When we play a game, things happen: We build buildings, gather victory points, attack our opponent, draw cards, etc. We thus have a constantly changing game-state.

All these changes taken together will lead us to a conclusion: The game has ended and there is a winner. In that sense you can say that the game is progressing. But there there are more elements that create such a sense of progression.

Let’s see how far we can progress with this subject!?

What is progression?

In its simplest, progression is anything that takes us away from the beginning state of the game and closer to the end state. It is any action that players (or the game itself) take that will bring the game closer to ending.

At the same time, players will generally not explicitly be working towards the end of the game. Instead they are working towards winning the game. And so for a player anything that advances their personal goal (beating the other players!) will be progression.

Progressing to the end of the game

There are different ways in which games work towards an ending.

Some games have a fixed number of turns and at the end of those, a winner is decided. Agricola and Terra Mystica are examples of this.

Other games measure the progress of the players and determine the end of the game based on this: In Catan the game ends when one player has 10 victory points, Monopoly ends when all but one player have been eliminated.

In this later case the progression of the game and the progression towards the goals of the players are interlinked.

Only forward

Most Euro games move in only a single direction: Forward.

Players play their game and are constantly increasing in capabilities and prowess. Once something is gained it is never lost (only exchanged for something better).

Agricola and Catan mostly follow this recipe: Every turn players will be able to gather more resources and those resources can be used to build and buy things that help to get more resources and more victory points.

The result is a constant feeling of progression for the players.

Which is not to say that this feeling of progression is always satisfying: The measure of the game in the end is not if you did well, but if you did better than the others!

Back and forth

Not all games show progression only: In Risk there can be an ebb and tide. One player will gain an advantage, having a lot of countries and getting the game closer to the end, while at the same time pushing forward the agenda of that player. Then the other players can band together and bring the would-be winner low.

Games where this is an important part can be long, as there is no continuous or clear progression towards an end. What was gained this turn can be lost the next.

The latter is only a problem if the progression of the game and the player are linked. A game that has a different way of progressing to the end (e.g. a fixed number of rounds) will of course end in due time.

For players to lose something (“regress”) can be frustrating: They have far less control over what happens to them in their game; instead of things changing for them due to their own decisions, they are at the whim of other players.

At the same time the threat of losing some of your hard gained spoils can be a great source of tension. This is something that for example Scythe does very well, with the constant possibility of being attacked and losing something, without that actually happening much.

Enough about game-end progression

While it is important to progress to the end of the game, most modern games have this down well: Games with endless back-and-forths are hardly ever seen anymore.

One really nice example of a game where players are going from high to low and back again is Pandemic. In it players have a little while to get things under control, only to be swamped again once the next epidemic cards drops. But there is no problem with progressing the game: That pile of cards is certainly going to run out, so the game will end within a set number of turns.

So if your game is suffering from interminable rises and falls, the simplest solution is to make the progression to the game end independent from the progression towards player goals.

Why players like progression

There are many reasons to play board games and a lot of them tie into progression towards player goals.

Some people play board games because it makes them feel powerful: They are at the head of a vast empire or are erecting huge monuments to the gods. Things they wouldn’t be able to do in real life. Here every new capability, every new thing obtained helps to feed that feeling of power further.

Others play to win. And the best way to win is by having more than the other players. So being able to gather more (armies, villagers, buildings, etc) helps to work towards the final outcome that is so desired.

Those who like cooperative games are well aware of the struggle against losing. Here doing anything else but fighting fires means you’re slowly climbing out of the morass. And you know that if you don’t “get better”, in the end you’ll be overwhelmed. Progression then can give a sign of relief from the constant tension of your struggle for survival.

At a very basic level progression can speak to our greed. I want more stuff! There is something very satisfying about seeing a full player-board for Agricola and thinking “all of this is mine!”

Finally, progression shows off your mastery of the game: Look how well I’m doing with all these cool things that I can do now that I couldn’t do before! I have progressed not just in the game, but also as a player (whether that is true or not).

