作者：Andrew Looney

规则1：不要老想着赚钱

在我们开始谈论如何制作出一款优秀的游戏之前，我先要明确一个事实，即当你在开发下一款热门游戏之前，不要老是想着如何才能因此赚钱。游戏产业是一个充满竞争与挑战的产业，比起其它因素，更多的投入与努力才是帮助你在此取得成功的关键因素。设计游戏与制作游戏和推销游戏同等重要。没有人能够轻松地取得成功，不经历几年的磨练而取得成功的几率真的很低。事实上，我们这些正在依靠这个行业赚钱糊口的人至今仍然看不透这个真理。

也就是说，创造游戏可以非常有趣；如果你享受于一款游戏并认为自己也能够创造出这种乐趣，那么你不妨着手一试。过去，我一直认为比起创造性的技术，游戏设计更像是一种神奇的探索行为。当我第一次对“冰室游戏”进行描写时，我甚至不会想到自己也可以创造游戏。甚至在John Cooper基于我的理念开发了一款游戏后，我仍然认为创造游戏只是一种运气和巧合。但是最后，我逐渐意识到其实开发游戏并没有想象中那么高深莫测。游戏设计就是一种创造形式，就像诗歌，绘画以及电影制作：只要你有创造性和活力，你便能够创造出一款游戏。但是问题是：如何才能制作出一款真正优秀的游戏？

先行课A：加入一个游戏团队

在你开始创造游戏之前，你可以与三五个好友一起玩一些有趣的游戏，参考这些游戏并将一些有帮助的内容记在你的计划表上。这么做有多个原因：首先：这很有趣。这叫享受生活，而且每个人都应该这么做。其次，如果你没有关于游戏产业的相关知识，你很难想出一个让人耳目一新的灵感。已经有很多人走在你前方了，而且你能够想到的一些创意也有可能被人捷足先登了。而且，因为游戏设计就像是一种艺术形式，如果你想要编写音乐，你就必须先明确自己所要的音乐风格，并学习那些已经成功的音乐作品。最后，你需要结交一些忠实于游戏的玩家，并经常与他们进行交流，因为他们对于你来说就是最合适的游戏测试者。如果你能够友善地对待并合理地训练这些忠实玩家，那么他们对于你未来的游戏开发将非常有帮助。

先行课B：重视游戏测试者的意见

不要老是固执己见，应该尝试着去邀请别人帮你进行游戏测试。你必须牢记，这些测试者先是你的朋友，后才是你的试验者。你必须确保他们能够愉快地玩游戏。你应该先让这些测试者尝试游戏，并在享受到游戏的乐趣后再谈游戏测试。耐心听取他们的所有反馈与批评，并致以最真诚的感谢，而且一旦你发觉游戏不再值得投入更多精力和时间，那就立即打住结束这些测试吧。你最好能够适时终止测试，让玩家有再次玩游戏的想法而非从此厌倦了游戏。这时候你应该礼貌地对这些测试者说道：“感谢大家，我已经从这次测试中学到了很多有意义的东西，而我将会以此为鉴不断完善游戏，提供给你们一款更加有趣的好游戏。”

先行课C：鼓励诚实的批评

假设你有一个测试团队，那么你需要主动要求他们做出一些可能会让你难过的事，也就是提出批评。

也许要求朋友或者亲戚给出意见很难，一般来说你的亲友永远不会对于你的创意作品给出任何负面的意见，游戏设计也不例外。但是如果你不能够先取悦亲近的人，就更别谈如何满足陌生人了。

为了变得更有技巧性，你必须学会从失败中找到教训，同时你还必须感谢那些愿意为你提出批评的测试者，感谢他们畅所欲言地说出“这一点都不有趣”甚至是“这真的很糟糕”这类直白的建议。不要为此而受伤，你应该开心地接受这些建议，并鼓励测试者们给予更多批评建议。只有通过这些反馈你才能更好地学习并成长。你必须听从批评，面对批评并不断完善创新而应对这些批评。

