Kevin Pacey wrote on Wed, Mar 22, 2017 06:10 PM UTC:
On "Don't overcomplicate your game", I'm wondering about even the popular variant Rococo perhaps not quite satisfying this criteria. Just looking at how long the entire description of the various pieces' powers is for the game, it does seem there are many rules (plus arguably unfamiliar piece types) - and perhaps because I am not always inclined to learn a hard game to play, I haven't hurried to do so in this case either. Note that people can understand the basic flow of a physical sports game without knowing every rule, but it seems tougher to do so for even a game of chess, which seems less complex rule-wise than Rococo does - yet I suppose the latter is an enjoyable game once one fully learns it. Lately it does not seem much played on Game Courier, perhaps because there are a lot more relatively new people to CVP (like myself) playing nowadays.
On an unrelated matter, other than reviews or comments, it's a bit hard to tell if one has invented a chess variant that will ever be played or liked much at some point. So far I've submitted 17 variants, and 11 of these have Game Courier presets. Of the latter, only two games of mine have been played more than once (or in the case of many, if at all), so far. At one point I gave myself the objective of inventing at least one game per certain common types of board terrain that could be played on Game Courier, if there ever were a preset made for each game. Later I thought more about how to design a game that might have a strong chance of being popular, and Butterfly Chess had some success, though not as much as when I lucked out as a beginner to some extent with Sac Chess. One problem may be that that most of my presets are not rules enforcing, which may give a game a better chance of becoming popular; another thing that might make a game popular on Game Courier might be simply being an inventor and player familiar to many Game Courier players, ideally with a history of inventing a number of successful variants. Anyway, my modest 'success' with 2 out of 11 presets thus far is a success rate inventors in other fields of endeavour might not feel too bad about, especially if just starting out.
On "Don't overcomplicate your game", I'm wondering about even the popular variant Rococo perhaps not quite satisfying this criteria. Just looking at how long the entire description of the various pieces' powers is for the game, it does seem there are many rules (plus arguably unfamiliar piece types) - and perhaps because I am not always inclined to learn a hard game to play, I haven't hurried to do so in this case either. Note that people can understand the basic flow of a physical sports game without knowing every rule, but it seems tougher to do so for even a game of chess, which seems less complex rule-wise than Rococo does - yet I suppose the latter is an enjoyable game once one fully learns it. Lately it does not seem much played on Game Courier, perhaps because there are a lot more relatively new people to CVP (like myself) playing nowadays.
Rococo
On an unrelated matter, other than reviews or comments, it's a bit hard to tell if one has invented a chess variant that will ever be played or liked much at some point. So far I've submitted 17 variants, and 11 of these have Game Courier presets. Of the latter, only two games of mine have been played more than once (or in the case of many, if at all), so far. At one point I gave myself the objective of inventing at least one game per certain common types of board terrain that could be played on Game Courier, if there ever were a preset made for each game. Later I thought more about how to design a game that might have a strong chance of being popular, and Butterfly Chess had some success, though not as much as when I lucked out as a beginner to some extent with Sac Chess. One problem may be that that most of my presets are not rules enforcing, which may give a game a better chance of becoming popular; another thing that might make a game popular on Game Courier might be simply being an inventor and player familiar to many Game Courier players, ideally with a history of inventing a number of successful variants. Anyway, my modest 'success' with 2 out of 11 presets thus far is a success rate inventors in other fields of endeavour might not feel too bad about, especially if just starting out.
Butterfly Chess
Sac Chess