This project hosts data and scripts for calculating the rule complexity of board games.
Note that this project is specifically focused on board game rules. It does not explore gameplay complexity – how difficult it is to evaluate positions or become skilled in playing the game. The point is not to discuss things like decision trees or depth of play or other aspects of games that make them interesting to play. Rather, it focuses on the difficulty of learning the rules of a game so that it is possible for the player to play correctly.
If you consider the phrase "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master", this project will be focusing exclusively on the "minute to learn" part.
Why?
At a high-level, the goals of this project are to:
• Bring awareness of complexity (and complexity "budgets") to the foreground of game design discussions • Explore different kinds of complexity players encounter when learning a game • Create practical tools/techniques that game developers can use to manage complexity in their games • Categorize various mitigating (and exacerbating!) techniques for teaching complex rules
For more information, see the companion blog on BGG: It's Complicated - A discussion of complexity in board game rules.
For a list of games analyzed so far, see garykac.github.io/complexity.