The Learning Curve

This week I had the privilege of demo-ing my card game with a friend of mine I only see occassionally.  After the game I thanked him for testing for me and his response was this: "No problem.  I think I make a good tester because I am a slow learner."

I thought his comment was at once endearing (there was no hint of false modesty in his face or voice) and instructive to me.  He had fun playing... not merely because the game ran well but because, by his estimation, he understood the game well by the second or third turn.

I took this to be a good sign for a game that is meant to be light-weight and casual.  What I thought was even better was watching over the course of four games or so, he made consistently better plays.  His skill level increased as his experience increased.

There is, I think, a fairly low ceiling for how good you can get at the game.  It doesn't offer the strategic depth of something like Magic: the Gathering or interpersonal skills like Poker.  But there are choices and in most cases there are poor, fair, and good decisions that can be made.

I think that's the strength of my card game (I can't go into much by way of specifics if I hope to get published), but the gist is that the rules are minimal but comprehensive and the cards are fairly easily understood.  You can know everything there is to know in just a couple minutes.  But there is a "feel" to the game, a heirarchy of decision making that comes with experience.  Anyone who has played two games is unlikely to spend more than a minute on even the most labored turn, because cards are easily and situationally prioritized.

I've been told that my game lacks a "ground-breaking inventive mechanic."  I think that's true, but I'm going to continue to pursue publication for a while anyways because I believe it is worth it.  It's novel.  It's a joy to play.  It's a good product.

Hmm... I meant to spend more time talking about the role of "learning" a game than I actually did.  Perhaps I'll tie-in to this in a separate post later.