Design by democracy

Or how to be a good fascist

by

Peter Molyneux

My design history

“Next time we will do it right”

The good old days

• Team size 2-5 (Populous, Powermonger, Theme Park)

• I was a programmer not a designer

• Ideas were born out of frustration and incompetence

• Experiment and play

• There was no internet community

• But there was press

Teams grow

• Team size 5-15 (Syndicate, Magic Carpet)

• I was a Designer who programmed

• The programmers and artist were all enthusiasts

• Don’t do it like that do it like this

• Experimental and chaotic

Here come the designers

• Team size 15-30 (Dungeon Keeper, Black&White)

• I was the designer who kinda did programming

• No longer possible to understand all aspects of the project

• Start of planning

• A lot of the design was back ended

Design departments

• Team size 40-70 (Fable, B&W II, Movies)

• Design lead, no other distractions

• Little or no idea of the technical aspects of the project

• Main design focused on mid project

• A lot more planning

• Design holds the games got to be great banner

Today and beyond

• Team size 50-80 (Fable II, other project)

• Design Department, with leads

• Upfront design

• Prototyping

• Planning

Design Approach

“This IS the way to do it”

Really!

Design stages

• Concept

• Prototype

• First Playable

• Vertical Slice

• Production

• Hope

Concept

• Core of game play

• Core of environment

• Core of Gameplay

• Influences– Idea has to come from one person– Small team of no more than 5– Focus on pillars– Flavor video

Prototype

• Focus on elements that cannot be seen elsewhere

• Don’t expect it to be ‘fun’ gameplay

• Full design document

• Influences– Wider team– Publisher– Marketing (they are your allies)

First playable

• More to do with pipelines than proving design

• Scary moments for design

• Still not ‘fun’ game play

• Influences– Team– Very scary publisher feed back

Vertical Slice

• The ‘is that it moment’

• All threads together

• Don’t forget music, sfx, GUI, wrapper

• Influences– Play thoughs– Test– Marketing

Production

• Check and re check

• Play and replay

• Spot the mistakes

• Get feedback

• Have the tools to balance

• Let others have a try

Design Influences

“who's designing this game anyway”

Design influences

• Community:

• Press

• Other games

• Team:

• Testing

• Marketing

• Play though

Community

• As press build up community becomes more vocal

• Its good to be inspired but not lead

• B&W momment

Press

• Its great to talk

• Show and tell but don’t promise

• Wait for the reaction

• Tough choices between reviews and sales

• The are gamers

Team

• Are your toughest critics

• Sell your ideas

• Passion and confidence

• Beware of heroes

• Make their idea your idea

Other games

• Make it like that but better does not work

• Shows and envy

• Polish inspiration

Testing

• Look for gamers

• Check for boredom

• Get formalised feed back

• Have measures of quality

Marketing

• Inform them early

• Make sure you have the lines for them

• Explain why

• Focus group horror

Play though

• Play, and play more

• Don’t be afraid to cut

• You have to be a fascist

Conclusions

• There is no democracy just inspiration

• Give people a voice

• Listen more than talk

• Your ideas are as bad as everyone else's

• Believe

• Accept the errors

• Design is holistic