I recently set myself the challenge of designing a game that could be taught entirely with language independent rules. I dived in with overconfidence, thinking I’d be done by lunchtime.
I settled on the game quickly – a simple roll & write. The game should be able to be played by a 5 year old, though I would expect an adult to learn the rules and teach the game. (Creating language independent rules for a self-teaching 5-year old is a step too far for my current skill level!)
The challenge was creating the rules to make them as universally understandable as possible. There are icons that seasoned board gamers understand as they frequently appear on cards or tiles, but I wanted to make the rules more mass-market. How would an adult who doesn’t play board games for fun decipher these icons?
For example, gamers are used to seeing the lightning icon to communicate an effect that happens instantaneously. But a non-gamer might be confused about why weather conditions were suddenly brought into things.
Tiles with multiple icons from the game Orbis
Some issues were immediately obvious – others only became clear to me when I presented the rules to other people and asked them to play the game.
So far – I’ve created three versions of the rules (the game also changed a little, but not much). I’ll post them below. See if you can work out the game from the rules. If you want to play along properly, make a note of:
- What rules are you sure of?
- What are your assumptions?
- What is utterly confusing and has you stumped?
Version 1
You have two custom six-sided dice:
- Numbers 1-5 and one face with a question mark.
- Five different shapes and one face with a question mark.
Scoresheet
Rules
After putting these rules out on social media and discussing with family, friends and other designers, I made a second version.
Version 2
You have the same dice as version 1.
Scoresheet
Rules
Then one furher version…
Version 3
Same dice as version 1.
Scoresheet
Rules
So what is still confusing? What questions do you have? Do you feel confident that you understand how to play the game?
There are certain problems I’m still not sure that I’ve solved satisfactorily. For example, how do you explain that everyone plays simultaneously? Is my group of people sufficient? Or did you interpret something else from this icon? Do the red rings help or are they confusing? How about the four different options shown with the Roman numerals? Did you deduce that this shows four different outcomes based on what dice are rolled? Or did you think it means you have four different options every time?
I’m keen to get as much feedback as possible – particularly from non-gamers. So do post in the comments below. It may be that I’ve set myself a ridiculous task. It may be that language independent rules are possible – but not with the game I’ve chosen… If you’d like to play the game, or share with others, you can download from the link below.
Ooh, this is interesting! I think you play the game by:
– Roll two dice
– Black die tells you which column and row you draw in
– White so tells you which shape to draw
– ? face on each die means you get to choose
– If you can’t go you have to put an X in an empty space
– You get points for biggest group of a shape that are joined either vertically or horizontally. Each shape is one point. Add all points together to find the winner.
Assuming I’ve got all that correct…
Suggest changing the numbers on the grid to dots and changing their background colour to black so that they match the design on your black die to make the link between the two stronger.
Same goes for the red rings; suggest repeating those on the spaces where the player can fill a square rather than using the arrows—I thought for a moment that I had to move shapes from one box to another. Maybe the pencil should be just outside the red circle too to make sure it’s clear that it’s just the shape that’s drawn.
I’m not sure you need ii. and iii. as separate steps with grids; I think the “? = x / y / z” covers the meaning well enough though the forward slashes gave me the initial impression that it was a really exciting fraction. Not sure what else could use instead though.
I think you could get away with just three sections: roll, can go/can’t go, scoring/winner…
Would suggest moving to a landscape layout so it reads left to right and split the page into three columns with the central column split into two rows for can go/can’t go.
Not sure the group of people tells me everyone goes at once… I suppose you could have four people doing the four different examples? Perhaps do that in the middle column instead of the can/can’t go thing I mentioned above?
I don’t think you need the ellipses or confused face for scoring as it clashes with the confused face for ‘can’t go’ (which I really like btw, think that’s quite clear.
The scoring grid I think is clear and could probably be merged with the bit with the cup but thought the sum was saying 2+3+4+2=6 (the number triangles) till I realised that was separate to the pencil.
Very small thing but perhaps the pencil should always point in one direction? Like it’s always used by someone left-handed or right-handed? Perhaps it’s not important though.
Last thought, if doing four different people could either use colours or ABCD to differentiate between them. Though perhaps that could also be implied by a different hair style on the graphic.
Not sure how much of the above makes sense or is useful (hope it is, sorry if it’s not!) but I like the game concept and certainly don’t think language independent rules are impossible!
This is very helpful. Thanks so much for the time you’ve spent looking and this and thinking. Your assumptions about the rules are all correct. Your feedback is most useful.
For some reason my comment never posted.
I found the first version the easiest to understand. It seemed quite straightforward and intuitive.
Version 2 stumped me a little at first but I gradually worked it out.
Version 3 just got overwhelming with so many symbols to parse.
I figured them all out eventually, but my mind had to do way less translation work with version 1.
(I’m not a casual gamer)
Very helpful. Thanks so much.