrave shares insights on designing engine-building games like Wingspan, discussing strategy diversity, balancing winning strategies, creating engaging endings, and maintaining game balance. Exploring the evolution of engine-building games, she highlights the satisfaction of evolving game engines and the importance of crafting engaging conclusions to keep players interested. Strategies, challenges, and tactics in engine building games like Splendor and Terraforming Mars are also discussed, emphasizing the delicate balance required for a cohesive gameplay experience.
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Wingspan's Evolution Tale
- Elizabeth Hargrave started designing Wingspan from a different concept focused on resources as food and animals as built things.
- The game evolved into an engine builder centered entirely on birds with layered mechanics representing habitats and actions.
Core Idea of Engine Building
- Engine building games involve acquiring or building things that improve core game actions over time.
- This mechanism creates powerful turns later in the game by combining previously acquired elements.
Why Engine Builders Attract Players
- Engine building games attract players by offering interesting early versus late game choices and asymmetrical strategies.
- They also appeal through puzzle-like combination-building to outperform opponents.