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THREAD: If you're interested in designing your own escape room board game, I'll be posting some of the tips and tricks I learned while making Conundrum: Candy Factory! (Many tips are also applicable for live escape rooms) #escaperoom #gamedesign
STRUCTURE:
1. Make your game unique. Develop your own system for a tabletop escape room to give your players the best experience. Take inspiration from the other games out there, but put your own spin on it.
1. Make your game unique. Develop your own system for a tabletop escape room to give your players the best experience. Take inspiration from the other games out there, but put your own spin on it.
2. Make puzzles that fit the system of your game. Conundrum: Candy Factory has no destructible parts, which limited the types of puzzles. No writing on cards or cutting gives you less options, but allows for more creativity!
3. Follow your own rules. If you've created a system, don't deviate from it. A "twist" at the end isn't worth player frustration.
4. Use a puzzle map to make sure your game flows properly. This is part of the puzzle map for Conundrum: Candy Factory.
5. A linear game (where one puzzle leads to another in a straight line) can be easier to design but not quite as interesting for larger groups or more advanced players.
6. Depending on your game system, make sure your players never need to guess what puzzle they are solving or lock they are unlocking – i.e. Don’t have multiple 4 digit locks if you don’t have a system for multiple guesses.
7. What is the feeling or emotion you want your game to convey? What do you want players to remember about the game? Create a system that makes it possible to evoke that feeling.
8. Know your audience. Are you designing for hobby gamers, families, people who have never done an escape room, escape room enthusiasts? Focus your game on that market. You can't please everyone!
PUZZLE DESIGN
9. Let your game tell a story. Who are the players and why should they care about the game? Give them a narrative to follow, not just puzzles to solve.
9. Let your game tell a story. Who are the players and why should they care about the game? Give them a narrative to follow, not just puzzles to solve.
10. Puzzles should make sense within the narrative of your game. Make your theme rich enough that you have plenty of choices for puzzle direction.
11. Be creative with your puzzles. Give players something they’ve never seen before.
12. Don’t just try to imitate puzzles you’ve seen in escape rooms. Working with cardboard and paper can allow you to do some innovative things that aren’t possible in a live action escape.
13. Make your puzzles easy. No, easier than that. No, even easier. Unless you're designing for puzzle enthusiasts, your puzzle designs are never as easy as you think they are.
14. Even if you're designing for enthusiasts, clue your puzzles well. Players should not need to guess at an answer. There should always be some sort of indication of how to solve a puzzle, even if it's subtle.
15. Make sure you have a variety of puzzles. Different people have different strengths and enjoy different challenges. And no one wants to complete the same puzzle over and over again!
16. Do not ever include purposeful red herrings to mislead players. They will be distracted by irrelevant details anyway, no matter how careful you are. Don’t waste their time.
17. Make sure your puzzles are fun! If players are more frustrated than excited to solve a puzzle, it needs to be reworked or totally removed.
And now on to #escaperoom #boardgame ART:
18. Art is an integral part of every puzzle if you're using cards. Even the prototype needs to have decent if not almost-complete art to really see if the puzzles work.
18. Art is an integral part of every puzzle if you're using cards. Even the prototype needs to have decent if not almost-complete art to really see if the puzzles work.
19. Art provides important clues to players that designers/artists need to be aware of. Subtle similarities between clues will help players make connections.
20. Art can distract. Players will consider *every detail* a clue, so be very deliberate about what you include in a picture.
21. Make sure you playtest every time the art changes. Adding a background to a card can make a puzzle much easier or much harder.
22. Do your own artwork if you can, at least for prototypes. If not, work closely with the artist and make sure they’re aware that there may be minor (or major) changes after playtests.
PLAYTESTING:
23. Playtest! Playtest often and with groups of different experience levels and ages. Players who have done 0 escape rooms, 1-2 escape rooms, 10+ escape rooms and 100+ escape rooms. This will also help determine whether you’ve reached your target audience.
23. Playtest! Playtest often and with groups of different experience levels and ages. Players who have done 0 escape rooms, 1-2 escape rooms, 10+ escape rooms and 100+ escape rooms. This will also help determine whether you’ve reached your target audience.
24. Also be sure to playtest your hint system. It's easier in the first few playtests to give the hints yourself when you don't know where players will get stuck, but you won't be there when strangers play!
25. Each group can only playtest once, so plan your tests accordingly. Find lots and lots and lots of strangers.
26. Save some of your knowledgable game designer friends or escape room enthusiasts for later in the testing process to catch any overlooked errors.
27. Playtest in stages if possible. First each puzzle individually, then each stage of the game, then the entire game at once. This will help identify problem puzzles before they are fully integrated into the game.
28. The majority of the general public has never done an escape room. Playtest lots with this audience, even if they aren't your target market. They will likely buy your game anyway and you still want them to find it fun.
29. Pay attention to what questions players are asking during playtests and write your hints accordingly. Or, let your players recommend hints that would have helped them.
30. Finally, make your game fun! Players should feel satisfaction in solving your puzzles. I recently read something that said "Escape room designers are designing a game they seek to lose." Proving your cleverness is less important than delivering an amazing experience.
