Designing Wargames: Introduction

by George Phillies

Overview

Designing Wargames introduces the play and design of classic hex-and-counter board wargames. Written as a textbook, Designing Wargames should appeal to board and computer game designers, board game players, and designers of serious war games for historical and military study.

Phillies opens with a discussion of the basic elements combined to create strategic games, including representation, theme, style, mechanisms, voice, shape, and content. To introduce non-players to board wargames, he describes in detail the play of four classic board wargames, namely Stalingrad, 1914, Panzerblitz, and Fall of Manjukuo. A path to designing a game, stressing the central importance of iterative development and playtesting, is advanced. Several fundamental mechanisms and their variations, including the zone of control and command and control rules, are examined in detail. A case study contrasts a half-dozen games on a single historic campaign, comparing how different designers have created radically different games that represent the same historic outcomes. A paragraph by paragraph analysis of the written rules of one game is given. Issues related to luck and technology are examined. An extensive set of homework problems, many in the form of development projects, support the material in the text.

George Phillies is a Professor in the WPI Program in Interactive Media and Game Dvelopment. Phillies' lectures on the material in the text may be seen on YouTube on the GeorgePhillies channel.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940045853828
Publisher:	George Phillies
Publication date:	04/24/2014
Series:	Studies in Game Design , #5
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	509,149
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

George Phillies is a retired Professor of Physics. He also taught in Biochemistry and in Game Design. His scientific research is focused on polymer dynamics. He also writes science fiction novels and books on politics. Books by George Phillies include:

Fiction
This Shining Sea
Nine Gees
Minutegirls
The One World
Mistress of the Waves
Against Three Lands
Eclipse, The Girl Who Saved the World
Airy Castles All Ablaze
Stand Against the Light
Inpreparation: Practical Exercise

Books on Game Design Series
Contemporary Perspectives in Game Design (with Tom Vasel)
Design Elements of Contemporary Strategy Games(with Tom Vasel)
Stalingrad for Beginners - How to Play
Stalingrad for Beginners - Basic Tactics
Designing Board Wargames - Introduction

Books on Politics
Stand Up for Liberty!
Funding Liberty
Libertarian Renaissance
Surely We Can Do Better?

Books on Physics
Physics One
Elementary Lectures in Statistical Mechanics
Phenomenology of Polymer Solution Dynamics
Complete Tables for ‘Phenomenology of Polymer Solution Dynamics’