Video (screencast) What a convention or conference can do for a game designer

What a convention or conference can do for a game designer

Text of the slides is below.  Of course, there's much more to the screencast than the slides.





Dr. Lewis Pulsipher
Pulsiphergames.com
“Game Design” channel on YouTube

Why should game designers go to Cons?
I’m mixing video game (conferences) and tabletop game (conventions) in this discussion
(Brief difference: conferences focus on how to make better games; conventions focus on playing games)
Briefly:
Meet publishers and funders
Learn new techniques
Stimulate ideas
Find collaborators
Find playtesters

To meet Publishers / Funders
While much of the world is online/”virtual”, I’m convinced that face-to-face is a much stronger connection, especially for those designers without a track record (newbies)
So go and meet publishers at cons, talk with them, volunteer to work at their booths, and so forth

To Learn New Techniques
Conferences are all about talks to help you make games better
Examples: East Coast Game Conference 14
Putting stories into games
Game pitches
At tabletop conventions, seeing all the new games, playing them or watching them being played
Big tabletop conventions have many seminars (GenCon) about making and selling games
I do them myself at PrezCon, WBC, GenCon, sometimes ECGC

Stimulation of Ideas
When I go home from a tabletop convention or ECGC, I’m full of game ideas
In the case of ECGC, mostly for videos for my classes, and for things that would go into books
I drive (up to 650 miles one way), so I have lots of time to think, recording my thoughts on my easy-to-manipulate PDA-voice recorder
Of course, you have to follow-up once you get home

To Find Collaborators
I do not look for collaborators, but some people work better with another person
If you are looking for a non-local collaborator, where better to look than at a con?
If you hear someone speak about things that interest you . . . Talk with them

To Find Playtesters
As for playtesters, that’s more problematic, but you might find some willing to blind test
Of course, you might persuade people to playtest at the convention, but often people want to play the new published games, not prototypes

Keep an Open Mind. Everything at a con should be stimulating for a designer.

11 More "need to Knows" about game design

This 12+ minute screencast is primarily for aspiring designers, not for professionals.
This is a followup to "10 'need to knows' about game design" http://gamasutra.com/blogs/LewisPulsipher/20141020/228137/Video_screencast_10_quotNeed_to_Knowsquot_about_Game_Design.php

The text of the slides follows.  Of course, there's a lot more to the screencast than this text.
11 MORE “need to knows” about Game Design
Dr. Lewis Pulsipher
Pulsiphergames.com
“Game Design” channel on YouTube
Original 10 Wasn’t Enough
I started with 10 “ntk”
But I thought of more than 10, so here some more.  Keep in mind, the first 10, taken as a whole, are the most important
But these 11 are also important

The List
Focus on the essence
Professionals design for other people, not for themselves
Professional game design is about discipline, not self-indulgence
Game Design is not Mind Control
There is no perfect game
You probably won’t be good at game design, at first
Games are not just Mechanics
Making a good game takes a LOT of time
Piracy is everywhere (for “digital” goods)
You’re an Entertainer, or a teacher, not a gift to the world
“Fail Faster”

Focus on the Essence
My motto: "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."  (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
Another form, about Japanese gardening, is "Your garden is not complete until there is nothing else that you can remove."
If you’re making a puzzle, complexity might be a goal; If you’re making “an experience”, simplicity may not be a goal.  For most games, the goal is to keep only what you absolutely need

Professionals design for other people, not for themselves
 [As this has been misunderstood by someone who didn't listen to the screencast, I interject the following: Your primary goal (for most games, recognizing there are specialized such as educational) is to entertain other people, not yourself.  The goal is to entertain, the design is for other people.  As such, any list of features that you think will make your game a surefire hit will likely turn into a soul-less mess.  So perhaps I could have worded the slide, "Professionals work to entertain other people, not themselves".]
Your job is to entertain or enlighten other people
You are not typical, or you wouldn’t be designing games!
So what you like, may not be typical of what large groups like
Don’t rely solely on your own opinions about the worth of a game
I recently had a game published that I didn’t think was a Big Deal, just a nice little game – but others had different opinions
And I have had games I thought were outstanding, but have not been published

Professional game design is about discipline, not self-indulgence
Many designers are self-indulgent, often thinking of themselves as “artists” who are blessing the world with their brilliance – so they do whatever they want
POPPYCOCK! (Though you can do this if you’re not interested in selling any games . . .)
Do player-centric, not designer-centric (or art-centric) design
Game design is compromise.  It’s never “perfect”

Game Design is not Mind Control
Some designers want to, in effect, control all that the player is doing and thinking
And if you think about it, a novel can be approached in this way
Though most novelists want to influence, not control
Linear video games can approach this ideal
But most game players want to have the ability to control the outcome of the game (and want “agency” as well)
Better to think of game design as offering players opportunities, not forcing anything on the players

There is no perfect game
There are dozens of genres for a reason
Tastes of game players vary as much as tastes of music-lovers.  (I dislike rap.  I like classical.  Some people love rap.  Some hate classical.  And so on.)
And there’s no room for perfectionism in professional design
You need to get games DONE.  Especially in video games
The Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns sets in quickly for professionals, less so for hobbyist designers
So at some point, you have to finish even though the game isn’t perfect

You probably won’t be good at it, at first
How often do you start to do something complex, requiring a lot of critical thinking, and yet you’re immediately good at it?  Never!
Most complex things worth doing, take a long time to do well
Even playing a game well can take a long time to master
Some theorize that you need a great many opportunities to fail/succeed before you can become good at something
And there’s the “10,000 hours” notion, too, though I don’t take the quantification seriously

Games are not just Mechanics
What matters is the impression you make on the player(s)
MDA: Mechanics, Dynamics, “Aesthetics” (I prefer “Impressions” for the last)
Collections of mechanics can feel soul-less
If you choose mechanics based on a model, they tend to fit together; if they’re just collections, they’ll often not fit together

Making a good game takes a LOT of time
Most of what happens in game design takes place in the mind – of the designer, and of the players
Outsiders/non-practitioners tend to minimize the difficulty because they don’t see it happening
Moreover, it’s easy to get a game to 80%, it’s the last 20% that takes most of the game design time and effort
And then, if it’s a tabletop game, scheduling and manufacturing can take many months
Mayfair recently published a game they’d had for 8 years
I have a game that may be published in 2015, publisher accepted it in 2005 [sic]

Piracy
Piracy of “digitally”-produced games is rampant
And there’s practically nothing you can do about it
Free-to-play helps (in video games), but even the in-app purchases in F2P are pirated regularly
Fortunately, not much piracy in tabletop games (unless it’s primarily a rulebook, such as RPGs)

You’re an Entertainer or a Teacher, not a "gift to the world”
That is, if you want to be a commercial game designer
Publishers are in business to make money (mostly, but especially in video games)
Yes, you can self-publish
But a lot more people want games to entertain or enlighten them, than want games to be “art”
“We want to entertain people by surprising them, so I really don’t think we are psychologists – we are nothing but entertainers.” -Shigeru Miyamoto (Zelda, Donkey Kong, Wii Fit, etc. )
Reiner Knizia (over 500 [sic] published games) also says his purpose is entertainment

“Fail Faster”
You want to find all the ways your game can fail, and eliminate or fix them
So the faster you fail, the quicker you can eliminate or fix the failures
Or start over!
Get a playable prototype done as soon as possible – there is NO Substitute
If you’re doing a video game, try to make a paper prototype first, to try things out
Until I think of more ntk, enjoy your designing