A while back I posted the Fun in fun out article stating that having fun while creating products leads to more fun products. Although I believe this principle works, one of the ideas that emerged from this principle did not. I’m talking about Playtime, an initiative within Playlogic Game Factory to spawn new ideas, to motivate people and led them be creative.
The basic idea was to provide time, during working hours, for people to spend on their own projects. Participants of Playtime had four hours a week to create what they always wanted to created, or so was the plan. I ‘borrowed’ the idea from Google and Royal Philips Electronics, who were successful with this policy.
Unfortunately it didn’t go to plan, although some projects still have a lot of potential. So what did go wrong? Following is a small analyses.
Continue reading ‘From playtime to no time’
What makes a good game designer? How is it possible to judge a game designer? The game design profession is traditionally not something that you’re hired for straight out of school. Game designers start out as programmers, testers or any other field within the game development process. As game designer you’re responsible for the core experience of a game, of its rules, goals, progression structure, balance and feel of the game.
Usually it takes a lot of experience in the game industry to know what makes a good game and what makes a bad game., if it is at all possible to define one. Industry professional, academia and fans of games all struggle with the same question that a game designer is supposed to know by heart!
But if that’s not enough, what other – and maybe more tangible - skills should a good game designer own? Or at least strive to possess?
Continue reading ‘Designing a good game designer’
As a designer of games I always strive to have a deeper understanding of what it is that I’m designing. What are games? What is play? What is fun?
My latest attempt at answering these questions started at the Tale of tales website. The discussion was actually on a different subject but for me it turned into a discussion about games and toys. I believed that one of their projects was more of a toy then a game. But then I started thinking; what is the difference exactly?
I believe that the main difference is in the kind of play that the experience allows. As I found out, players can have different levels of authorship over the actual play experience. With toys for instance, players have full - or at least a lot - of authorship over the experience. Players decide how play is experienced, what is being played and how it is played.
Continue reading ‘Scale of authorship’
