Thoughts About Solitaire Games

["mschoessow" <mikeschoessow@...>]

I would like to see a LOT of entries in the Solitary Confinement 
design competition, and I strongly encourage all piecepack group 
members to try their hands at coming up with games, even if they've 
never attempted such a thing before. This is the perfect opportunity 
to try your hand at design, for those who haven't before, because no 
other people are needed for play-testing, so nobody has to see your 
game until it's fully dialed in. For this reason, the solitaire idea 
is great for this contest because (I hope) it will bring more 
aspiring but perhaps shy designers into the fold (I feel like an NPR 
person asking for pledges, sheesh, but anything for a good cause).

For me, the most important goal here is to maximize the quantity of 
good, new games added to the piecepack collection of game rule-sets. 
To help things along, I'm going to share some thoughts on the design 
of solitaire games for the piecepack. I don't claim that any of 
these ideas are greatly inspired or breakthrough ideas, but if they 
lead to even one more more game entered into the contest, then that 
will be a good thing.

I'm sure there will be a temptation with some authors to think about 
their favorite card solitaires as a source of inspiration, and this 
is fine. I've thought about that myself. All sources of inspiration 
are good. However, the ultimate goal here is, I feel, board game 
solitaires, not card solitaires played with tiles instead of cards. 

Here are somme ideas:

Come up with, or adapt, a good 2-player or multi-player game for 
solitaire play. This can involve either a scenario where you play 
for multiple player positions, or a scenario where the rules are 
crafted to auto-play the positions that you don't play for. An 
empire building theme (financial, military, political, etc.) might 
work well here. Racing games (in the generic game definition sense) 
are also naturals here.

Come up with a good theme first (perhaps something in which it's one 
person against the whatever), and then design a game mechanic that 
brings this to life. Perhaps a detective theme or a discovery theme 
or a super-hero theme would work well. I'm sure there are MANY 
others. Also, don't forget that the great majority of the existing 
great solitaire games are themeless, so a theme isn't really 
necessary if the game is good.

Look at some of the comercial games out there that can be played 
solitaire (just off-hand I can't think of many, but I know there are 
a fair number. Two I can think of are Silverton (a railroad game) 
and Ebb & Flow (a tides game)).

Consider dexterity games involving delicate constructions.

Consider games played against a timer.

Lastly, keep in mind that, since there are no other players 
involved, the game has to provide the fun-factor itself, since you 
can't count on player interactions to supply this crucial element to 
any successful game. My experience with designing solitaire games is 
that the biggest challenge is to insure that the game is not boring.

I will say a couple things about how to keep a solitaire game from 
being boring. The most important aspects, in my opinion, relate to 
choice and chance. There needs to be some chance (a solitaire game 
without chance is a game that can be SOLVED), and there need to be 
be choices that can be made intelligently. It's also important, I 
feel, that the player feels he or she is making progress during play 
(or at least knows what is going on in the case of a particularly 
unlucky run) RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING. In the absense of this, 
interest flags.  

I'm realy looking forward to some great piecepack solitaire games. 
My favorite so far is One Man, Thrag (all prospective entrants 
should check this one out), and it will be interesting to see 
whether anyone can better it.

Does anyone else have any ideas? I know that many readers of this 
group will not consider entering designs (and that's fine--each to 
his or her own, although I STRONGLY URGE ALL TO CONSIDER trying 
their hands---a solitaire contest is the perfect way to get your 
feet wet) but if you have thoughts that could be of use to others, 
please post them now. Lets hear from some new people!

-Mike Schoessow