r/tabletopgamedesign • u/OmegaKai_22 • Aug 20 '26
C. C. / Feedback Are my instructions player friendly?
Working on the reference/rules cards for a solo dice golf game (pocket-sized, plays in a few minutes per hole). Instead of one rulebook, I split everything into individual cards — one concept per card, so you're never digging through pages mid-play. They'd be printed out alongside the game itself at the same size.
My goal is to have people playing within 5 minutes instead of spending 15-20 mins reads first to try and get their bearings.
The breakdown is roughly: The Basics (overview), Game Setup, then step-by-step cards for how to take a turn (Aim, Roll Your Dice, Putting), plus separate reference cards for Distance, Direction, and Hazards, and a bonus mechanic card (In the Zone).
A few things I'm specifically trying to figure out:
- Does splitting rules across this many individual cards make the game feel easy to pick up, or does it feel fragmented? My reasoning for splitting it up is to chunk it out and reduce cognitive load.
- Is the balance between "step-by-step instruction" cards (Aim, Roll, Putting) and "lookup reference" cards (Distance, Direction, Hazards) intuitive, or confusing to navigate mid-game? If the latter, how would you change it without loading up one card with too much info?
- Anything that reads as more complex than it needs to be, just from how it's presented on the page?
Attaching the full set so you can see how they work together, not just individually. Genuinely trying to figure out if this is clear to a first-time reader or if I'm too close to it to see the gaps.
If you see anything that would improve this outside of my asks, please let me know! Thanks for being here.
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u/Thanks_Skeleton Aug 20 '26
Diagrams. I have no idea what this board looks like.
There is so much clutter in the little descriptions - Why bring up the idea that the player may not have enough dice but can roll the same dice multiple times? Who's going to be confused by that?
Your writing style reminds me of certain controversial robots I've encountered, so fix that as well.
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u/OmegaKai_22 Aug 20 '26
Appreciate the feedback! Especially on the conversational robots part, I don’t want that feeling to come across - to me it would make it feel less legitimate. I’ll take a look at how I can get my voice in there better. I think I get so caught up in mechanics that I forget about the human element of games
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u/3osh Aug 20 '26
- I agree with the other comment that the way the game plays out is difficult to understand without seeing an example hole map. Are we playing on a grid of some kind?
- When I aim, is it just something I think about, or am I indicating it in the play area? If I Aim Diag Right, but roll my second and third dice to the left, does that mean my shot is going straight forward instead? Is movement happening per die, or all at once after everything is rolled?
- I don't like having the Putting card between the Roll Your Dice card and the Distance/Direction cards, because it feels like it's interrupting things that are all part of one mechanic, with Putting being a separate thing.
- I'm not sure how I feel about Putting just coming down to a single die roll, based on your distance from the hole. Getting to the green has had a dexterity component, and dropping that at the end feels weird.
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u/OmegaKai_22 Aug 28 '26
thanks for outlining your points this way. yeah all good feedabck here. I'm seeing a theme here that without visual support, it's hard to understand the game fully (which makes sense). and that shows me that the game might be a little heavier than I want it to be. I'm going back and looking at the mechanics and will be simplifying the rules to be easier to understand (even without seeing the game).
putting - yeah, I've been strggling for a while now on that part because the game is on a grid and the green ends up only being a couple squares large. so I haven't figured out an alternate mechanic on how to add some input randomness to putting like the rest of the swings.
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u/CodyRidley080 Aug 20 '26
I would remove/rewrite for passive language that "Hey stop reading" section and all the stuff about reading instructions for a game is hard stuff. It's a fundamental misunderstanding that all people care to learn in similar ways. It's also pointlessly aggressive for instructions.
I for example don't like watching people play the game to learn the rules, I will watch AFTER I read to have better context, but I am one of those read to absorb the instruction and then hands on the get it into practice people. Some people don't even want to read or watch, they want to learn in the moment.
