Deconstruction and Synthesis of Game Design: From System to Soul and Back

This is not a textbook, but an essay. If you read this and then go on to create some kind of unholy mess — my hands are clean. But that’s actually for the best, because speed-reading was invented specifically for textbooks. Seriously: they usually contain just a couple of worthwhile ideas, stretched across countless chapters. Some people turn paragraphs into chapters, others fill them with unverifiable life examples of strangers, and the rest is lyrical digression, self-promotion, and moral preparation for those same ideas. Which is understandable, you need to sell a book, not a one-page pamphlet.

I don’t like that. So here you’ll find only distilled thoughts, concrete examples from well-known games, and, okay, maybe the occasional digression from the core topic, but strictly for humor. Or to fill the void of my life with something that looks like productivity. Or to share my, in my opinion, brilliant thoughts, since there’s nowhere else to put them. Or to seem smart and profound. Or I don’t know... at gunpoint. But aside from these cases, and any others I may invent later, never!

Humor (as I hope, and justify its presence here) helps information stick better (as does vulgarity, but you understand what kind of choice I had). As a joke, I also added skill progression and achievements to the text. Please don’t take this seriously (or even semi-seriously) think of it as guerrilla gamification of content. Feel free to ignore this indulgence entirely if it doesn’t interest you.

[ SYSTEM ENTRY ]

New user detected... Initializing class “Game Designer”... Please choose a starting skill (it will receive +15% leveling speed (let’s try to trick your subconscious)):

[Analyst]: Systems thinking; understanding balance, economy, mechanics, and parameters.

[Empath]: Working with narrative, emotions, aesthetics, and story hooks; in short, creating atmosphere and a cohesive experience.

[Practitioner]: Intuitive understanding of pure gameplay and mastery of concrete techniques.

[Administrator]: Control over functionality and team, psychology, and a meta-approach to game creation.

Don’t forget to remember which one you picked!

[Achievement “Abuser”]: You thought about how to break the experience-point system in this book. Congratulations, you have tester instincts.

[Achievement “Initiation”]: You have officially entered the system. There is no way back, but there is a load button (actually, there isn’t).

Profile created. Remember: you will need all of these skills. Good luck, Game Designer!