Design prosess, I show you mine you show me yours

I usually start with an idea, that floats around in my head for a period of time. Interestingly enough the idea of the moment is what I think about as I go to sleep, either that is good for my game design, or just a method of forgetting about the days activities.

It then gets to something like anydice, or a spreadsheet to work out probabilities and mechanical balance ideas, then rule writing.

From that point I do rough prototypes, and try and convince people to play test with me.

So I start always with what if.
What will happen if instead of using one pawn to move I use two (linked by some symbol or color)?
And then I imagine the consequences of such mechanic.
I use paint to build my diagrams. I start with minimal board (5X5 or 6x6).
I try to play the game with minimal rules. If something is blocking somewhere or at some step then I introduce a rule to solve the problem. And so on until I produce the game " Twins" ready for playtesting : an abstract game based on capture where a player in turn have to move 2 pawns and try to capture all the opponent pawns.
I will publish it one day.
I hope this will help.
Always what if is my first thinking.
What if I use the water?
What if I split the board onto 3 or 5 territories?
What if I use food (peanuts) in my game?
and so on.

Get an idea of a theme (most often) or a mechanic (rarely).

Think and plan. Usually for several months. Most ideas never get past this level.

Start writing down notes in a text files on my computer. Many more ideas get killed here.

If I keep working on an idea, get the text file(s) into some kind of version control system to keep track of things (and a simple way to get backups of all changes, and make the files easy to access from all my computers).

Research. Since so far all but one of my designs have been wargames, reading everything possible on the subject of the game is important. Most projects get stuck here for a long time (or forever).

Map. For the current project only a very small partial map so far, but large enough to be able to try out different mechanics of the game. Good to have some idea what the final map will look like, but no need to spend time on all the details before the rules etc are sorted out.

Counters (and/or cards). I have my countersheet effect for Inkscape, so predictably it is something I work from very early in a new project. In my spreadsheet document where I put the text for the cards/counters I also keep other notes for each one. It will just be silly placeholder counters with fake values on to begin with, but it is enough to have something to push around to try out mechanics.

VASSAL module. This is very easy to do and really useful for playtesting (even solitaire). I just make a very simple one with a map and some dumb counters you can move around on the map.

Then, well, it's just small incremental changes, more research, playtesting, etc, over and over, I guess. Only one of my games reached this stage (and then blind playtesting and publishing) so I don't know a great deal about this. I know a lot more about the earlier stages of development.

Running a conference talk with James Ernest? I had no idea. You are in the big leagues now. That's pretty cool.

i usually come up with rules for games by attempting to be as intelligent as the people on this forum!
(i had to look up what your latin meant BTW rcjames14... :) )

honestly though, i dont come up with games completely, i come up with mechanics as individual items.
What i do is i keep a binder of ways of creating movement, combat resolution, trick-taking, etc.

for me, this is usually done by seeing how ONE thing works, and finding out multiple ways how to represent that particular thing, whether it be driving fast, throwing acurately, aiming a gun, or whatever. Then i ask myself things like "how do i represent that with dice....how about with cards...how about tiles...etc." My favorite one is, "how do i represent that physically" (like sorry sliders, or paper football, or pogs).

An important thing for me to do, is not only find a way with different mediums (dice, cards, tiles) but also have a spectrum of implicity and simulation, or how simple or involved i wish to take it. another VERY important thing to do is find an organization method to sort these ideas!

While i do this collection of mechanics, i consult my sketchbook. this book holds drawings of creatures, machines, lands, whatever - even synopses to stories! Since i have an art background, this book is more a collection of books, all filled. This part is generally where i do my "what if's", as its easier for me to do that while sketching, rather than calculating!

After that, it works out to be kind of a "pick-and-choose" where the mechanics described above become main assets (i.e. what is the engine, what is the wheels, what steers it, etc.) and the art becomes an integral part of the design aspect.
(to give an example: settlers of catan would have the dice odds collecting resource cards as the engine, accounting with the cards to build to other resource hexes as the wheels, and trading would be the streering...."longest road" and "biggest army" would be air conditioning! hehe)

Although, I definitely have to go back to the drawing board multiple times, as the individual mechanics dont always see eye to eye! Sometimes this is for the better, because its sometimes easier to manipulate something rather than create from sctratch.

I am reminded of some of the learning exercises that I developed as a teaching assistant. By setting up the rules well and laying out a goal, I was able to turn over the task of learning to the students themselves. However, I was frequently surprised by what they actually learned. In the end, substance was actually not as important as method, and these types of games seemed to be the best way to teach skills (as opposed to knowledge).

I wonder if that same observation is true of casual games? Whether all games teach skills, regardless of their substantive theme? And, what those skills might be? I don't usually pay attention to this in my casual game design. But, it is an interesting question.

The more that I design, the more I am intrigued to hear how others design, especially how they practice design. Whereas I tend to practice in a holistic way... writing a set of rules and rewriting. Rewriting and oftentimes abandoning the rules that I wrote. I can see how it might be fun to just focus on one particular mechanic: like movement, or card draw, or scoring, or piece placement and think about all the different ways that it could be done (absent any other mechanics). I guess it's because I see rules are extremely contextual. But, sometimes that means that I get stuck on particular mechanics and can't escape the contextual box I have created. It's definitely during those times that I wish that I practiced your isolated lateral type of thinking more.

I know people teach design classes. I wonder whether they focus on this type of undirected brainstorming and imagination. I bet it would be fun (either to participate in or to organize).

Thanks for the book rec. I'll put it on my 'gift to myself' list for this Christmas and see if I can set aside some time for practice. At the very least, the book should be good for spontaneous design tests for those who might want to design for me.

As I find myself transitioning into a producer more and more these days, I wonder how well I'll be able to spot other people's talent at what I have relied upon myself to provide. Of course, I firmly believe that an excellent game can be spotted easily (by almost anyone). But, as we all know all too well, an excellent game is always first a design and it is much much harder to gauge/prove to others your ability to create that. Perhaps even harder than anyone else involved in the entire process, a designer has only their thoughts (and maybe a mockup) to sell. And since not even a good thinking process can always arrive at a commercial solution, a design or a designer is always a risk.

But, I've noticed over the past few years how much practice really helps, as well as honesty and curiosity. Honesty about the marketplace, what sells, what people want, whether your designs size up, where you fit in and how difficult it is to make games. Curiosity about what other people are doing, how you can improve, what is going on in other games, meeting people, taking risks, spotting opportunities. All together, they seem to have elevated my skills much as your experience at the art school.

Speaking of which, do you have sketches to look at? I'm curious. ;)

The use of light and the composition of the space in the Mizer image is quite good. But, I think your Blog Rough is probably the most impressive of the ones you've posted. You seem to have a good eye for graphic design, which really elevates your artistic abilities.