Yahtzee Instructions (Quick Start Guide)

The final version of the Yahtzee Quick Start Guide

I recently reacquainted myself with my Yahtzee handheld, a memento from my sixth-grade math class’s game days. While I explained the intricate gameplay to my mom one afternoon, I realized that I had lost the game’s original instructions. As an exercise, I decided to revise the Scoring Rules chart on the back of the handheld.

Designing the Chart

The guide’s centerpiece is a chart that lays out the Yahtzee scoring system.

The original version of my Yahtzee chart

It features four columns:

Term lists game terms like “Full House” and “Chance.”
Definition provides definitions for the game terms.
Example Roll shows an example roll for each term using five dice I drew in Microsoft Publisher.
Roll Value tells users the score for each term (copied directly from the Scoring Chart).

Then I applied Yahtzee’s brand colors–red, yellow gold, white, and black–to the chart. The heading row is red with white text, which matches the handheld’s logo. The remaining rows alternate between white and yellow gold for easier reading.

Adding the Instructions

Next I wrote game instructions to accompany the new scoring chart. The chart didn’t leave much room for text, so I cut the instructions down to six steps. Even so, I wasn’t sure where they should go.

I brainstormed four possible step arrangements:

Split them up around the chart’s four sides.
Gather them above the chart.
Put three steps above the chart and three beneath it.
Stack them beneath the chart.

An alternative version of the Yahtzee chart with the directions positioned above and below the table — Option 3 of the alternative Yahtzee charts, with the directions split between the top and bottom

The process of elimination decided the best option: 2. Option 1’s arrangement was too confusing. Options 3 and 4’s instructions were easily overlooked at the bottom of the page. Only Option 2’s instructions forced the correct reading order between the instructions and the chart.

Tweaking the Chart

The instructions looked weird just floating above the chart. I enclosed them within a row on the chart to create a connection between the two parts.

A version of the chart before it officially became a double chart with the instructions enclosed on top of the scoring chart — A version of the chart before it officially became a double chart

At this point, I went all-in with a double chart. It matched the original Scoring Rules chart’s style. I had also seen a similar type of double chart before in a professor’s syllabus calendar. I knew I could do it.

The Yahtzee Scoring Rules chart on the back of the handheld

I added black rows above and below the instructions, writing labels with white text slightly bigger than the red header’s text for both sections. Lastly, I made the step numbers stand out with red and bold formatting.

Everything came together perfectly.