- Fundane: hack your own game with everyday life
- Playtesting your prototype
Click the image above to reveal slides & notes for today
A rulebook is a fundamental yet often neglected part of a game. What's the point in designing something awesome if nobody can understand the rules well enough to play it?
When you explain the game to playtesters, pay attention to what they misunderstand, and to what they ask repeatedly while playing. Those clarifications will need to be in the rulebook!
Here's a checklist of what your rulebook may contain (feel free to experiment with this template):
- Introduction: what is this game about and how do you win
- Game components
- Setup: how to prepare the game
- Gameplay: what happens each turn
- End game: win and defeat conditions
- Examples of play
Draft your rulebook using this template.
Next week you'll need it for blind playtesting.
You can find useful advice on how to write rulebooks here and here.
Here is the rulebook for my game Beesness (work-in-progress). What do you think?