Engineers have math problems.
Artists have still lifes and figure drawing.
Musicians have scales.

What do you guys see as the "basics" of game design? What tools, methods or exercises are used to either create a game or to examine a game?

Uh, yeah. That's my big clever question for the day.

- J

Jared A. Sorensen wrote: What do you guys see as the "basics" of game design? What tools, methods or exercises are used to either create a game or to examine a game?

By coincidence, I'd just finished reading that essay yesterday- I'd managed to pick up all four Inter*Action/Interactive Fantasy magazines on Ebay last week, and not cheaply. "I Have No Words" is probably one of the best things I've ever read on game design and I've been actively creating a library on the topic.

Damn it!! I've been trying to get hold of the IF issues for years now.

Best,
Ron

Who wrote "I Have No Words"?

Paul

Rolegames are social mediations where all participants are assumed to be somewhat familiar with each other, though this is not essential. Dice, stats, mechanics et al provide topics for socialization and possibly establish limits on socialization.

Since they are not a mediation whic stands alone they always comprise other mediations within themselves. The most common is language.

Social dynamics, language and theme are the basics components for me.

Greg Costikyan wrote it- and after visiting his website, posted above I found a lot of other interesting articles and essays at http://www.costik.com/articles.html

Where Stories End and Games Begin and Publish or Perish? seem particularly apt for Indie game design although I don't think either cover any new ground for us all.

I found Costikyan's article pretty interesting, but I think we've not really answered Jared's query, which I also found pretty damned interesting.

So what are game designer calisthenics? What excercises might one practice to create good games?

I'd pose that one way to do this would be similar to the excellent creative writing helper What If? by Bernays and Painter. (Sadly, I think the book is out of print, but definitely worth getting if you're looking for a good book on creative writing). In the book, the authors present a large number of exercises that address various aspects of creative writing -- dialogue, characterization, and so on.

Is there an analog for this in game design? I think so, but I'm not sure how to go about creating the specific examples.

Jared, what are game design issues you find yourself coming back to time and again? Conflict resolution? Rewards systems? Perhaps exercises that focused just on these things would be helpful. One could set up parameters, then require the designer to craft a reward system, for example, under those guidelines. The parameters could be simply a premise for a game (easier said than done, I'll grant you), then the designer must create a suitable reward system or die mechanic or whatever.

It'd be cool to see folks workshop these ideas, in part to see how they did it, but also to see the many divergent ideas.


One other idea: I work for a agricultural magazine, and one of our most popular features is "Can this farm be saved?" -- a play on our sister magazine Ladies Home Journal's quasi-famous "Can this marriage be saved?" Basically, an expert assesses how the family farm business (or marriage!) might be better handled or how it might be fairly passed on to younger generations.

It might be very interesting to either have folks post their own "Can this game be saved?" I know Jared has his own comments about various games, like the farily recent threads on Mage and Werewolf, for example. I'd love to see Jared or anyone else rewrite a game they really like, but think is flawed. Doing so would, I think, help everyone -- the designer doing it, the designers reading and the possible players who take the "fix-it" and put it into action! Heck, might even take a stab at it myself.

I'd suggest that should anyone try this, they begin with a concise explanation of why they think the game fails, and what goals they will try to meet to make "save" the thing.

Hey,

Back to the basics:

1) using tons of available games, play, reflect, play, reflect, discuss, reflect, play, reflect

2) eventually, without forcing it, invent one particular game element of interest, and whatever else might be needed to get that game element into action

3) play it, reflect, play it, reflect, discuss, reflect, suffer, re-write, suffer badly, re-write

4) play it, discuss, suffer badly, re-write

5) when exhausted, put it in a nice format

Best,
Ron

The only thing that helps me design or understand designs better, is to play a lot of games. Most of my better ideas come from playing boardgames, card games, and even videogames. If you find yourself having passed 6 hours playing a game, and not realizing it, then you know its got something. What's that something? What makes it tick? Can you convert it or use it differenty? What is it about that mechanic that enforces/encourages a style of play? What strategies work from it?

The second thing, I call "Journalistic mechanics" Journalistic editing involves mercilessly crushing, compacting, and most of all, cutting away at words, but in this case, do it to mechanics. I usually have 3 design goals listed, and if it conflicts or fails to meet the three, I chop it, hard.

Some games you may find interesting as design research: Boardgames- Ghosts, Inner Circle, Sung Ka, Othello, Tenjo, Dominoes, Jenga, Stacko(Uno+Jenga) Card Games- Uno, 13

Chris

Zak's list:

Tools:
GNS (and is constantly re-remembering it. Though I'm now solid on "moment of decision")
Unknown Factor (whether it's D/F/K or Unknown at Begin/Mid/End)
Color/Setting/System/Character/Situation
Willing audience (Forge & gaming group)
Inspiration (forums, Books, Film, RPGs, Science Articles, News)

Exercises:
Monday Night Indie Gaming, where we deliberately try different games
One presentable game/month (Harlekin-Maus)
Constantly writing up half-baked ideas (Harlekin-Maus' In the Works)
Lots of scratch paper in the bathroom and near the bed. The trick is finding a pen that my kitten hasn't run away with :)