Categories and Classifications

A very common and expected next step in a market analysis is to classify and categorize the data to make comparisons.

At a Glance

Breaking down the release data by game category seems like a relatively simple process, but it gets sticky quickly.

Introduction

For the record, my complete title for this game mechanic to makeover is “Dice in a Cup,” but for brevity sake, I will often just call it “n Dice” where n is the number of dice rolled. The working title of the game that tests the mechanics in this makeover is called “Challenge Dice.”

This is the first in the Mechanics Makeover series.

From this page you can learn about the original mechanic, read about the background to some of my decisions and methods, or jump right into the makeover.

There will be images displayed throughout the series. You can see the all of the images used in the makeover in the Challenge Dice Gallery.

I love a game with theme, but a theme without a mechanic is a story, not a game. I also love logic problems, but a logic problem without a mechanic is a puzzle. A game is many things, but ultimately what makes it a game is its mechanic(s) and what makes a good game is good mechanics. (OK. Maybe overstated, but this is the Mechanics section, right!?)

Similar to a Game Makeover, a Mechanics Makeover takes an existing mechanic and explores variations to the mechanic that may provide insight into a new or modified use of it. Instead of dissecting a game to find out how it works and improving on it, I will analyze a (likely) well-known mechanic and look for ways to modify and hopefully improve upon it then suggest some specific uses for it in its new form.

Objective

Redesign a traditional or well-known mechanic to provoke ideas for new variations and uses. In this process I expect to post: