One of the big challenges of creating a game is finding the goldilocks weight that makes your game accessible and friendly to casual gamers, while simultaneously providing enough depth to interest the more hardcore types. After some initial testing failures with an overly complex and lengthy beta build of Motorsport, I course-corrected to the design goal of “easy to learn, difficult to master”.

Admittedly, some designers simply do not bother with this conundrum. It tickles me to death that there are game makers that have the absolute gall to crowdfund something like Kingdom Death: Monster or Gloomhaven. To be that brazen, to say, “here’s your 1,000 components and your 100 page rulebook, deal with it”. I just love it. And, clearly, so do a lot of other people, considering the colossal funding sums that the games garner. But I knew early on that Motorsport wasn’t going to be that type of game.

While the deck building game market is saturated, you simply won’t find anything like Motorsport. The tuner scene has permeated pop culture through movies, shows, and videogames, but somehow hasn’t had any representation in the booming tabletop gaming industry. So the fundamental allure of Motorsport is its theme. To be transparent, if you’re looking for a heavy game, you probably want to look elsewhere. As I tested and developed the game, it became clear that my target audience was automotive enthusiasts that also enjoy games (rather than hardcore gamers that also enjoy cars). Hence the “easy to learn, difficult to master” mantra.

This is not to say that Motorsport doesn’t reward strategy and skill. I limited chance as much as possible without detracting from the fun of the game, and I’m proud to say that more advanced players will have no problem consistently routing less skilled or less familiar opponents. It was extremely important to me that in Motorsport (as with real auto racing), the best racer almost always wins, chance be damned. And while I feel like I accomplished this, it created a new problem: the wife factor.

My wife loves games and we love playing together. But sometimes we have a bit of a disconnect on the type of game to play. She prefers a lighter, more fun game, while I prefer something more strategic and competitive. The one area where we have consistent overlap is in our enjoyment of deck building games. But even with that shared joy, my wife was becoming increasingly agitated with me when testing Motorsport. I was consistently beating her. And not in a fun, close way. Like, in a I want to stop playing halfway through the game way. And why wouldn’t I beat her?! Here I was, literally the inventor of the game, with absolute knowledge of all cards, rules, combos, abilities, and strategies, while she was still relatively new to it.* So this begged the question: Regardless of game weight, how do I make the game accessible enough so that players of varying skill levels and familiarity can play together, without the newcomers feeling overwhelmed or the veterans feeling under-challenged?

Coincidentally, the solution to this concern already existed within the theme of the game. For a long time, auto racing has organized competition by vehicle class. Restrictions are placed on vehicles so that event entry is limited to comparable models and there is parity in competition. So it made sense to assign ranks to the vehicles of the game so that it’s clear which vehicles to use if players want an even, fair competition. But what if players don’t want an even and fair competition. What if one player is tired of her husband taking advantage of his familiarity with the game to beat her over and over? Conveniently, the vehicle ranks double as a perfect handicap system!

By using different vehicle ranks, you can tailor the difficulty curve for all players, individually. This means you could play a game with newcomers in higher ranked cars, along with a veteran in a lower ranked car, and everyone will feel like they are having a fun and competitive gameplay experience. As with real racing, cars aren’t fast, drivers are fast, and the challenge of chasing down a less experienced player in a faster vehicle is exciting!

The ranking system adds additional value in the dedicated solo mode as well. By varying the rank of your and the automated player’s vehicles, you can fine tune the difficulty for the perfect challenge. Whether you’re an expert, or you’ve never played a deck building game in your life, there will be a difficulty setting that works for you. And for the people who crave a challenge like myself, it can get hard. Like, really hard. Try hopping in a D rank vehicle and chasing down the auto-player in an A rank!

So whether you’re a complete noob or a vet, whether you’re playing by yourself or with a group of four, the vehicle ranks will allow you to make sure that each player has a competitive, fun experience! Everyone is invited!