YSA Avoiding Crap Game Design

I recently curated a panel for the Freeplay Independent Gaming Festival: How Every Little Decision Can Bring You Closer To or Further Away from Creating Crap

A (self-described) “handsome and debonaire stranger” said to me the best way to avoid creating dull projects is “don’t work for shit companies” and “only go indie if you have a brain”. But what happens if you (think) you don’t work for a shit company and you have a brain? Are there still little things you can do that gradually and inevitably steer your project into the sea of mediocrity? This session is a discussion about how all of those little design and process decisions build to make or break your game.

And now, thanks to Stephan Schutze, I can share the audio from the panel!:

I opened with a short intro, and then moved to Floyd Mueller, who directs the Exertion Games Lab at RMIT. He spoke about how you can avoid crap game design during prototyping:

Freeplay2011-Avoiding Crap Game Design-Floyd Mueller by christydena

Then David May, Lead Programmer at Big Ant Studios, shared things he’s learnt from working for 12 years on mainly console games:

Freeplay2011-Avoiding Crap Game Design-David May by christydena

We then introduced Tom Killen, co-founder of The Voxel Agents, who generously replaced the flight-disrupted Luke Muscat. Tom spoke about methods his company use to prototype games:

Photo by Jason Poley, 2011
Freeplay2011-Avoiding Crap Game Design-Tom Killen by christydena

I then quickly wrapped up (we were running out of time), with some quick methods I’ve learnt regarding writing:
Freeplay2011-Avoiding Crap Game Design-Christy Dena by christydena

Let us know what you think! 🙂