作者：Mark Rosewater

早前我们曾谈到Brian Tinsman提出的让研发部设计者聚在一起分享彼此观点的双周例会。每一名参加会议的设计者都可以自己选择与设计相关的话题进行陈述。这些陈述内容将能够帮助我们更好地讨论并理解游戏设计中的各种问题。在我的第一次陈述中，我选择了德国工业设计师Dieter Rams所提出的“游戏设计10大原则”。我始终坚持设计就是设计，不论你创造的是转瞬即逝的物体，还是实实存在的生物，是灯具还是时钟。

对于每一个原则，我都会谈谈我的感受，以及它是如何影响Magic设计。我已经在第一部分文章中谈论了前面5大原则，并将在今天的文章里解析余下的5个原则。为了唤起你们的记忆，我将再次列出Dieter Rams关于优秀游戏设计的10大原则：

1）好设计具有创造性。

2）好设计具有实用性。

3）好设计具有美感。

4）好设计有助于我们了解产品。

5）好设计不会很高调。

6）好设计是诚信。

7）好设计经久耐用。

8）好设计不放过任何一个细节。

9）好设计重视与环境相协调。

10）好设计就是尽量避免“设计”。

因为太喜欢这些原则了，所以我将这个列表贴在我的办公桌附近，并以此随时警醒我进行思考。下面开始今天的分析：

6）好设计是诚信。

我曾经接受了很多关于创造性写作的课程，其中最让我印象深刻的是大学时候一位英语女教授的课。那堂课与我之前接触过的创造性写作课程不同，老师并不是喋喋不休地专注于教授我们如何写作，而是更加倾向于让我们学会观察并理解别人的作品。也就是，比起制作红酒，她更喜欢品酒。她是创造性小说的鉴赏家。这对于创造性写作老师来说是一大优势，因为这让她能够从其他老师所抓不到的视角去看待这门课程。

我记得某一天，她问了全班一个问题：对于一名作家来说最重要的职责是什么？她的答案是–诚实。我们问道，对什么诚实？对任何事物诚实–对作为作家的自己，对你的角色，对你的故事以及对你的读者。她认为，写作最重要的任务是让读者能够找到故事中蕴含的真理。这意味着什么？她说写作的核心是观察和交流。作为作者，我们总是在寻找关于人类境况的各种真理，而一旦你找到了它们，你就必须刨根究底地去挖掘本质，并与你的读者进行分享。

另外一种思考方法便是，从另一个角度去看待这个问题，即从读者的视角进行思考。想想你曾经看过的书中讲了什么。是什么让你喜欢一本书？作者总会找机会与读者沟通，并传达书本中的核心内容。作者们只是用语言表达出我们平时欲言又止的一些内容罢。作者与你，也就是读者，建立起某种联系，或情感，或精神，或逻辑关系。他们会用常人不擅长的方法进行表达。

如果作者的最终角色是创造出深层次的联系，那么他们就更需要诚实地表达自己所想要传达的内容。如果他们想要挖掘真理，那么他们就需要坦诚地去寻找这些真理。但是为何诚实以对如此困难呢？因为，人们已经习惯了对自己撒谎。生活中总是充满各种不如意，我们总是难以应付一些所谓的事实。就是因为这样，人类才会习惯于避开那些让人痛苦的事。但是，作者，却是个不能够选择逃避的角色。他们必须迎面任何好与坏，虽然这不是件易事。

但是我们说了这么多，又与设计有何关联？当然了，关联可大了。我相信，作者并不是唯一一个站在追求真理浪尖上的角色。我相信，所有艺术家都在努力面对着相同的问题。而在我眼中，设计者就是艺术家。

游戏设计者也面临着与作家相似的任务，即创造出一款能够与观众相联系的游戏。我们也总是在努力寻找真理。而我们心目中的真理却与作家们所寻找的不相同。为什么？因为我们是基于不同媒介而进行创作。写作是关于文字与交流；而游戏是关于行动与决策。游戏设计者通过让玩家遭遇与现实生活不同但相关的境况而传达基本的游戏真理。

举个例子来说，游戏可以通过逆境体现真理。众所周知，在生活中我们总是面对着许多难以决定的事。而这些困难的决定还常常把我们圈在一个没有任何人的牢笼里，只剩下我们自己。遭遇逆境的感受，应对挑战的情感以及当你身边发生了不好的事而你又必须做出决定时的内心想法等人类的普遍情感。而游戏则为你创造了一个安全的环境，就像书籍给予你的寄托，你可以避免面对现实世界中的那些害怕与恐惧。游戏与书籍一样，都是用来帮助我们发泄情感的好工具。

