Knitted vs. Layered Themes

In the last two posts, I have mentioned that an art style is not enough to qualify as a game's theme. There must be at least one connection point to the mechanics. In this post, I want to look at the spectrum of connectivity between theme and mechanics. 

The term "pasted on theme" is largely derogatory, although it's used frequently for otherwise well respected games. I would like to propose two terms to replace it, knitted and layered. Layered themes are developed separately from mechanics then 'layered' on top of them. Layered is the direct replacement of pasted on, but hopefully lacks the derogatory tone. A layered theme has connection points to the mechanics, but they often feel inorganic. The emotional experiences of the theme and the mechanics may feel like two separate experiences. This can be seen with games that completely develop mechanics before finding a theme, but could also found in games with a completed theme that has mechanics layered on top of it, such as IP games often found in the mass market. Or the designer could simply develop both in parallel without much concern for how they intersect. 

Layered themes will often have some baked-in thematic elements (such as resource tokens) and some lore fluff, but will usually not have mechanisms that match the experience of the theme. Action names will be a mixture of thematic actions and mechanical actions. Often the layout of the board will lack any connection to the theme. The experience of play will rely heavily on the mechanics, sometimes feeling out of step with the theme. A layered theme is still a theme, but players may describe the game as "not thematic." Layered themes are not inherently bad, but should be designed and presented intentionally so as not to give players the impression that they will have a type of thematic experience that is not actually present in the game. Love Letter is an example of a layered theme. 

A knitted theme has many connection points between theme and mechanics. Knitted themes are more likely to have been developed simultaneously alongside the mechanics of a game.  A knitted theme will be difficult to retheme without changing at least a few mechanics. Knitted themes present a more unified experience. However, knitted themes may not be immersive/transportive. Mechanic-thematic integration revolves around how well/often the mechanics and theme are connected, not around the type of experience that provides. A transportive game may be immersive because of the narrative but have layered mechanics or a 'loosely' knitted theme where only some of the mechanics are knitted but some are not. Indeed, many Ameritrash-style games could be categorized as loosely knit, with the bulk of the theme coming from illustration, narrative, or the player's prior knowledge of the IP. 

Whether or not a game has a tightly knitted theme may be somewhat subjective. The mechanics need to be largely motivated by the theme and provide a similar emotional experience as the theme. These terms aren't meant to judge how accurately the mechanics simulate the theme, merely the interconnectedness of theme and mechanics. Any immersion or simulation or aligned emotional experience may be the result of a tightly knitted theme but knitted themes lend themselves to many different sorts of play experiences, including euro games. Examples of knitted themes include Guillotine and Everdell. 

Theme in board games is expressed in many different ways and to different degrees. Hopefully adding terms like knitted and layered can help designers think about how they express theme in their own designs. 

ShippBoard Games is a board game design blog that updates most Mondays.