Playtest like you aren’t there

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If you are too focused by what the player is doing during a playtest, they will notice it and play differently. They will be more aware of what they’re doing and the pressure of failing will rise. You’ll always have this problem, players will never play like they would on their own, in a safe environment. But you can relieve some pressure and make it less ‘formal’. Stand back from the game and player a bit more than usual, make it less obvious you’re there and it’ll feel less like you’re judging everything he/she does. So don’t seem too involved, but definitely keep full attention. Especially when the player says something or is having trouble.

Thinking about design is way harder than actually doing it

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Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up thinking about a certain idea or mechanic. All the implications and uncertainties can drive you crazy and you start to doubt everything. At one point, it’s better to get your hands dirty, prototype and just see how it works out.

Sound is something that often gets pushed to the end of development, same with Circles. Throughout development I thought of the many ways it could work and many problems that could pop up, but it really didn’t get me far. Once I got something to work with it became way easier to determine a good direction. Working from an emotional response often is more effective than getting all tangled up in logical implications.

Design should not only be judged by the problems it solves, but by the problems it creates

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Often it’s easy to tunnel-vision when solving a particular problem, forgetting about the problems it could create. And when the solution becomes complicated, there’s a good chance it will create more problems throughout your game. Keep it simple.

This happened to me while designing a level select. Tried out many intricate versions that solved all kinds of issues, but players would only find them more confusing. See Keep it simple (stupid) for more.

Explore the design space of your game

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When you have a game system, it will have all kinds of properties and possibilities that you can make use of. Try to get as much out of it as you can and explore the limits to its logical and artistic extend.

Explore the mechanic to the depth it deserves –Chris Hecker

You’ll encounter most design problems in the end (?)

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This may not apply to all, but it did for me, so here we go:

You’ve taken your time to create great gameplay and a great game-loop. The game is fun, most problems seem solved, but really there’s still lots of work lurking in the corner.

After some amount of playtime you’ll often find many loose ends for situations you haven’t accounted for yet. Different design decisions come together to produce all kinds of edge cases that need to be handled one way or another. These are the kind of tasks that can add up weeks of design and development time before you actually finish the game. Adding something small can also turn out to be a huge task, needing to support everything else that is already in the game. This applies to both design and programming. Don’t underestimate it.

Start your idea at the player, start with Aesthetics

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These kind of Aesthetics

When coming up with ideas, think about why it would be fun/interesting for the player, not simply how cool it would be.

If you start your idea with a mechanic, it can often be hard to imagine how well it will work. You will need to playtest and iterate to achieve that uncertain fun factor. This can work well, but it’s tricky since you don’t completely know what you are aiming for (other than a cool mechanic). There may have been something fun resulting out of the mechanic, but if you don’t exactly know how it got there, you’re going to have a hard time working towards it. Your best hope is to find something fun and then try to adjust your mechanics to get more out of it.

If you start your idea at aesthetics you’ll go through another process. It will still be hard to come up with mechanics and dynamics to lead to the desired result, but at least you have something to compare it to. You can notice it and iterate towards it early on. This will cause all your mechanics to better support the aesthetics you have in mind, resulting in a better and more focused experience.

Value ideas based on the experience they support

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Anyone can come up with ‘cool’ ideas, but seeing their value for the experience you want to create is what matters. A collection of cool ideas doesn’t make a great game. It may be refreshing at the start, but it won’t become a solid experience as a whole. To get a solid game/experience all the design elements should support it in some way.

For more, definitely read: Design 101: Design Goals

A game idea should be a GAME idea

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If you have an idea for a game, ask yourself this (weird) question: why should it be a game? It may sound awesome, but wouldn’t it work better as a book? A film? Anything else? There should be a clear reason why games is the best medium for it. Is the fact that a player is going to interact with it beneficial?