如何将此运用至Magic设计中？设计者总是愿意以宏观（障碍物设计）到微观（纸牌设计）的角度检验自己的工作，做出相关决策。一方面你需要听从你的直觉，一方面你必须确保你的想法是否适用于游戏机制，以及你的小规划是否能够匹配大规划等等，而这又与神话故事有种异曲同工之处。

诚实才能确保你不会让自己的喜好控制视角，你所创造的纸牌不应该是根据你能够做些什么，而是你需要做些什么。纸牌不管在虚拟空间，还是在实际联系中，都应该有真实感。你应该按照观众的要求进行实践。总之，作为一名诚实的Magic设计者，你必须尽可能地让你的纸牌得到玩家的信任。

7）好设计经久耐用。

当我还是婴儿的时候，我曾经收到过一条柔软蓬松的明黄色婴儿毯。在我早期的记忆中，那是一条我在睡觉时盖着的柔软的黄色毛毯。小时候，我到哪里都离不开这条毯子。但是后来，我的父母告诉我，这条毯子太过残破了，我最好不要再把它带出门，而我想说洗一洗应该就没事。但是又过了一段时间，我的父母再次跟我强调，这条毯子真的不应该再跟着我出门，我就在晚上睡觉时盖就好。但是这样它白天不就“无事可做”了？我记得，在我7岁的时候，这条毯子最终消失匿迹。

在我14岁的时候，某一天我和妈妈一起坐在缆车上（小时候我们的家庭度假大多选择滑雪），她随口提到以前和我爸爸一起“剪碎”我的婴儿毯子的事。什么？！她继续阐述着这个故事，在我7岁的时候，她和我爸爸曾经联系过我的儿科医师，因为他们都认为我已超过使用婴儿毯子的年龄。医生也同意了他们的观点，并给出了以下建议：每晚，当我睡着之后我的爸爸妈妈要偷偷溜进我的房间，并拿剪刀在婴儿毯子的边缘剪出一条缝。这样随着时间的推移，毯子将会越来越破。而当毯子变得越加破烂时，他们就有理由劝我不要再使用它，把它留在记忆中。

显然，对于一个7岁的儿童来说，他没有能力去辨别为何自己心爱的毯子会越来越破，或者至少他不懂这种破损并不符合常理，直到在缆车听到真相。那时的我真的很失落。我关于这条毯子的记忆真的很美好，但是最后却知道它是如此下场，我真的很难过。后来我花了一段时间一直在思考一个问题，即为何这件事会让我如此伤心？我的答案是，因为我失去了最心爱的童年玩意儿。

许多年过后，当我再次回想起这个事件时，我问了自己一个问题：为什么我称那条毯子是我最心爱的童年玩意儿？因为我所有的童年记忆都与之相关。那为何我有如此多与之相关的记忆呢？为何它能够击败我的其它玩具或者其它婴儿毯而成为我最喜欢的童年回忆？最简单的原因便是，它的寿命比其它东西都长。我之所以会有这么多关于这条毯子的记忆，是因为它总是待在我身边。所以我最心爱的毯子的最重要特征是–经久耐用。

如果你想要创造一样经得住时间考验的产品，那你就必须确保这件产品有能力与时间相抗衡。我经常提到我们是如何看待Magic游戏。就像研发部门所考虑到的，我们并不想制作一款转瞬即逝的游戏，而是希望我们的游戏能够长久地存在着。这就等于我在设计纸牌中所说的长久性。我的目标并不是创造能够满足当前需要的纸牌，我想要创造出经典。这种动力非常重要，因为它能够帮助你的设计更上一层楼。一次性的物品有一次性的设计理念。而经典的东西也应该采取永恒的设计理念。

你的设计心态非常重要，如果你激起了这种斗志，那么设计也就只是一种心理活动而已。如果你解决问题的方法只是寻找答案，这样你将会在偶然找到一个答案后便失去任何兴趣。当你的设计再上一层楼后，你可以重新回顾过去那些简单的答案，并从中寻找一些更加适当的方法，做出更加优秀的设计。作为一名Magic设计者，我认为如果我能够制作出一款经得起挑战的游戏，并拥有许多效仿者，那么这也许就是我最引以为豪的一款游戏。我之所以会这么想是因为我知道我的工作有更高的目标，而不只是填充空白文件。当我在设计的时候，我会努力寻找答案，而如果需要的话，我也会努力寻找更多需要解答的问题。

在制作出经典游戏的过程中，你必须不断测试你的设计。而最重要的测试工具是时间。如果你可以制作出任何超越你游戏设置的内容，并让它成为游戏的一大组成部分，那么它必将能够成为你的宝贵财富。

8）好设计不放过任何一个细节。

当你真正从事写作多年时，你会发现比起自己内心的愿望，你的作品更加突出的是个人主题。我曾经遇到一位写作老师，她认为每一位作家都应该有属于自己的独特主题。如果你研究各作家的作品，你会发现他们都有一个与别人不同的特殊主题内容。这是个思维训练，不断询问我们是否找到自己的主题。

