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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: My yearly thoughts on the game design process.
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Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 04:42:36 GMT
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Gerry Kevin Wilson (whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu) wrote:

> 10. I look forward to the day when I get a job as a game designer, and
> only have to design games instead of programming them.  Implementation is
> death for the fun in game design.

I disagree (although this may because I leave as much design as possible 
undone, so I can do it intermingled with the implementation. "As much as 
possible" isn't a whole lot, but I do try.)

And, I've been a game programmer working with a game designer. In real 
life. The conclusion is, it's really a partnership. I was constantly 
going to his cubicle to work stuff out. The designer is going to have to 
worry about implementation just as much as the programmer worries about 
design. (Meaning, lots.)

9 and 8 are dead on. You will note that I never announced _So Far_, 
although I alluded to it a couple of times. I only set one deadline, 
which was "I'll handle this last batch of bug reports and release 
publically in two weeks." I succeeded, but if I had tried to predict 
*more* than two weeks in advance, the results would have been 
embarrassing. 

My only addition is "Everyone who likes your game understood it; everyone 
who didn't like it missed the point, and really wasn't the sort of person 
you were talking to anyway. If necessary, hire a slave to whisper this 
fact into your ear over and over."

--Z

-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
