Playtesting
How to simplify game rules without losing depth
A rule raises questions, adds exceptions to remember and barely changes what players do. Should you explain it better or remove it? The Dwarves Life trap example helps separate complexity from depth.
Key idea
A rule should justify its learning cost through decisions, strategies or feelings that contribute to the game.
The depth of a game is not measured by its number of rules. It is measured by the decisions and possibilities those rules generate.
A playtesting example
In a prototype of Dwarves Life, traps were meant to turn opening chests into a risky decision: a player with low health would need to weigh whether opening one was worthwhile. The problem was that trap cards shared a deck with treasures obtained by defeating enemies and buying from the market. When they appeared outside a chest, they had to be removed, another card drawn and the deck rearranged.
Tests revealed two problems. The exception appeared more often than the situation the mechanic was designed for, and players kept opening chests without the risk changing their decision.
Complexity versus depth
One solution might have been to add a separate deck, an initial roll or extra conditions. But each would have increased the burden of learning and administration without resolving the main issue: the mechanic was not producing tension or different choices.
A rule earns its place when it opens up strategies, changes priorities or creates an intended feeling. If it requires players to remember exceptions and barely changes their behaviour, it is adding complexity without depth.
Removing is also designing
The traps were removed and the system continued to work without players missing them. This does not make removal the universal answer. Sometimes a rule needs a better presentation, a different context or different values. But before adding layers, it helps to ask: which specific decision does this rule change? If the answer is still unclear after testing, simplifying may improve the game more than any new exception.
Apply it to your game
- Choose a rule players forget and write down the decision it should change. If you cannot make that specific, review its purpose first.
- Observe when it appears in a session and whether it actually changes choices. Also note the exceptions and bookkeeping it requires.
- Compare a version with the rule and one without it, keeping everything else stable. If it adds value, test a different presentation; if not, consider simplifying.
Before following a suggestion to remove a rule, investigate the problem behind the feedback. When the rule does offer meaningful decisions, you may need to change how you teach it.