Forms of progression to player goals

In the previous paragraph I’ve already hinted at a number of ways players can progress. Let’s look at them in a bit more detail.

Gathering resources

The first way to progress is simply by gathering “raw” resources. The more wood, stone, sheep, and money I have, the better I must be doing!

Generally these resources are only a means to an end and in themselves they’re quite boring. Still, gathering vast amounts of wealth (in whichever resource strikes your fancy) can be very satisfying.

Visual progression

In area control games it’s not uncommon to see at a glance who has which territories. And while a territory is a form of resource (and so could fall in the previous category), there is something terribly appealing about taking a quick glance and seeing how well you’re doing (especially compared to your opponents!).

In my own game Los Buenos (which you can try and test; get the P&P files here!) I have tried to infuse this sense of progress not just for players, but for the game itself as well. In it you start with a destroyed village, which you will slowly rebuild. This means that grey and ugly destroyed buildings make place for slightly better empty fields, which can then be turned into beautiful and colorful buildings. Making the game more beautiful as you progress.

Expanding capabilities

Somewhat heavier games generally move beyond the raw resources and let you build or buy things with them. These new resources (they are still resources; see this post for more on resources in board games) generally allow you to change the game in some way, to your advantage. Building an oven in Agricola gives the possibility to bake bread and every building you buy in Machi Koro will help you to get more money in some interesting way.

As a counter example I would mention Citadels. It’s a great game, but your “second level resources”, the buildings, are very bland. They cost something and they are worth that amount of points. There are some slightly more interesting purple ones, but their special abilities are hardly ever really useful. And I understand why the game was created this way: It’s simple! The buildings are a means to an end, without distracting from the meat of the game: The role selection. Still, I wouldn’t have minded a bit more “expanded capabilities”.

Expanded capabilities can come in different shapes. “Building buildings” is the quintessential method for every Euro game. For RPGs, dungeon crawlers and other of their like, it is much more common to upgrade your character, through additional skills or by “leveling up”.

I believe that this is one reason why deck builders are so popular: With everything you add your deck you’re making it better (hopefully!) and thus you’re progressing.

Getting closer to victory

In the end most of us play to win. And so the “purest” form of progress is by getting closer to victory. This can be an increase in victory points (Catan), getting closer to the finish (Lewis & Clark) or finishing an objective (Ticket to Ride).

As this is the most pure form, it’s the easiest to translate into “how well you’re doing”.

This is both a blessing and a curse: Ease of measurement means it can increase tension by showing how close players are. This is certainly the case for Catan, where it’s reasonably clear how many victory points players have. Then when players are getting to 7 or 8 you can feel the intensity being upped a level, as the game could end any turn now.

At the same time a clear comparison may make it too blatantly clear that you’re definitely not going to be winning, which is quite demotivating. I know I’ve slogged through the last hour of a game while I’d mentally already given up.

Closing thoughts

Having a sense of progression speaks to players in many different ways and so my feeling is that any game should try to include it. Luckily this is not hard; almost any game will have players gather something and there also aren’t that many games that play the same every round, without players getting better in some way.

What I would like to see if games to become a bit more creative in how they expand the capabilities of players: We really don’t need another game where you’re using stone and wood to build buildings (which is why in Los Buenos you use wood and money to build buildings! 😉 ). Of course it doesn’t help that this is one of the most basic ways in which humanity itself has expanded its capabilities (though there it’s more the other way around: We found a new way of doing something and so we needed a building to do that in).

I hope you enjoyed this post and that it will help you progress with your own game!

Further reading

Progression leads to the end of the game: 5 ways of ending your game.

One measure of progression is how many victory points you have.

I’ve made a lot of progress with Los Buenos. Download the Print & Play files for yourself and take a look (and send me some feedback?).

About the author

Hi, I’m Bastiaan. The goal of this blog is to learn about game design. That’s hopefully for you as the reader, but just as much for me as the writer.

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