So many mistakes have been made, and so many lessons have been learned by other designers. If you don’t play their games, you’re going to waste time making all those mistakes again for yourself.
— Adam Porter
Scoring is what incentivises different behaviours. So, to a large extent, your scoring system IS your game. A good scoring system can provide a higher skill ceiling, differentiation of skill, reward interesting/fun play, tension of risk/reward, and real meaningful choices.
— Bez
Most strategic games are about decisions, and when you decide to do something you’re also often deciding not to do something else. And there is a cost there, and that cost is often not appreciated by some designers.
— Tom Lehmann