Game Rules Are Algorithms
Hopscotch, tag and card games all run on step lists. Read the rules, follow the order, check the win condition. Change a step and you change the game.
- Read game rules as ordered instructions
- Name the repeat steps and the win condition
- Explain what breaks if one rule is skipped
Finish first
Topic contents
Lesson 1 of 3
Rules are the program
Open a board game box. Inside you find a sheet of rules. Step one set up the board. Step two youngest player goes first. The sheet is the algorithm every player must follow.
If someone skips a rule, the game state gets wrong. Maybe a player has extra money or moves twice. Fixing it means going back to the rule you ignored.
Watch the step-flow animation. Follow hopscotch from throw to finish square.
Lesson 2 of 3
Loops and win lines
Many games repeat a turn loop until someone wins. Roll, move, check cards, next player. The loop is the heart of the algorithm.
The win condition is the stop rule. First to one hundred points, or three sets in tennis. Without a clear stop, the game never ends.
House rules are edits to the algorithm. As long as everyone agrees before play, the new plan is valid for that group.
Lesson 3 of 3
Teach a new player
To teach tag, you do not say run. You say one person is it, they tag with a light touch, tagged person becomes it. Short steps in order.
New players ask what happens if. Good rules answer those cases before they happen. That is like writing else in a program later.
Next you will fix plans where steps are in the wrong order. Games and robots both fail when order breaks.
Practice
Work these out yourself
No answer key here on purpose: these are the questions worth thinking through before you move on. Open one and work it out.
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Check your understanding
Answer each question, then read the explanation. That is where the learning is.
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