Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Jordan ("Prince of Persia") Mechner's Tips for Game Designers
Jordan Mechner re-published his Tips for Game Designers, plus his older list of tips for Designing Story-Based Games.
I'm not an expert game designer. Mechner has probably forgotten more about game design than I have ever known. So I don't really feel qualified to comment on his tips beyond offering a hearty "Amen!" and noting that they jibe pretty well with my relatively limited experience.
Mechner indicates with several suggestions here that game design documents should be small, and that gameplay is more something that evolves from early prototypes and ruthless editing and iteration. I can't tell you how critical this advice should be towards indies (though it applies equally well to big-budget mainstream developers).
Interestingly, I feel his tips on "story-based" games are in many cases applicable to other kinds of games as well (where story is incidental, or even non-existent). Setting clear goals, a clear interface, and recognizing the difference between context ("The player sneaks into a castle, clobbers a guard, and puts on the guard's uniform") and the actual action ("The player watched a cut scene... of all that happening") - that is a valuable perspective for a game designer to have for any game.
Yeah, in some cases these tips are basic, but considering how often I botch the basics, I still need 'em.
And a tip o' the beanie to John Romero for the link.
Labels: Game Design
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:11 AM (Permalink)
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Cool link. Years ago I worked for Broderbund during the first attempt to move PoP to 3D. I remember seeing a white board full of guidelines I believe he wrote to the team (I wasn't on the project but heard it was from him) and will never forget the line "This level teaches and trains the player how to play the next."
What I liked about his design wisdom was a lot of it was really straight forward, common sense stuff-- but it took someone writing it down to make it apparent!
The advice about prototyping and protecting the fun when you find it is GOLDEN.
What I liked about his design wisdom was a lot of it was really straight forward, common sense stuff-- but it took someone writing it down to make it apparent!
The advice about prototyping and protecting the fun when you find it is GOLDEN.
I couldn't find a shoutbox but, I really wanted to thank you for the article you contributed to the Escapist. There's always a lot of pressure for myself and the other students to go to 'big' companies like Blizzard, Naughty Dog, etc - and I wonder if the need for prestige hurts smaller/indie companies as well.
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