What is a Battle Game
- -From Sir Gorin's Book of War
We’ve all participated in really bad battle games. Likewise, I’m sure that we’ve all participated in games that can only be described as “Epic”. Those games that create memories that are shared around an event campfire for years to come. So what makes these games so terrible or so amazing?
To start, let’s take a look at the elements that make up a battle game, as well as variables that can be used to create games that are different, exciting, and most of all, inclusive!
A battle game is a lot of things to a lot of people. But at it’s very basic it is a competitive struggle between two or more groups. While this may seem obvious and basic, it is the canvas upon which you will lay a variety of other elements to create your game.
From this very basic point, you have two questions to answer:
- Who is struggling?
- How will they struggle?
The “Who” is pretty easy to work out. Generally the answer to this is “Two or more teams teams of players”. However, it can be defined in narrower terms as well such as “Nobility and Peasants” or “Players and Monsters” etc.
The “how” is where you will find your opportunity to really make things interesting. This is the part of the battle game where you get to define the parameters of the struggle.
- -Next Chapter: What Makes a Game Fun
