#68: Transparency

Soren joins Jon and Dirk to discuss transparency: what a game does and does not reveal to players. The discussion ranges from unpredictability in deckbuilders like ‘Dominion’ and ‘Ascension’, to fog of war in ‘Civilization’, ‘At the Gates’ and ‘War Stories’, to the need to memorize past actions in games like ‘El Grande’. They wrap up with a lengthy discussion about the transparency problems Dirk and Soren have with the baseball sim ‘Out of the Park’ and why Jon still loves it all the same.---------------------------Contact InformationJon Shafer - @JonShaferDesign, www.JonShaferOnDesign.com, [email protected] Knemeyer - @DKnemeyer, www.artana.com, [email protected] Johnson - @SorenJohnson, www.Designer-Notes.com, www.MohawkGames.com---------------------------Episode Outline0:00:24 - What IS Transparency?0:13:50 - Deckbuilders0:18:02 - Fog of War0:26:12 - Dirk’s Games0:31:15 - Replayability0:38:18 - Memory0:45:35 - The Designer’s Preference0:50:04 - Out of the Park Baseball1:12:00 - Designing Our Baseball Sim