Player Experience (PX) is the complete experience someone has when learning and playing a board game. It encompasses everything from opening the box and reading the rules to making strategic decisions and interacting with components during play. A game’s player experience includes how easy it is to understand, how intuitive the components are, how smoothly turns flow, and how satisfying the gameplay feels. Great player experience design removes unnecessary friction and confusion, allowing players to focus on the enjoyable challenges the game presents.
The Connection to User Experience
The concept of Player Experience draws directly from User Experience (UX) design, a well-established field focused on how people interact with products like websites and applications. In 2015, game designer Raph Koster articulated the key difference between these fields:
UX design is about removing problems from the user.
Game design is about giving problems to the user.
This distinction is crucial. Game designers intentionally create interesting problems for players to solve—strategic decisions, tactical challenges, and meaningful choices. But Player Experience design works alongside game design to ensure that the unintentional problems—confusing rules, unclear components, frustrating interactions—are eliminated. The goal is making sure players struggle with the game’s intended challenges, not with understanding how to play.
Why Player Experience Matters
Player Experience can make or break a game regardless of its mechanical quality. A brilliant game with innovative mechanics can be ruined by poor rulebook organization, confusing iconography, or components that don’t clearly communicate their purpose. Conversely, a mechanically simple game can become beloved when its player experience is exceptionally smooth—when rules feel intuitive, components are self-explanatory, and gameplay flows naturally.
When excellent game design aligns with excellent player experience, you create something special. Players can focus entirely on strategic thinking and tactical execution because they’re not fighting the game’s presentation. They understand what’s happening, what their options are, and what components do. This clarity allows the game’s strategic depth to shine without being obscured by confusion or friction.
What Player Experience Includes
Player Experience encompasses several interconnected aspects:
Learning Experience: How easily can new players understand the rules? Is the rulebook organized logically? Are examples provided at the right moments? Does the game teach itself through play?
Component Communication: Do components clearly indicate their purpose and function? Can players understand game state at a glance? Are different component types visually distinct?
Information Architecture: Is important information easy to find? Are player aids helpful? Is the visual hierarchy clear?
Interaction Design: Does the physical act of playing feel smooth? Are components easy to manipulate? Does turn structure flow naturally?
Accessibility: Can players with different abilities engage with the game? Does design rely solely on color, or use multiple channels? Are rules exceptions surfaced where needed?
The Purpose of BG-PX
This site explores how principles from UX design, information architecture, human factors, graphic design, and related fields can inform board game design to create better player experiences. Each article examines a specific principle or pattern that helps remove unnecessary obstacles from the player’s path, allowing the game’s intended challenges to take center stage.
By applying established principles from user experience fields to board game design, we can create games that are easier to learn, more intuitive to play, and more satisfying to engage with—games where players remember the strategic battles they fought, not the rules they struggled to understand.