规则2：满足自己

对你来说第一个也是最重要的批评家就是你自己。对于你来说，只有你认可了自己的游戏，才能够争取全世界的认可。我想肯定有人比我玩了更多次的《Fluxx》（游戏邦注：Andrew Looney创作的一款游戏），但是我也敢肯定这些人只是少数。即使你创造了一款沉浸式游戏，而为了博得更多玩家的好感你也必须反复玩这款游戏。如果你说你已经精通游戏的所有关卡了，那也是因为你一直在教授其他玩家如何玩游戏。所以，如果你自己都不喜欢玩自己的游戏了，那么问题就出现了。因为既然自己都不想玩了，怎么还会有人愿意尝试你的游戏呢？

不要因为自己玩自己创造的游戏感到羞愧。如果你不能为玩家呈现一款真正成熟的好游戏，那才叫真正的羞愧。所以尽管关上门好好玩你的游戏吧。先选择自己最喜欢的一个关卡并把自己当成一个真正的玩家，然后再继续尝试其它关卡。这时候你无需去关注其他玩家是如何做的，而是应该以自己作为一名主动玩家的身份去做出决策。利用一些填充玩具去充当你的竞争对手，并试着摇骰子去决定敌人的决策。也许人类竞争者会好一点，但是虚构的好友形象也能够对你有所帮助。

规则3：不要苛求首次尝试的完美收场

在任何有关艺术的学科中，我们在回顾首部作品时总会发现缺了点什么，特别是就艺术设计而言。虽然你能够从首款游戏中吸收到一些非常有价值的经验教训，但是你千万不要幻想着能够借此成为赢家。不要只是带着成功的期望去进行游戏测试，因为在测试中玩家将会问你很多难以预料的问题，做出让你难以想象的举动，甚至一些你觉得是犯规的行为。而你必须泰然自若地处理这些情况，向他们解释你的打算，以及是否会采取相关措施。不要犹豫去改变游戏中的相关规则，因为当你在进行游戏测试的时候，测试者需要知道自己的意见能够得到接纳并实践。如果你发现当前的规则不再起作用了，千万不要再执着地将其应用于游戏中了。要么改变它继续发展游戏，要么放弃它重新开始另外的设计。最重要的是，当你发现早期的游戏理念不再适用于游戏了，就应该立马放手。

规则4：规则越简单越好

任何曾将一款新游戏展示在我面前的人都知道，如果他们的规则概述太长，我一定会说“够了够了，我们开始游戏吧！”我认为游戏中最乏味的部分便是开发者总想着在一开始就向玩家解释所有的问题，但是殊不知玩家都认为越快开始游戏越好。你需要尝试着去组织游戏，让玩家能够尽快开始游戏，而游戏规则可以在后来需要的时候再出现。（游戏邦注：作者认为在其制作的所有游戏中，《Fluxx》是这个规则的最佳例子。）

保持游戏规则简介明了不只要求你能够让玩家快速开始游戏，同时你还需要剔除一些不必要的游戏规则。更多规则=更多解释=更多需要记住=更多需要争论。考虑到玩家是否真心需要你所添加的所有规则，并且思考如果你不能用这些规则解决问题，那么完善现有的规则是否会比添加更多新规则更有效？

如果可能的话，你可以去学习一些电脑编程。因为设计一款游戏与编写一款软件有异曲同工之处，特别是简化游戏规则与优化子程序更是拥有许多共同点。

规则5：让玩家愿意坚持到最后

任何玩过《大富翁》的玩家都知道，比起被游戏淘汰，不能卷土重来也不能退出游戏的尴尬场面更加让人纠结。

一旦我们明显地看到有人即将取得胜利，那么游戏也就形同结束了，而无需真正走到最后的关卡。相同地，一旦你清楚地意识到自己即将输掉游戏，那么对于你来说游戏也就结束了，但是出于参与精神，你仍然会坚持走到最后一步。我认为这两种情况都是可以避免的，相反地，我们应该让所有玩家感受到在到达游戏的最后一秒之前，自己仍然有机会反败为胜。我一直坚持着这一理念去制作我的游戏，特别在《Fluxx》中表现最为明显，在这里游戏的胜利是不可预见的，而因此有很多玩家总是抱怨如此设计“太随机”。

