Game Length? What's the ideal # of turns in a Game
Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 6:14 pm
I wanted to raise the issue of the ideal number of turns in a game... I find that I finish sit-down games of 5-7 turns, and campaigns of 24-40 turns seem reasonable commitments. I'm beginning to think that this is not a coincidence, and I wanted to fish for other people's opinions.
I love the game, but I have to admit I'm a little uncomfortable with the scenario menus and particularly the campaign scenarios -- I have a hard time imagining being able to complete a campaign at @108 turns.
I know for board-games one common design mistake is to build from the ground up -- "I want to have 20 minute turns for the game (or two week turns for the game) and the battle took 8 hours, so we'll have 8x3 = 24 turns. (people who've seen MMP/The Gamers TCS system may find this familiar.
One problem is that this approach generally over-states the number of turns, so the game is almost never played to a finish.
And, if you think about it, it's probably better to say "I think there were about X decision points in the course of a battle, so let me have a number of turns reflecting these decision points."
I love the game, but I have to admit I'm a little uncomfortable with the scenario menus and particularly the campaign scenarios -- I have a hard time imagining being able to complete a campaign at @108 turns.
I know for board-games one common design mistake is to build from the ground up -- "I want to have 20 minute turns for the game (or two week turns for the game) and the battle took 8 hours, so we'll have 8x3 = 24 turns. (people who've seen MMP/The Gamers TCS system may find this familiar.
One problem is that this approach generally over-states the number of turns, so the game is almost never played to a finish.
And, if you think about it, it's probably better to say "I think there were about X decision points in the course of a battle, so let me have a number of turns reflecting these decision points."