在经过多方面思考，并反复阅读我自己的作品，我最终得出了结论，即我的个人主题是：当人们总是尝试着用各种原因和逻辑去束缚生活时，他们生活的核心也深深受制于情感。我之所以会得出这个结论是受到我曾导过的一出独幕剧的影响，在这出剧中，主角通过在董事会中进行情感斗争而解决了一场道德困境。（这部剧叫做《Leggo My Ego》）

我又是如何在游戏研发中实践这一个人主题？我创造了玩家的心理统计特征，并以此解释不同内容是如何在情感方面满足不同玩家的需求。作为游戏设计者，我们可以尝试着从逻辑上推断玩家需要什么，但是最终，我们还是要真正了解他们的情感，才能传达最优秀的游戏体验。

但是这些又与原则8有何关系？就像我说过的，关系可大了。理解情感的一方面也要求我们要知道你能给予对方何种动力。这个问题的答案很多，其中一个答案便是–关注点点滴滴的小事。比起面对大局，人们更喜欢处理一些小细节。如此，他们会在面对一些小事物时投入更多情感因素。也就是，如果一位艺术家能够设法完成一件件细微的小任务，那么这就标志着他们最终定能够圆满完成更多大任务。

关于这点的最好例子是，你可以回想一下你最喜欢的电视节目，想想你是从什么时候开始真正喜欢它。我最喜欢的电视节目是“捉鬼者巴菲”（游戏邦注：这是一部风靡美国的电视影集）。在第一季中，巴菲必须与一位女巫进行抗衡，这位女巫尝试着通过“太阳谷高中”而走向魔界。在这一季中，巴菲成为了啦啦队队长，但是这在当时并未起到特殊的作用。（根据记录，第一季在整个系列中收视率最低）而这一季以女巫被困在啦啦队的奖杯中为结尾。我们也在最后看到了奖杯的特写镜头，一双眼睛缓缓睁开，我们知道，女巫已被困在里头。

为未来铺设脚本。其中有一个场景是，一位名叫Oz的角色（扮演者是Seth Green）在“太阳谷高中”等待着巴菲。他一直紧盯着奖杯。而当巴菲出现时，Oz告诉巴菲这个奖杯一直在环视四周。看起来这像是一句毫无关联的对白，但是这却真正在提醒广大观众，这就是这出剧的细节所在。而这些貌似不相干的细节场景却真的让我感受到了这个电视节目的优秀所在。

这就是为何我总是努力创造类似“奖杯之眼”的时刻。这就是为何我会花很多时间去专研任何小细节的原因。大家会不断挖掘Magic设计。我希望自己的脚步更快。因为人们看重任何小细节，所以这些小事物才会变得更加重要。

9）好设计重视与环境相协调。

我认为这点是10大原则中最容易被误解的一点。乍看之下很多人会以为Rams说的保护环境。但是我认为这却不是Rams的真正本意。Rams并未提及“自然、树木”环境，而是指游戏道具的使用环境。如果一名工业设计师正在制作一展台灯，那么他就必须思考这展台灯能够被放在哪里。而且不只是位置，他也要思考谁会怎样使用这盏灯。所以Rams这里所说的环境是告诉设计者应该把握所设计道具在用户生活中的合适位置。

在Magic设计中，这意味着许多不同的东西。当我们在设计一张纸牌时，设计者必须考虑玩家会将纸牌用于哪里。我们的每一块布景设置都设有一名主要设计者，而他的任务则是从全局角度查看每块布景设置的合理性。所以，设计一块布景就像烹饪一道佳肴。一名厨师制作的不是各种食物，他也在通过各种食物创造一顿美味。厨师需将所有食材联系起来。甚至是那些世界级大厨，他们会在正式餐宴前尝试制作不同样式，以此进行搭配，从而做出最令人满意的一桌宴席。

而客人品味菜肴就等于游戏测试。事实上，设计技巧最重要的一点便是从游戏测试中吸取教训。就像经验丰富的大厨只要一根小汤匙就能够确定用量一样，游戏设计者也必须能够通过玩纸牌而做出判断。只有这样，设计者才知道如何做出改变。完成某主题的设定还需要添加什么内容或者要明确一个固定方向应该适当缩减哪些要素？

“任何人都不是与世隔绝的孤岛。”这只是一张Magic纸牌。好吧，我猜想一座孤岛是一张Magic纸牌，但是如果你是想深入了解更多哲学观点而不只是表面内容，那么我的看法也没有任何帮助了。设计者必须掌握每一张纸牌所处的情境。而如果设计者忽略了这一点，将会导致所有的场景设置出现相互矛盾的局面。