如何才能最好地创造出这种感受（游戏邦注：即让玩家能够在游戏的最后阶段分出胜负），我们便需要设定多条胜利路线。我最喜欢的例子便是《Hearts》，在这里玩家要么可以对比谁拿到的点最少，要么可以对比谁能够争取到所有的点。显然，我在自己的多款游戏中都使用了这一原则，包括《Chrononauts》中的3种获胜方法以及《Fluxx》中的23种方法。

规则6：不要忘了玩游戏

这是我的其中一条座右铭：通过玩而有所收获。（就像著名影星Captain James T. Kirk的话：“你的脑子越复杂，你就更需要玩一些简单的游戏。”）

基本上来看，对于大多数游戏，“玩”不一定总是与竞争属性相联系。就像儿童“出去玩”，也只是因为他们想这么做罢了，而不参杂任何“求胜”心理。有时候，不论是儿童还是成人，最重要的游戏形式便是简单地弄乱一些事物。举个例子来说吧，就像人们最初在玩“冰室游戏”的时候，都是简单地挪动棋子，用各种方法去筑成一些金字塔形状的物体，并看着它们是如何最终坍塌。

所以这就像是一种测试游戏的过程。经常地，当我与开发小组坐下来开始测试新游戏机制，我们只是简单地试验游戏中一些较小的机制，而非一整款游戏。当我们将一套原型卡片分配下去后，我会说“我们只是想要看看这些游戏机制是否可行。”经常地，在结束测试后我会将那些不可行的机制丢弃。而另外一些时候，我会纠正测试中出现错误的机制，不断完善它们从而让其真正成为对游戏有帮助的重要因素。

规则7：关注德国市场

任何关注着游戏市场动向的人都会发现近来一些较为出色的新游戏都是来自于德国。（游戏邦注：作者认为原因便是德国人比美国人更喜欢玩桌面游戏。）就像我在先行课1中所提到的，你应该好好尝试下这些游戏，就像你可以从Reiner Knizia（游戏邦注：来自于德国的游戏设计大师）以及他的游戏作品中学到一些有意义的内容。

既然我说到了德国，我必须提到一些我认为很有趣的德语词汇，我在英语中都找不到任何与之相对应的单词（也就是说它们是不能翻译的），而且它们都能够有效地表现游戏设计中的一些情感因素。它们分别是“Gemütlich”和“Schadenfreude”。

“Gemütlich”的意思对周边环境感到安逸。也就是说如果哪个地方可以被称为“Gemütlich”，那一定是个舒适，自在，宜人并温暖的地方。在这里我们能够尽情释放自己，无拘无束。

而相反地，“Schadenfreude”是指幸灾乐祸，即在别人的不幸中寻找自己的满足感。这是建立在别人的失败与痛苦上的喜悦。

而玩家也能够在游戏中感受到“Gemütlich”与“Schadenfreude”这两种感受。当玩家在经过各种探索后占领了所有区域，将会有一种喜悦与安全感，而这就是“Gemütlich”。而当你击败了敌人后，你便会感受到“Schadenfreude”。为何英语却没有与这两个次相对应的单词呢？

获得开心有多种途径，不同的人也喜欢不同的东西。对于某些人来说，感受到“Gemütlich”的满足能够给予他们快乐；但是对于另外一些人来说，真正的快乐是看着别人失败而感受到的“Schadenfreude”。

规则8：重视游戏的外观设计

我可以忍受房间的墙壁上没有任何艺术品或者穿着单一颜色的衣服，但是却不能忍受一款丑陋的游戏。在Looney Labs公司，我们可以很自豪地称我们的游戏设备不仅很有趣，而且很好看。（当然了，“游戏设计”包含了游戏中的所有元素，但是最突出的还是游戏卡片或者代表玩家的华丽标志。）如果你自己并不是一位杰出的美工，那么你最好雇佣或者邀请专业团队帮你设计。

