A background image used throughout the blog website. It is a map. It shows a castle on a bluff above a lake, with a small walled town around it. The lake has rivers flowing out on either side, and is surrounded by forests. The castle is rendered in high detrail and as you go to the edges of the image the map gets sketchier and sketchier

Workflows: Not every second saved is equal

I’m here to talk about two related topics!:

1. Tools teams should prioritize their users’ ability to maintain focus while working.
2. Not every second saved is equal, even for the same person within the same workflow.

There is a tendency for tools teams to use the metric “time saved” to help prioritize their work. For example:
– “This change will shave 5s off of an operation that is used 1000 times a day across the studio.”
– “This change will save 2 hours on a task that 10 people do once a month.”

2020-08-212026-07-08Design Workflows

Primer on Tech Designers

I gave a presentation on the Technical Game Design role via Twitch at the Indy Summer Showcase in July 2020. In it I include my definition of tech design, some examples of what tech design work is like in a AAA studio, and some detail on how one can become a Tech Designer.

2020-06-132026-07-08Game Design

Class Prompt: Diminishing Returns in Content

Let’s talk about a problem that plagues live service games.
If your game relies on releasing MORE content in pre-existing categories –
characters in League of Legends or Overwatch, exotics in Destiny, new cards in Magic: The Gathering – then there are
two fundamental design problems you need to solve:

– Diminishing Returns: How do you make content that is as exciting on the Nth update as it was on the first update? How can your 50th piece of content compete with all 49 previous pieces?

– Narrowing Design Space: How do you leave room for each new thing to feel unique and different over time?

2020-05-242026-07-08Design Workflows

Class Prompt: The Technical Game Design Role

“Technical game designer” as a role in the industry is hard to pin down. I’ve known people with that title who solely build tools, and others who never touch code or tools and instead build content. Ask around, and every tech designer will give you a slightly different definition for the role. Here’s mine.

“Technical Game Design” is a subset of Game Design as a discipline. There are two features that set the role apart: