End Condition

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A rule by which the game ends.

Usage

Example mechanics of finishing the game include:

  • after a set amount of turns,
  • after a set time,
  • when a player scores set amount of points,
  • when some achievement is gained,
  • when players don't want to play anymore.

Victory condition — A rule that decides who wins the game.

In competitive games, end condition might be tied to Victory Condition. In general the main effect of chosen mechanics is the influence over the duration of the game. The length may depend only on some or on all players in a negotiation-like process. It may also be strictly controlled by the designer or be based on chance.

Musical considerations

Finishing the music game means also the ending of music. Ending the piece is one of the key skills of improvised music, because misplacing the ending in any direction might impede the musical effect. Despite its importance, the perfect moment is a very subjective matter, may depend on an individual notion of "good music" and genre conventions. It is sometimes difficult for a group of improvisers not familiar with each other (especially with diverse backgrounds) to end the piece. For newcomers, a possible difficulty is that even when there's a consensus that the piece should come to an end, there is a disagreement about who is going to shape it…

Implementing rules that take care of ending the music lets a more diverse group of players enjoy it. Although if you target your game at improvising musicians it's better not to make a strictly fixed ending because that might be found musically restrictive. Despite that, within music games, using a timer is quite a popular option (see: timed games).


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