Decimations of information through design

YEAR 2, WEEK 4 - exploring rulebooks

Approach:

My hopes for learning some new concepts were cut short this week as I became violently ill the first half of it. But It gave me some time to do some re-reading of game rulebooks as well as their overall design to make some written inferences on their flow and structure. The first was Pandemic created by Matt Leacock and published by Z-man Games, and the second being Coup by Rikki Tahta and published by Mame Games. Even though I had previously looked these books over for help in crafting my own experimental games rulebook I found some new ideas in its construction.

Summary: While I personally feel the design is all over the place (broken grids sections of chunky text as well as unresolved empty space), it does have some very useful methodologies I wish to use later on. The use of icons and images for one, as opposed to just referencing items in the game shows them as visual assets. And when that asset is called on in the rules there is a little imagination. While that doesn’t seem like a lot I understand what the intent may be. Mostly that the person reading the book may be looking for key indicators rather than absorbing the whole book.next os the copywriting if the rules. While it does mostly focus on how the game operates it makes sure to draws special attention to in-game words like outbreak, and infection. This has brought up the idea that I may need to engage in critical reading the rulebooks of several games that I may wish to take inspiration from if I have a desire for the game is playable. With that in mind, I can practice on an older game I had developed over the summer with Scott.

Questions for the Week ahead:

Does the idea of informal learning draw me because I'm drawn to pedagogy and as a result could I analyzed perhaps the innate ability to teach and learn games? or is it the game's ability to exist beyond its current space.