Post by abbysdad on Dec 11, 2010 20:10:59 GMT -5
Anyone interested in game design should check out the link below:
www.lostgarden.com/2010/12/steambirds-survival-goodbye-handcrafted.html
Lost Garden, Game Informer, and a few other more video game oriented resources are wonderful references for any game designer.
Guys like Daniel Cook and Jesse Schell give me fits. They are able to clearly define and design aspects of complex systems that interact with people in unusual ways to give a desired result. Translated, they make great games that are fun.
And then they put out sequels to games that add something different to the original that makes it better. But somehow their sequels also highlight what you liked so much about the original in the first place. The only thing that gives me hope that we will attain a similar level of Zen mastery at Darkson Designs is that both Daniel and Jesse rely on play testing and tweaking their ideas quite a bit before they put stuff out for the world to see. If they could just throw down a perfect "alpha" version every time I would probably call it quits. It would be obvious that I didn't have the game designer gene.
But, they don't. No one does. And everyone needs filters to sort the good ideas from the bad when designing a game or adding something to a game.
There are a whole bunch of filters for game ideas at Darkson, for example, the wonderful set of play testers we have.
We ask our playtesters plenty of questions to help sort the good from the bad. Some of the most important ones that we ask our play testers before releasing a new list or book idea for them to work on are:
Does it sound fun? Is there something else we should be doing? Are we insane for doing this?
My wife is my sanity check for most issues. If I explain it to her, and she says it's too complicated or weird, I scrap it long before Rob or Clint get a look at it. Odds are good it was something that just sounded good in my head and wouldn't have survived their review anyway.
Once it passes Theresa's check, I'll bounce concepts off the heads of other friends. Devon and Maciej at Pulp Monsters are wonderful sounding boards for that. Then the play testers weigh in, and boy are they a big help. And then there's you guys on the forum. We really appreciate the comments and critiques you give about what we've done and what we're trying to do.
I have a semi-crazy schedule planned for the rest of the month to get out all of the ideas that have been fermenting in my head since GenCon. It should be fun. Barring Christmas, I've laid out 15 days of solid writing time. I think Rob and Clint have set themselves up to work on a few really neat game ideas too. It will be a nice end to a very productive year.
I can't wait for you guys to see what we've been up to. Once it passes through all the filters of course ;D
Cheers,
Chris
www.lostgarden.com/2010/12/steambirds-survival-goodbye-handcrafted.html
Lost Garden, Game Informer, and a few other more video game oriented resources are wonderful references for any game designer.
Guys like Daniel Cook and Jesse Schell give me fits. They are able to clearly define and design aspects of complex systems that interact with people in unusual ways to give a desired result. Translated, they make great games that are fun.
And then they put out sequels to games that add something different to the original that makes it better. But somehow their sequels also highlight what you liked so much about the original in the first place. The only thing that gives me hope that we will attain a similar level of Zen mastery at Darkson Designs is that both Daniel and Jesse rely on play testing and tweaking their ideas quite a bit before they put stuff out for the world to see. If they could just throw down a perfect "alpha" version every time I would probably call it quits. It would be obvious that I didn't have the game designer gene.
But, they don't. No one does. And everyone needs filters to sort the good ideas from the bad when designing a game or adding something to a game.
There are a whole bunch of filters for game ideas at Darkson, for example, the wonderful set of play testers we have.
We ask our playtesters plenty of questions to help sort the good from the bad. Some of the most important ones that we ask our play testers before releasing a new list or book idea for them to work on are:
Does it sound fun? Is there something else we should be doing? Are we insane for doing this?
My wife is my sanity check for most issues. If I explain it to her, and she says it's too complicated or weird, I scrap it long before Rob or Clint get a look at it. Odds are good it was something that just sounded good in my head and wouldn't have survived their review anyway.
Once it passes Theresa's check, I'll bounce concepts off the heads of other friends. Devon and Maciej at Pulp Monsters are wonderful sounding boards for that. Then the play testers weigh in, and boy are they a big help. And then there's you guys on the forum. We really appreciate the comments and critiques you give about what we've done and what we're trying to do.
I have a semi-crazy schedule planned for the rest of the month to get out all of the ideas that have been fermenting in my head since GenCon. It should be fun. Barring Christmas, I've laid out 15 days of solid writing time. I think Rob and Clint have set themselves up to work on a few really neat game ideas too. It will be a nice end to a very productive year.
I can't wait for you guys to see what we've been up to. Once it passes through all the filters of course ;D
Cheers,
Chris