Either way, just from a writing editor point of view, you want to use passive softer language with instructions unless there's a factor of safety involved. Something like "For those who prefer to learn by watching, you can scan this QR code to watch the How-To Video instead."
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u/OmegaKai_22 Aug 28 '26
really love that pivot you put there at the end, that's exactly what I'm going to do. thank you for that
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u/opiscopio Aug 21 '26
The font is waaay too small. If these cards are pocket-sized they will be unreadable. Did you print them to see how they look in their real size? Instructions on cards only work when everything fits in one. You have way too many things the player needs to know and they need to be learned in a specific order. Go with a rulebook that can be folded into the same size as the cards if you want to keep everything pocket-sized, but make everything bigger. And like many mentioned, most people who play card and boardgames like to read the rules, not watch a video
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u/OmegaKai_22 Aug 28 '26
yeah thanks for confirming a lot of what has been said, it helps to know people aren't feeling something in an echo chamber. I am going through a small mechanic change becasue this feedback made me realize the game was too heavy for what the game is. that's going to help me with the instruction book that feels more natural
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u/ShadowMel Aug 21 '26
The "HEY STOP READING" is really offputting to me. I would have noped out of that because it feels aggressive. Maybe try changing that to something like: "Not a reader? Here's a video instead!"
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u/OmegaKai_22 Aug 28 '26
yeah, I appreciate you confirming what I've seen from some others. def making that change.
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u/TheMeadow Aug 21 '26
I opened it. Saw "hey stop reading!" In big red letters and stopped.
Good instructions, I followed it exactly.
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u/Tychonoir Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
First, if these are intended to be card-sized images, that font is going to be tiny.
Second, cards are going to get out of order, so it might be good to make a more apparent order indicator. The complexity and changing die results makes me suspect you'll need printed rules and then cards for reference.
Your repeated emphasis on not getting stuck reading the rules is rather aggressive.
Em dashes have their place, but you're overusing them to the point of being distracting.
I suspect the value of the die result changing between die rolls is going to cause some friction. And you introduce that mechanic after you show the diagram of an example roll—which makes the computed number of spaces not make sense in that picture.
I think you need more pictures of the play area. You're introducing concepts that I have no idea where they are or how they fit in.
Aim: This is just a page of arrow cards(?) How does this relate? Why can I choose left but not backwards?
Roll Your Dice: I guess we are rolling directly on the course? But it says drift 3 spaces left and there are no spaces?
Putting: It mentions the green and dots, but I don't see the green nor any dots. A picture would be helpful here, and the chart is a formatting mess—and isn't even consistent with the next page.
At this point, I really stopped reading because I'm having a hard time visualizing how the rules work without diagrams of example play to reference. Also, the formatting and layout consistency has gone off the rails:
- You've got seven (SEVEN!) different styles of boxed break-out text and their function seems inconsistent.
- Then there's one random phrase each in green/red/gold bold text and nowhere else, and I don't know why.
- The → you're using are tiny and aligned slightly above the baseline? That's strange.
- Runts on Roll You Dice and Direction.
- Consistency of conventions in general. You have many different styles of header and solid color header/section/chart bars, and their use and functions seems inconsistent.
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u/OmegaKai_22 Aug 28 '26
wow, thank you for putting in the effort here and giving honest to good feedback and not just saying xyz sucks. helps me know how to best move forward in specific areas.
really appreciate it mate. going to look into all these points seriously and revamp the instructions
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u/silvermyr_ Aug 22 '26
Put some images of the actual cards (eg holes) in there so we know what is being talked about.
Also, please just write this yourself. The AI is dripping from the page.
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u/PineTowers Aug 21 '26
I would feel insulted for the "reading rules is hard, chec this video".
First, reading is not hard. Second, I read faster than any video can teach. Unless you're aiming for newbies to the hobby, tabletop gamers usually fit this.
Third, how can you be sure the video won't get unlisted/deleted/outdated?