- authors
- Koster, Raph
- year
- 2014
- url
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyVTxGpEO30
- Study games
- Games hierarchy
- A game — unique rule construct
- A reskin or clone — changes presentation or content
- A variant — changes a rule
- A family — a set of variants
- A genre — a set of reskins and their variants
- In tabletop games, most of the game are actually new games. For computer games, most stay in some known genre.
- Atomization
- Games are made of games → Game subsystems are games
- each input is a game, each subsystem is a game
- build you mechanics library
- going back to old simple games is useful
- play mobile games
- distance yourself from the core problem (reframe your problem in a new language)
- books for mechanics library
- game design patterns
- game mechanics
- inventing new mechanics
- adding statistic can change game
- e.g., just counting and showing time makes it more likely to be speed-ran
- (another example is combo count — you try to do more strikes in a series)
- too much statistics is not always good. if you add new statistic—try removing an old one
- change a dimension
- work in analog materials
- force constraints (constraints improve creativity) → Restrictions enhance creativity
- add new goal
- change input
- input/control is a game in itself
- change topologies
- mixing games with similar topologies
- simulate using an oddity. select a non-optimal simulation intentionally
- e.g., simulate health with territory, simulate 3d with 1d, etc.
- transplant skin
- action remains the same but it has a different meaning, a new focus
- merge mechanics
- art
- theme
- ask deeper question
- what game system is about
- what this mechanic is about
- what is the goal of mechanic
- start with experience (top-down)
- model an unusual story
- start from system first (bottom-up)
- what does mechanic mean? what does it imply?
- use both top-down and bottom-up together — converge at the center
- life habits
- creativity is a skill (design a game every day?)
- messy desk increases creativity
- exercise
- sleep
- take notes by hand
- take risks
- positive mood works better (high stress—not)
- read
- avoid homogeneity — introduce more variety in your life
- explain things to other people
