Game Flow

Hello it has been a while. After looking back on some of my posts over the years I have gotten a bit lazy over the
last few years writing short spur of the moment pieces rather than the thought out pieces of my earlier
commenting.  So as I have some more time on my hands due to this infernal heat I have decided to try and write
some longer pieces.  Here is my first:

     Gather round my fellow gamers and let me have some words about game flow.  In the Oxford English dictionary
one of the definitions of flow is to "move easily".  My definition of "Game flow" as it pertains to board
games is "how easy players move through a game while playing it" or in other words how well a game engages the
players.  Often the smoother the flow the better the game is perceived by the game players.  Engaging gamers
with the game is one of the hardest things a game designer has to due to make his game successful.  A good game
designer accomplishes this by writing rules which are clear, logically organized and as a whole
communicate his/her ideas to the gamer.  Simplicity, good game ergonomics (piece/board colors, design,
size etc.) and minimizing flow breaks such as inte
 r game scorings and excessive downtime between player or game turns also helps.  The best indicator in my
mind of how good a game flows is at the end of the game when people have not noticed how much time has passed
(gamers engaged) or the desire among the gamers to play the game again.  I have experienced good game flow
with games like Acquire, Strozzi and more recently 7 wonders.  A game with poor game flow would be something
like Azteca ( a Tilsit game) or to a lesser degree a game like the Village which has good flow for most of the
game then at then end of each turn a somewhat complicated scoring round which brings down the game play.

  Game flow can be broken by things like poor rule descriptions, too many/too few turn phases, excessive
numbers of decisions (results in downtime) or intermediate scoring rounds.  As long as these breaks are
minimized and the game flow is quickly established people will tend to forgive these breaks but once they
become intrusive the flow breaks down and the gamer experience is reduced.  So overall in my opinion good
game flow is important in game design and the better the flow the better the game will be perceived by board
game players.

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