Perfect Math Game Designs

I always love it when someone mentions my fellow countryman M.C. Escher! ;-)

A sound mathematical approach is very important in gamedesign. Especially when you work with probabilities you will want to make sure that the numbers are "correct".

A great example is Royal Turf. You roll a die to move a horse, but on the die are three "horsehead" symbols and three other, different symbols. So, it is 3 times more likely that you will roll a horsehead than any of the 3 other symbols.

This translates itself to the number of spaces that a horse may move on a roll of a certain symbol. For each horse, the next formula holds true for each horse: (horsehead * 3) + saddle + cap + horseshoe = 30. This means that no horse is strictly "better" than another horse.

Also there are 7 horses in the game. The game can be played with up to 6 players, which means that the starting player (or the last player for that matter) shifts every round as 7 cannot be divided by any smaller number (it is a prime number).

Yeah, it