汪意：考虑实际开发问题

我在游戏产业中所犯的一个大错误，也是我第一次遇到的麻烦便是：创造了一个非常难搞的游戏部件。围绕着一个古怪的短篇故事情节，这些虚构的讨人厌的小金字塔在过去十年里真的让我和Kristin（另一位设计师）伤透了脑筋，但最终我们也将其调整到最佳状态而融入到游戏中去并生产出来。我们之所以能够成功，是因为我们暂时放弃了这些麻烦的部件，而关注于那些无需花大钱就能够得以生产的部件（例如扑克牌）。

规则9：停工期——允许玩家享受片刻的间歇

这是一个见仁见智的问题，我之所以提及它还是因为规则2。我不喜欢去介入玩家的游戏过程。在游戏中，我们都会投入思考，而我希望让玩家能够在我的游戏中放开思维。这时候，也许我可以看会杂志，与其他人聊天，或者溜到厨房里享用一片土司。我最喜欢做的事是在一款游戏的停工期时，将自己的重心投放在另外一款游戏身上。

在我们的工作室里有一个传统，便是在未轮到自己工作时我们就会远离游戏，而当轮到自己了，我们也会立刻投入游戏（我们在工作室设了一个铜锣）。一旦我听到铜锣声，便会立刻回到自己的岗位上。事实上，工作室里的所有成员都清楚，只要说“铜锣”这个单词，我便会马上出现了。

我觉得我的头脑就像一台计算机，里头同时运行着许多软件系统。计算机系统能够在一个过程，也称作多功能过程间同时完成多种任务，而这时每一个程序都会通过处理器而发挥自己的作用。相同地，当我当前的任务结束后，我也希望能够关闭脑子里那个思考的区域，并直到下次开始进行任务时再次打开。在停工期间，我便可以做其它事情了。

这也是我为何不怎么玩《Zendo》的原因，即使这款游戏可以说是当前最受欢迎的冰室游戏之一：我只是不想在其他玩家专注于这款游戏的同时也进去参一脚。

当然了，解决停工期问题的更好办法是彻底消除它，而使你的游戏成为实时游戏。这样，在任何非回合制游戏中，我便不需要在停工期的时候思考该做些什么了，因为你的工作将一直围绕着游戏而进行！这也是为什么《IceTowers》和《Icehouse》一直是我最喜欢的冰室游戏前5名榜单的原因。

规则10：了解你的受众

你必须牢记，不同的人有不同的品味，没有一样东西能够同时迎合所有人。你应该思考什么类型的玩家会喜欢你的游戏，你最想迎合哪些玩家的需求，并因此调整你的游戏以适应这些玩家的口味。除此之外，你还需要仔细思考要在游戏中添加多少运气元素。严肃点的游戏要求更多策略更少运气；而休闲游戏玩家则更加青睐于运气类游戏。怎么做才能让你的游戏达到最大的平衡？你可以参考规则2。

规则11：得到肯定后方可停工

关于游戏价值的测试只有在游戏结束后才能真正体现出来：如果玩家真正愿意并希望再次游戏，你就成功了。如果相反，你就需要再次回到游戏设计中，思考问题的所在。

游戏邦注：原文发表于2003年1月，所涉事件及数据以当时为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Andrew Looney’s Eleven Principles of Game Design

By Andrew Looney

Rule #0: Don’t Expect to Make Money

Before even talking about what makes for a good game, I want to dash your hopes of becoming rich by inventing the next big hit. This is a very competitive and difficult business to break into, and what it takes to succeed, more than anything else, is a LOT of hard work. The task of designing a game is easy compared to the tasks of getting it into production and getting people to even look at it, let alone buy a copy. Those who’ve succeeded are the exceptions, and no one succeeds without years upon years of hard work. The fact that we’re actually making a living at this now is still hard to believe.

