By design
Say I am a game designer, and I have designed a game. And that game for now exists as a memory or a possibility, something I experienced, or hope to, supported perhaps by a scaffold of notes. It is a shape of play either imagined or real. And I describe it in words and I pass the text to you. And I say ‘this is my game’.
And say you are a player, and you read what I have given you. And you have an idea now, a possibility, an imagined shape of play. And the shape might be quite close to what I imagined. Or it might be nothing like it. Most likely somewhere in between. And later you express this to your friends and they imagine their own shapes. And together those imagined shapes collide and become real. The game happens. Your game.
What if your game is very similar to mine, my idea for the shape of play was passed to you intact? Does that mean you successfully played my game? Does that make me a good designer? Is this a good outcome?
What if your game is dissimilar to mine, my idea for the shape of play has been lost, and you have created something new? Does that mean you failed to play my game? Does that make me a bad designer? Is this a bad outcome?
What if you enjoy your game? Who takes credit?
What if you don’t? Who is to blame?
Perhaps good game design is accurate communication. Perhaps if I have a good idea for a game, I should strive to communicate it to you intact. Solid. To refine that idea it into something unyielding and beautiful, to be embedded in your mind like a pearl.
Or perhaps I should treat good ideas like waves. Washing over and past us and sometimes changing and moving us, sometimes a lot, sometimes not at all.
Is there a game in the wave?
Are we connected, you and I? Is any of this? And if not, if your ideas, the game you play, the fun you have—or don’t—are all at best an imperfect reflection of mine, then what did I design? My ideas? Yours?
What is game design?
Is it the skill of devising systems of play? Dice mechanics and stats and balance and probabilities? Do games require these things?
Is it the skill of describing games in written language? Or is that just writing? Is it the skill of having ideas for games? Or is that just ingenuity?
Is game design nothing at all? A flimsy framework of borrowed legitimacy hanging off our art so we can disclaim responsibility for our acts of self expression? Another game we play?
It is daunting to put oneself on the page. Sometimes it helps to have an excuse.