Periodically, I do consulting work. This has been with everyone from huge international companies to lone designers on their first attempt. It’s interesting stuff, and both ends of that spectrum are quite different propositions. That said, there are some important commonalities. One is that very few games are perfect first time. 

Sometimes you design a game and it just isn’t right. You’re playtesting, tweaking, and testing again, but there’s still a problem. What is it? The answer is almost always that you need to take something out.

Adding stuff is easy. Anyone can think of more chrome to stick on. You’ve probably already done that if it was needed. But taking things away? That’s much harder, and it takes a degree of humility and detachment to get good at it. Don’t worry though. It’s very learnable.

The first thing to do is establish whether there’s a problem. The more you can stand back and forget that you were the one who came up with this, the easier it’ll be to tell if it’s working or not. You’ll know what you were trying to do and whether you’re there or not. Playing it is the only real measure, and I haven’t played your game so I can’t comment specifically. Mostly it’s about feel. You tell me. 

There are, however, some basic guidelines I can suggest that might help.

Firstly, it’s more likely with more complex games. Now complexity isn’t bad per se, it’s just easier to sneak in something unnecessary when there’s more to hide it among.

Then there’s the question of experience. I see this problem far more often in work by less experienced designers. In fact, having elements that really need stripping out is a near universal in first time designs. As with any other skill, it takes time to get good, and I did this too. Still do.

If you’re new to designing, then it’s worthwhile knowing that you’re likely to be including more than you need in your game. My working theory for why this is the case is that new designers haven’t internalised that they could do another game after this one (and many more after that) and want to cram all their great ideas into their one shot. Well, you get more than one if you want them. As I’ve said before, there’s no such thing as a bad mechanic, just a mechanic in the wrong place. Remove the excess, jot down the idea in your notebooks, and focus on what the current game needs to be in place. You can build a whole new game around that idea in your notebook next time.

But I digress.

How do you know which mechanics to take out? You don’t. Not without testing. Sure, I’ve been doing this a long time so I’ve got a bit of a feel for it, and you’ll develop that too. Practice makes better. It’s not perfect though, and any game with interlocking systems will be tricky to entirely predict when you start taking bits out. So, while giving a guide for fixing your specific game is tricky, you could do worse than trying the following.

Don’t start with the details around the edge. They’re almost certainly not the problem or the cure. Instead, take out a chunk that you think is too big or too important to remove. Yes, this is painful. Yes, your gut will tell you that this is insane. Do it anyway. You can always put it back. 

You may need to patch up a simple fix to clamp the bleeding ends where you did the surgery, just for the test. Then play the game and see how it feels. Try to distance yourself from your work and be as honest with yourself as possible. Imagine the rough edges where things were removed all smoothed over again. Is this a cleaner game loop? Simpler? Were the choices that confront the players more weighty and engaging than before? More fun? Did downtime between turns drag more or less? Or did the whole thing fall apart? Is this a way forward? Perhaps it’s not right to remove it all, but it gives you some options and ideas. Maybe you could lose part of the system and still get most of what it did with fewer rules. If this fixes things, great. Now you’re moving again. If not, then put it back how it was and try taking something else out. Rinse and repeat.

If nothing else, this is a great design exercise and should teach you a lot about what each bit of mechanics is doing. All grist to the mill of upskilling yourself.

And that’s all I’ve got for today. Just remember, adding is easy, culling is hard, but culling is usually the more powerful action and the one that will improve your game more.