Kate Grey:
“What’s your number one personal game design principle? And even better – does it have a cool name?”
The best games are made by centering the humans making them.
I thought about my answer to this for a few hours today, some folks may have seen me post and delete some replies, hahah. But if I need just one? That truly encapsulates all my #1 priorities? This is it.
This principle manifests in a bunch of ways. Obviously one is that I firmly believe that having humane work/life balance makes better games.
Another is that I think most of the best games have a strong central vision, from a creator that stands in an authorial position.
I think smaller teams make better games. I think happy people make better games.
I think every studio should be thinking of the team as their #1 product and strength, and the games are the OUTPUT of that team. People should be trained, given opportunities, given reasons to WANT to be there.
I think studios should embrace a clear studio aesthetic, defined by the team’s choices early on, and that dev teams MUST allow team-members to manifest a personal aesthetic in their work. Yes, this is in tension with the strong central vision—but it’s a tension worth navigating.
And of course, this is an anti-genAI and pro-union stance as well.
I saw a bunch of other people responding to this prompt with variants of “know your audience” and “listen to your players” and “you are not your audience” and “feedback is always valuable”. I think better games are made when the team, and the team’s vision, is treated as more important.
(note that I did not say “better _selling_ games” or “games that make more money”. That’s uh, a separate question, hahah. Sometimes compromises must be made in the name of being able to pay for food and lodging while practicing your art)