That said, inventing a game can be fun, and if you enjoy playing games and feel the urge to create your own, you might as well give it a try. I used to think of game design as being more an act of magical discovery than creative craftsmanship. When I first described Icehouse, I didn’t think of games as something I could really create myself. Even after John Cooper developed a game based on my ideas, I continued to regard game inventing as something that happened only by luck or accident. But eventually I came to realize that it’s not so mystical. Game design is just another creative form, like poetry, painting, or film-making: anyone with enough creative drive and energy can set about creating a game. The question is, what does it take to come up with a really good game?

Pre-Req #A: Join a Gaming Group

Before you ever even think about inventing your own games, you should be getting together with friends and playing as many existing games as you can work into your schedule. There are many important reasons for this. First, it’s fun. It’s called having a life, and everyone should do that. Secondly, you can’t begin to come up with a cool new idea for a game unless you have a working knowledge of the state of the industry. An awful lot of people have gone before you, and what might seem new and original to you has probably already been done. Repeatedly. Plus, it’s like any art form – if you want to write music, you must first develop your musical tastes, and study the works of the masters who’ve gone before you. Thirdly, you’ll need a group of dedicated gamers who you get together with often, because they will be your playtesters. If you treat them nicely and train them right, they will become invaluable to you.

Pre-Req #B: Cherish Your Playtesters

Don’t be too pushy when it comes to asking folks to playtest. Remember, they are your friends first, and guinea pigs second. Make sure they’re having a good time. Start the evening with known winners and suggest your experimental special only after some Other Fun has been had and people are looking for something new. Listen to *all* reactions and criticisms, say Thank You a lot, and pull the plug on the session as soon as you realize the game is broken, rather than letting it drag on past the point of being fun. Better to stop quickly and leave them interested in trying again someday than to leave them hating the experience and thus not wanting to let you try again. Just say “Thanks, I’ve learned what I need to from this test, I’ll let you know when I have an improved version to try out.”

Pre-Req #C: Encourage Honest Criticism

Assuming you have a playtesting group, you must now ask them to do something that can be both difficult and painful: give you criticism.

It can be a tricky thing, asking for the opinions of friends and family. Loved ones are notoriously unwilling to give negative feedback on any creative project, and game design is no different. But you can’t hope to satsify strangers until you’ve learned to entertain the home team.

To become skilled, you will need to learn from your failures, and you can only appreciate the lessons of those failures if your trusted advisors feel they can speak freely and say things like “this was not fun” or even “that totally sucked.” Far from suffering hurt feelings, you must go beyond merely accepting such remarks, and actively encourage negative criticism. It is only through such feedback that you will learn and grow. You must listen to it, face it, and respond to it with new innovations.

Rule #1: Gratify Yourself

Your first and most important critic should always be yourself. You must expect to play your game more than anyone else in the world. I suppose there could be people out there who’ve played more Fluxx than me, but if so, there can’t be very many of them. Even if you create a massively addictive game, you will still need to play it constantly in order to get others interested in it. If you are to have any success at all with your game, it will be because you’ve taught lots of other people how to play, usually by example. So if you don’t enjoy the experience of playing your own game, again and again and again, then you’ve got problems. You can’t expect anyone else to like your game if you yourself don’t want to play it every chance you get.

Don’t be embarrassed about playing with yourself. What can *really* be embarrassing is showing off an incomplete work prematurely. So just close the door and embrace schizophrenia. Start with a known favorite and train yourself to play a game first as one player, then as the other. Ignore what you know about the “other player’s” hand and make the best decision for the active player that you can. Get a stuffed animal to stand in as your competitor if that helps, and try rolling dice to come up with enemy decisions. Human competitors are obviously best, but imaginary friends will always have their place.

