The Difference Between Goofing Off And…
The difference between goofing off and game design may appear subtle to an outsider. Especially when you’re at the concept stage, trying to figure out what type of game to make, let alone the specifics of the game.
Here’s how a well-trained outsider can tell the difference.
Someone who’s goofing off alternates between downloading demos from RealArcade and playing games that like Ticket to Ride, that, while fun, aren’t very applicable to traditional casual games.
Someone who’s a professional game designer also alternates between downloading demos from RealArcade and playing games that like Ticket to Ride, that, while fun, aren’t very applicable to traditional casual games. But every now and then he jots down some random ideas in a yellow notepad, before balling up the paper a bit later and tossing it out.
Link o’ the day
Experimental Gameplay Project - a bunch of college kids knock out 50 goofy, but often fun game mechanics in the course of a semester. Check out the Tower of Goo!
(Oh, but I was researching it, not goofing off. Just in case anyone asks, you know…)
January 15th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Authors tend to read lots of books, architects study the work done by their fellow architects, ditch diggers study the latest developments in shovel technology, (or maybe not), so it only makes sense that game developers who play games, are doing it not only for the enjoyment of it, but to see what else is being done in their field, and to get inspiration from that.
Tower of Goo was cool, and once I figured out what was going on, I thought “On a Rainy Day” was a pretty interesting idea too. Good stuff there, I’ll have to waste, er, study more of what’s going on there soon.
January 16th, 2006 at 4:30 am
It sounds like you’re kidding around but there’s a deep issue here. Probably we can only say whether a given person was fooling around at a given time after the fact, once it’s become clear whether anything productive came of the time spent. Put another way: creative people follow their instincts, consuming whatever interests them and ultimately producing work that incorporates their influences and augments them or at the least filters them, thus creating something new. Goof-offs follow their instincts, consuming whatever interests them and ultimately producing…nothing. The difference between the creatives and the goof-offs only manifests itself after the fact.
April 27th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
[...] Phil Steinmeyer talks (with tongue-in-cheek) about the difference between goofing off and designing a game. I like his take on it. It’s something I hear a lot of indies, particularly those who work alone, complain about. Time management, motivation, and discipline are common topics in the Indie Life forum over at Indiegamer. [...]