Design Principle #4 – Collaboration

A wise, sometimes controversial, and well-known game designer once told me (over an impromptu breakfast at GDC), “One of the most important lessons I ever learned was that you don’t have to be an expert in everything.”  The designer creates and guides the overall vision of how the game should PLAY (not the way the game looks, not how big the game is, not how robust the code is) and consults experts in different fields to get phenomenal results.  And it works.  Allow people to do their jobs and they’ll shine.

This is seriously one of the most important things in making a great game.  If everyone on the team is invested and feels ownership of the game, then the final product can be truly inspired (I’ve seen it happen before and I’m seeing again in Tiger Eye.)  Also, no one is an island and having specialists give constructive feedback just makes the design more fun and, frankly, much, much, MUCH better.

My team tests the game and creates what I’ve designed.  The producer, art director, artists, programmers and testers (this includes beta testers) all act as the hands and eyes and minds that make the whole better than the sum of its parts.  Seeing a puzzle or story element that I thought would be cool become even more awesome than I ever could have imagined is really special.  It’s a magical process that I never get tired of experiencing.