Rule #2: First Attempts Are Always Lame

In any artistic discipline, one’s first few works will always be an embarrassment later, and so it is with game design. You will learn invaluable lessons from the first game you invent, but don’t imagine for a moment that it will be a winner. Don’t go into a playtesting session with any expectations of success… the players will ask things you never anticipated, attempt things you couldn’t have imagined, and break rules in ways you will find amazing. You must take it all in stride, explain what you had intended, and either enforce or adapt the rules as needed. Don’t be afraid to change the rules in the middle of a game you are playtesting… playtesters need to understand at the outset that this might happen. If you realize an existing rule isn’t working, don’t continue with the game. Either change it and keep going, or change it and start over. The key thing is, you must be prepared to let go of early ideas as soon as they are proven to be either lame or unworkable.

Rule #3: Keep the Rules Short

Anyone who’s tried to teach me a new game knows that if the rules briefing goes on too long, I’ll start saying “Enough Rules, Let’s Play!” I consider the worst part of gaming to be that tedious phase at the beginning where you have to explain everything, so the sooner we can get started, the better. Try to structure your game so that play can begin quickly, with rules that aren’t required until later being introduced as needed. (Obviously there’s no better example of this in my own work than Fluxx…)

Keeping the ruleset short and sweet does more than provide for a fast startup. You should seek to eliminate every unnecessary rule you can. More rules = more to explain = more to remember = more to argue about. Consider the need for each rule you add and see if you can’t solve the problem another way, by refining an existing rule, say, instead of adding a new one.

If possible, study computer programming. Designing a game is quite similar in many ways to writing software, and in particular, the task of optimizing a sub-routine has a lot in common with simplifying a set of game rules.

Rule #4: Keep It Exciting

Anyone who’s played Monopoly knows that the only thing worse than being eliminated from the game is NOT being eliminated when you have no chance of making a comeback.

Once it becomes obvious who will win, the game is effectively over, even if it takes a few turns (or more) to reach the actual conclusion. Similarly, once it becomes obvious that you will lose, the game is over for you, and it is only good sportsmanship that keeps you participating to the end. In my opinion, both of these situations are to be avoided: All players should feel like they still have a chance of winning the game, right up until the very end. This is something I’ve sought to do in all of my games, but no where is it more obvious than in Fluxx, in which victory is so unpredictable as to cause people to sometimes complain that it’s “too random”.

One of the best ways to engender this feeling (of still being able to win in the latter stages of the game) is to have multiple routes to victory. My favorite example of this is Hearts, which challenges you to take as few points as possible, or instead to take them all. Obviously, I’ve used this principle myself many times, from the trio of ways you can win in Chrononauts, to the 23 ways to win Fluxx.

Rule #5: Don’t Forget to Play

Here’s another saying of mine: I learn by playing. (Remember the immortal words of Captain James T. Kirk, who once said “The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play.”)

At the most fundamental level, “play” has nothing to do with the competitive nature of most games. As kids, “going outside to play” was all about doing whatever you wanted, not trying to “win.” Sometimes the most important form of play, whether by a kid or an adult, is the simple act of messing about with something. For example, the first “game” most people play with a set of icehouse pieces is that of simply goofing around with the pyramids, stacking them up in various ways, and watching them fall over.

So it is with playtesting a new game. Often, when I sit down with my group to test something new, it will just be an experiment, never intended to be a fully-playable game, but simply a piece of one. “I just want to see if this mechanism works at all,” I’ll say, as we deal out a set of prototype cards I just created. Often, at the end of such a test, I’ll throw it all away, because it just didn’t work. Other times it will confirm my hopes and become part of something else I’m developing.

Rule #6: Pay Attention to the Germans

Anyone who’s been monitoring the games market knows that a lot of the coolest new stuff these days is being imported to us from Germany. (That’s because Germans in general play parlor games a lot more than we Americans do.) As noted under Pre-Req A, you should be checking these out anyway, as there are many game design lessons to be had by studying the works of Reiner Knizia and his ilk.

But as long as I’m on the subject of Deutschland, I want to mention a pair of German words which I find interesting. Both of these words represent concepts that we don’t have our own words for in English (i.e. they are untranslatable) and both represent emotions which are useful in thinking about game design. These words are Gemütlich and Schadenfreude.

The meaning of Gemütlich is comfort in one’s surroundings. If the place is Gemütlich, then it is cozy, comfortable, pleasant, and warm. There’s a place for everything, and everything is in its place.

