Our goal at
HoopCAT Games is to create fun family games – games that parents and children
can enjoy together. So we have had to give some thought to what characteristics
are important to a good family game. There
are lots of good games out there, yet only some of those good games work well
with a family. So what qualifies a good game to also be a good family game? Here is our list: Length, Complexity, and
Balance.
Length –Family games must consider how much
time the average family with children (and school, youth soccer, baseball, and
who knows what else) has in their schedule for a family game. Also, what is the attention span of that family’s
children? There can be such a thing as too long. Children will most likely tire
of a too-long game before the parents do.
While our HoopCAT family (2 sons, ages 11 & 15) can stick with an
engaging game for as long as 90-120 minutes, our family schedule often doesn’t
permit more than 60 minutes for a game.
When we design family games, we aim for 30-60 minutes to fit the busy family.
Complexity - As a teen, I loved Avalon Hill
games, and would study the lengthy rule books even between games. While a hardcore gamer may enjoy repeated
readings of a 10 or 20 page rulebook, it is a bad idea for a family game. For a family game, the rules must be easily grasped,
even by a child. We believe that at least one player reading the rule book once
before the first play should be mandatory for any new game. However, our rule
of thumb for family games is that you should almost never need to refer back to
the rule book after the 3rd play. If a family has to frequently keep going back
to the rule book even after the first few plays, that game might not be a good
family game.
The topic of
math also needs mention under complexity. Light math has a place in family
games. Games can be a great way for children to practice basic addition or even multiplication
facts while having fun. However, we feel that calculator math has no place in a
family game. I have played games where you had to add 32+40+12, divide the sum
by 4, then four separate further
calculations to divide that quotient by 7, 12, 6,and 8, dropping the remainder
and rounding down. Some can keep that straight in their head, others
cannot. And while hardcore gamers may
enjoy that kind of math as part of their gaming experience, excessively complex math calculations are not
a good fit for a fun family game.
Balance – For a family game, this can be one
of the toughest design challenges. When
designing adult games, a designer can make some presumption of equal ability. That
same presumption does not hold when designing a game that an 8 year old will
play with a 13 year old. A younger brother
that has no hope of ever beating their older sister may quickly lose interest
in that game. The most common solution
to artificially balance the differences in player skill is to add some element
of randomness (often through either dice or cards). This randomness will sometimes work to hinder
a more-skilled player and help a less-skilled player. Yet, as designers, we still
want the game to reward good player decisions and have consequences for bad
player decisions. So the family game
has to strike the right balance in how much the random effects the gameplay - too
little, and lesser-skilled players will feel it is impossible for them to win,
but too much, and skilled players will feel they have been cheated.
A game must
have the right length, complexity level, and balance to qualify as a good
family game.
There is one
more important element–fun. But how
to make a family game “fun” is a much
harder and far less tangible topic.
The HoopCAT family loves family game
time! We continue to enjoy our own family games after many plays (Fill The Barn, AtataT, and some new prototype ideas we play
test as a family to find the winners). Other family games that we find ourselves often
playing as of late include Apples to
Apples, Forbidden Island, Qwirkle, and Ticket to Ride.
