Read Chapters 1-2 of "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses"

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Introduction

What is Game Design?

Game Design is the act of of deciding what a game should be.

Focus on Fundamentals

A good but simple base is better than a complex but bad one. Board games and traditional games (like sports and gambling, or playground games like tag and hide-and-seek) persist because they have a strong fundamental base.

We might as well omit to study Nature because she is old. -- Henry David Thoreau

Avoid genre specific stuff as much as possible, instead focus on the player psychology.

To create, one must first destroy. -- Pablo Picasso

Every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you one corner, and it is for you to find the other three. -- Confucius

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Chapter 1: In the beginning, there is the Designer

What Skills does a Game Designer need?

• Animation
• Anthropology
• Architecture
• Brainstorming
• Business
• Cinematography
• Communication
• Creative Writing
• Economics
• Engineering
• Games
• History
• Management
• Mathematics
• Music
• Psychology
• Public Speaking
• Sound Design
• Technical Writing
• Visual Arts

skill above all: Listening

To:

• Self -- 1, 7, 35
• Team -- Chapters 26 and 27
• Audience -- 9-11, 24, 25, and 33
• Game -- Most
• Client -- 30-32

Recommended Reading

• Cirque du Soleil: The Spark by John U Bacon
• Challenges for Game Designers by Brenda Brathwaite and Ian Schreiber

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Chapter Two: The Designer Creates an Experience

What is a Game Designer's Goal?

To Create An Experience.

The Game is Not The Experience

The game is just an artifact created to (hopefully) elicit the experience. Designers are judged by what the player experiences, not what is actually in the game.

Is This Unique to Games?

Games require agency from the user. It allows for deeper, more personal storytelling, but relies on communicating to the player, as invisibly as possible, what they need to do.

Three Practical Approaches to Chasing Rainbows

Psychology

Behaviorists: measurable behavior, with objective, controlled experimentation. Phenominalists: the nature of human experience, "the feeling of what happens".

Behaviorists dominant, Phenominalists not good science, subjective by definition. Methodology of Behaviorists re: experimentation design is worth looking at, and phenominalists an interesting idea to recontextualize

Anthropology

What humans do. Cultural and economic tendencies. "Human Nature". Look to cultural anthropology

Design

Musicians, Architects, Authors, Filmmakers, Industrial Designers, Web designers, Graphic Designers, Illustrators, Choreographers, etc etc. Artists.

How to make things. How to make things work well. How to make things easy to use.

To learn, a wide but shallow approach is favorable. Better to know the basics of many different disciplines.

Introspection

Peril 1: False Conclusions About Reality

Not scientific. Just because it feels true doesn't mean it is. But we only care about what it feels like is true anyway. Remember, we make experiences, not things. Design is art, not science.

Peril 2: What is True of My Experiences May Not Be True For Others

"I like this game, therefore it's good." Nope. What matters is the player's experience, not mine. The game is for your audience, not for you. That said, you also can't not make decisions. So be bold and make decisions, but keep the audience in front of mind.

Dissect Your Feelings

LENS 001: The Lens of Emotion

1. What emotions would I like my player to experience? Why?
2. What emotions are players (including me) having when they play now?  Why?
3. How can I bridge the gap between the emotions players are having and the emotions I'd like them to have?

Defeating Heisenberg

He of Uncertainty fame. Paralysis by analysis. Exercises to get the juices flowing.

Analyze Memories

Describe an important or memorable experience from memory in as much detail as possible.

Two Passes

Have an experience (say, playing a game, watching a movie, or going for a hike) and describe it from memory the same day.

Sneak Glances

As you are having experiences, try to take note of highlights and emotional beats, just barely dipping into the most general analysis

Observe Silently

Not unlike meditation. Try to really focus and analyze an experience. Can be as simple as sitting quietly for a few minutes and really trying to take in as many details as possible.

Essential Experience

LENS 002: The Lens of Essential Experience
To use this lens, stop thinking about your game and start thinking about the experience of the player.
1. What experience do I want the player to have?
2. What is essential to that experience?
3. How can my game capture that essence?