Nic Phan | Game Design

This is how I

DESIGN,

and what I've designed.

My Design Process

Research

When researching for a project, I think about how much of it has already been done. Specifically for games, I try to find what other games have done that I’m trying to accomplish.

However, most of the time, the best ideas come from outside of games. I look toward movies, books, nature, or hobbies. Solutions can be anywhere, and this is why I find it important to have hobbies and skills outside of games.

Plan

This is where the design happens. I find the best way to plan out a design is to do so visually, both so that its kept track of easier, but can also be shown to others in a collaborative environment.

I tend to use quite a bit of software to do this, such as Google Slides and Visio, but there is no substitute for paper and so I always keep a notebook on me.

Prototype

Prototyping is my (and probably the majority of dev’s) favourite part of the process. For this step, I find it’s important to spend as little time as possible developing the prototype, so that playtesters can get their hands on it as soon as possible.

But additionally, I always ensure to make enough time to polish key aspects of the prototype. People often confuse something that’s poorly implemented with something that lacks feedback. So when time permits, I try to add in as much polish and feedback as I can.

Playtest

For me, working on a single feature for an extended duration subconsciously bias’s me to it. For me, I need others to test it to find things that I become blind to during development. It always makes me happy knowing that people enjoy what I made, but I’m also satisfied when they find holes in my design, or where I went wrong when planning.

I find it best to make sure the people who playtest have as little stake in the project in possible, but these people also tend to give feedback on areas that aren’t currently being looked at. I find its key to prepare questions that target specifically what I’m trying to test.

Repeat

After a playtest, I study the results. Some of the feedback is naturally more helpful than others, but if there is nothing that I can use, it’s usually a sign that I could have conducted a better playtest. The next step is to repeat the process, with what I learned from the playtest acting as new research.