Loot the World #1: The Game Design Lesson That Changed Everything

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Introduction

Welcome to the first development diary for Loot the World, the upcoming strategy board game from Foxhole Games.

Deciding where to begin a design journal is always a challenge. Game development is full of interconnected systems, ideas, and trade-offs, and it’s tempting to unpack everything at once. Instead, these diaries will focus on individual design pillars, i.e. why we made certain decisions, what we learned along the way, and how those lessons shaped the final game.

This first entry focuses on one of the most important questions we had to answer early on:

What separates a game from a puzzle?

Where Loot the World Began

Loot the World started as a modest idea rooted in two long-standing passions of mine: history and games. I’m a historian by training, and I’ve been gaming for as long as I can remember. Over time, it became clear that those two interests could (and should) intersect.

The initial concept was simple: a historically inspired strategy game about trade, expansion, and risk. Turning that idea into a good game, however, was anything but simple.

One of the most common traps in strategy game design is assuming that a compelling theme will carry weak or overly rigid mechanics. It won’t. Players don’t just want an interesting premise. They want meaningful decisions.

That’s where the real work begins.

The Challenge: Games vs. Puzzles

Designing a strategy game with depth, replayability, and genuine player agency is hard. Every system introduces edge cases. Every rule invites exploits. Every “optimal” strategy threatens to flatten player choice.

During early playtesting, we were fortunate to work with experienced designers and dedicated testers. One comment, in particular, fundamentally changed how we approached Loot the World.

Joe, a friend and experienced board game designer, summed it up succinctly:

"There are two kinds of designs. Games, and puzzles."

What we had at that point, he explained, wasn’t really a game. It was a puzzle. There was a correct sequence of decisions, and deviating from it meant playing sub-optimally. Once solved, the experience offered little reason to return.

That distinction stuck with me, because it cuts to the heart of strategic design.

A puzzle has a solution.
A game has possibilities.

If one decision consistently outperforms all others, then the player isn’t exercising strategy. They’re simply executing instructions.

A good example of this problem can be seen in certain grand-strategy video games, such as Victoria 3. While rich in simulation, the game often funnels players toward a single optimal economic path. Once that path is understood, replayability suffers. The experience becomes about optimisation, not choice.

For Loot the World, that was exactly what we wanted to avoid.

The Solution: Designing for Agency

From that point on, our design goal was clear:

At no point should there be a single, objectively correct move.

Players should feel that their decisions matter. Not because one option is “right,” but because each option carries different risks, rewards, and long-term consequences.

To enforce this at a systemic level, we relied heavily on decision-mapping using a Markov Chain, which is essentially a comprehensive decision tree that charts every meaningful player choice and the game states that follow from it.

This allowed us to audit the design rigorously. Whenever a branch collapsed into a single dominant choice, we knew the design was drifting back toward “puzzle” territory. That was our signal to rebalance incentives, introduce counter-play, or add uncertainty.

Yes, the resulting diagrams were sprawling (think less elegant flowchart, more investigative cork board) but they were invaluable. They forced us to justify every mechanic and ensured that no strategy became universally optimal.

Tools like Miro and Figma were instrumental in this process, but the principle matters more than the software: map your decisions, or your players will solve your game for you.

Closing Thoughts

This distinction between games and puzzles is one of the core design principles behind Loot the World. Our aim has always been to create a strategy game where players chart their own path to victory, adapt to changing circumstances, and succeed through judgment rather than memorisation.

If you’re an aspiring designer, I can’t recommend this approach highly enough. And if you’re simply curious about how our games are built, I hope this has offered a useful glimpse into that.

Rest assured, more design journal entries are on the way as we move toward our Kickstarter launch!

Thanks for reading,
Lloyd