Back to the basics: Jenga
When I was TAing for a game design course I had to play a lot of student-made games. One thing that was easy to notice was that people (and probably also myself when I took the class) tend patch their games with more and more rules and restrictions in the hope of making it fun. Sometimes it worked but most of the times it was more like “polishing a turd”. I personally preferred games that had one core mechanic that was the design pillar for the game with the rest of the features branching out of it. It doesn’t have to mean more rules. There are many aspects of the game that can be addressed in order to make it fun.
So let’s go back to the basics — Jenga. Build a tower, take pieces out of the tower and place them on top while trying to keep the tower balanced.
Core conflict
Taking the tower apart VS. keeping the tower standing. Like all good stories, the conflict is the guideline for the rest of the plot.
Rising difficulty
When all of the blocks are up for grabs the player can choose if to go for the easy ones (loose center blocks) or the harder ones (jammed in tight side blocks). Due to the nature of the game, the more you progress the number of “easy” options go down, the need to balance the tower goes up, and the pace of the game is slowed down as players take more time to plan their actions. The tension is rising.
Rising Stakes
The more time the players spend playing the game the more invested they get. “I’ve worked so hard on this it would suck to see it fall”. In addition to the social pressure of being the one to blame for the tower toppling. As the tower grows higher the tension rises.
Visible representation of progress
A sense of achievement is a way to motivate players to keep going. As the player takes the tower apart they are also building it. The hight of the tower is a good way to measure how long have they been playing without fail. How long they lasted without making a mistake.
Social/Competitive
The game is a collaborative and competitive at the same time. On the one hand, the players are building one tower together. They got this far because they had the same common goal. On the other hand, as mentioned — no one wants to be the one who brings it down.
Juiciness
Why make the blocks from that material? Because they have a nice weight, they feel good to hold and — they make a really loud bang when the tower collapses. It makes the fall more meaningful, it cannot be ignored or missed. If players played the game before they know it’s not a pleasant sound so the want to avoid it is even stronger.
All of these address different aspects of the game in order to make it fun while the rules themselves of what each player can do in her/his turn are super simple: take a block, put it at the top, keep the tower standing.
They are all a derivative of the main conflict: taking the tower apart VS. keeping the tower standing. How can players ease into this game? When the tower is wholesome blocks are loose. What will keep the players engaged? The sense of achievement from keeping the tower up and the visual representation of their progress. Who is it for? Friends and family, playing together or competitively. What makes it feel meaningful? A loud bang.
