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Design by democracy
Or how to be a good fascist
by
Peter Molyneux
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My design history
“Next time we will do it right”
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Today and beyond
• Team size 50-80 (Fable II, other project)
• Design Department, with leads
• Upfront design
• Prototyping
• Planning
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Design Approach
“This IS the way to do it”
Really!
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Design stages
• Concept
• Prototype
• First Playable
• Vertical Slice
• Production
• Hope
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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
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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)
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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
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Vertical Slice
• The ‘is that it moment’
• All threads together
• Don’t forget music, sfx, GUI, wrapper
• Influences– Play thoughs– Test– Marketing
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Production
• Check and re check
• Play and replay
• Spot the mistakes
• Get feedback
• Have the tools to balance
• Let others have a try
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Design Influences
“who's designing this game anyway”
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Design influences
• Community:
• Press
• Other games
• Team:
• Testing
• Marketing
• Play though
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Community
• As press build up community becomes more vocal
• Its good to be inspired but not lead
• B&W momment
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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
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Team
• Are your toughest critics
• Sell your ideas
• Passion and confidence
• Beware of heroes
• Make their idea your idea
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Other games
• Make it like that but better does not work
• Shows and envy
• Polish inspiration
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Testing
• Look for gamers
• Check for boredom
• Get formalised feed back
• Have measures of quality
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Marketing
• Inform them early
• Make sure you have the lines for them
• Explain why
• Focus group horror
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Play though
• Play, and play more
• Don’t be afraid to cut
• You have to be a fascist
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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