Schadenfreude, on the other hand, is a malicious satisfaction in the misfortunes of others. It is the finding of enjoyment in the failures and sufferings of someone else.

The feelings of Gemütlich and Schadenfreude are both small rewards which can be enjoyed by the players of a game. When you’ve captured all the territories you seek and feel you have well-built defenses, the situation feels Gemütlich. When you overwhelm and defeat your opponents, you feel Schadenfreude. Why don’t we have words for these excellent concepts in English?

There are many different ways to have fun, and different people enjoy different things. For some, fun can be found through the Gemütlich accomplishment of construction; for others, the real fun is the Schadenfreude of watching (or better still, bringing about) the defeat of the opponents.

Rule #7: Game Pieces Should be Beautiful

I can’t stand to play with ugly game pieces any more than I could live in a house without art on the walls or wearing clothing of just one color. At Looney Labs, we pride ourselves on producing game equipment that is not only fun to use, but enjoyable to look at. (Of course, the “game pieces” is meant to include all components, be they ordinary cards or fancy schmancy player tokens.) If you aren’t an artist yourself, find one to hire or team up with.

Caveat: Think About Production Issues

One of the biggest mistakes I made in this business was also my first: inventing an extremely difficult-to-make game piece. Those pesky little pyramids I imagined, in the context of writing a wacky short story (rather than trying to invent a marketable product) gave Kristin and I many fits over the decade it took us to finally get them really and truly into production. The reason we did finally succeed is that we gave up on it for awhile and focused on game pieces which don’t cost a fortune to get produced (i.e. playing cards).

Rule #8: Downtime: All Or Nothing

This one is strictly a matter of preference, but I mention it because of Rule #1. I don’t like having to pay attention to the game during other players’ turns. When the only thing happening is that someone else is thinking, I like being free to let my own mind wander. Perhaps I’ll look at a magazine, or talk quietly with someone else, or perhaps, if I think I have time, I’ll slip out to the kitchen to get a slice of toast. One thing I particularly enjoy doing is using the downtime from one game to take my turn in another game.

I’m so prone to wandering off when it isn’t my turn that it has become traditional at my house for someone to hit the gong (yes, we have a giant gong in our house… doesn’t everybody?) when it’s my turn and I’ve disappeared from the table. And wherever I am in the house, I come running back when I hear that gong. In fact, people now know just to yell out the word “Gong!” when my turn rolls around.

I think of my brain as being like a computer, running multiple software applications at once. A computer’s operating system juggles many tasks simultaneously through a process called multi-tasking, in which each of many programs gets a moment’s use of the processor. Similarly, when my turn is over, I want to be able to shut that area of thought down entirely until I need to wake it up again for my next turn. I can use that time to accomplish something else.

This is one reason why I myself don’t play a lot of Zendo, even though it’s one of the most popular Icehouse games around today: I just don’t like having to pay attention to everything everyone else does during their turns.

Of course, a better solution to the downtime problem is to eliminate it completely, by making your game real-time. I won’t be thinking about what to do during my downtime if there isn’t any… in a turnless game, it’s always your turn! That’s why IceTowers and Icehouse are both in the top 5 on my list of favorite Icehouse games.

Rule #9: Know Your Audience

Remember always that different folks have different tastes and nothing will please everyone. Consider the types of gamers who might be drawn to your game, figure out whose interests you most wish to cater to, and tailor your game to suit those tastes. Consider carefully, for example, the amount of luck you want to introduce into your game. Serious games will want more strategy and less luck; casual gamers who favor party games will prefer plenty of luck. What’s the right balance for *your* game? Listen to Rule #1.

Rule #10: Keep Working Until You Hear Those 3 Magic Words: “Let’s Play Again!”

The ultimate test of a game’s worth occurs as soon as the game ends: if the players genuinely and unhesitatingly want to play more, you’ve got a winner. If not, then go back into your game design cave and tinker with your design some more.（source:wunderland）