The important moves

It always makes me smile when a team member says in a meeting “I don’t know what to do right now…”

I think about the luxury that underlies this expression. A farmer or a factory worker could never say something like that!

One thing I communicate is the importance of being professional. Game design is about identifying the systems and timing to make certain moves.

Systems, timing, moves.

The moves can go well or badly, it doesn’t matter. I mean, of course, it does, but even if they go badly, it is important to do them on the one hand and learn on the other. A client last year told me: “Look, I accept bad news. What I don’t like are surprises”.

Examples of moves we can make when we don’t know what to do:

• plan
• look for player insights
• try to understand the why of certain systems and define the problem
• understand and outline business goals
• measure what has already been released
• share insights with the team
• plan experiments and playtests

It’s up to you to identify the systems and the timing, and now I hope you have something to do!