10）好设计就是尽量避免“设计”。

我是用多强的意志力才让自己不只是用草草的一段话概括了这一点并结束整篇文章。（对于那些新加入的读者来说，我也许是一个拥有很强观念的人。）就像我在原则8里提到的，我们现在正处在设计领域，而我也就此讨论了很多。如果你的游戏不再依赖于某个组件，那么这个组件也可以脱离游戏了。任何东西都可以从你的设计中脱离出去。

为什么会这样？这与我在原则6中提到的类似。艺术的核心就是交流。而你作为一名艺术家，总是需要与观众进行互动。而如果你传达的信息越复杂，那么你就越难将其传达给观众。而纸牌设计也是同样道理。如果我希望你关注纸牌的特定方面，那么每一个新添加的元素都会逐渐模糊我所要传达的信息。

第二个原因，也是很重要的一大因素是，根据定义，交易纸牌游戏是各种因素的混合体。游戏的核心是，玩家需要从上千种选择中挑出自己所心仪的桥牌。这就意味着至少会有60张不同的纸牌混合在一起。为了使游戏看起来更讲究，你就必须尽可能地让每一张纸牌的表达更清晰，因为你很难回避混合纸牌时所出现的复杂现象。

第三，设计过程中总是需要意识到资源问题。设计空间看似很广，其实非常有限。如果一张纸牌就能够帮助你完成所有使命，那么你就要好好利用它去凸显其它纸牌。对于众多设计新手来说，他们常犯的错误是不相信一个元素就能够完成一个优秀的纸牌设计。所以很多新设计者总是尽可能地往纸牌里塞进各种能够想到的内容。但是这样不仅会造成资源浪费，而且会导致被塞得慢慢的纸牌不再有机会凸显魅力。所以我们必须牢记，特别是在纸牌设计中：如果有哪些元素即使去掉了也不会对纸牌造成影响，那么就果断撤销这些元素！

根据以上分析，另外一个设计者常犯的错误是，总是执着于设计技术。比起创造所需要的设计，设计者好像一直在创造一些他们能够创造的内容。他们制作纸牌，仅是因为他们能够制作这些纸牌，即使从整体看来这些纸牌没有多大作用。我想Rams正是看到设计中存在如此多不必要的修饰才会提出这一原则。好的设计必须是包含我们所需要的内容，同时排除那些不必要的修饰。

Rams观点

我之所以将所有描述汇集在一起是因为我真的很欣赏这10大原则。就像我反复强调的，设计收音机闹钟与设计Magic设置没有多大差别。而这个想法也在我了解了Rams关于设计理念的原则后进一步加深了。而且无一例外，这10大原则对于Magic设计都很重要。如果一名设计灯具的设计师能够帮助我这个Magic设计者，那么这就证明了我所说的设计具有普遍性观点。

游戏邦注：原文发表于2010年5月17日，所涉事件和数据均以当时为准。（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）

The Ten Principles for Good Design, Part 2

Mark Rosewater

Two weeks ago, I talked about a new biweekly meeting that Brian Tinsman put together to allow all the designers of R&D to gather together and share ideas with one another. The idea is that at each meeting a different designer gives a presentation on any design-related topic he chooses. The presentations are a jumping off point for discussions most often leading back to the design we do on our games. For my first presentation I examined a document called “10 Principles for Good Design” by a German industrial designer named Dieter Rams. My contention was that design is design no matter if you’re making instants and creatures or lamps and clocks.

For each principle, I am talking about what I feel it means and how it affects Magic design. The first five principles were discussed in Part 1 and the second five will be discussed in today’s column. If you haven’t read Part 1, I strongly urge you to do so because I’m writing this column assuming you have. Let me refresh everyone’s memory by showing you the list:

Dieter Rams’s Ten Principles for Good Design

1) Good design is innovative.

2) Good design makes a product useful.

3) Good design is aesthetic.

4) Good design helps us to understand a product.

5) Good design is unobtrusive.

6) Good design is honest.

7) Good design is durable.

8）Good design is consequent to the last detail.

9) Good design is concerned with the environment.

10) Good design is as little design as possible.

I was so impressed with this list that I hung it up near my desk as a reminder of what I’m supposed to be thinking about. I’ll start today by just jumping in.

6) Good design is honest.

I’ve taken numerous creative writing courses in my life. My favorite was one I took in college taught by a female English professor. Unlike most of the creative writing courses I took, my teacher was not herself focused on writing, but on observing and understanding the writings of others. She wasn’t interested in making the wine; she wanted to taste it. She was a connoisseur of creative fiction. It was a unique vantage point for a creative writing teacher and it allowed her some insight that I never found in another class. (Yes, by the way, she was the one who had us write about the serial killer having breakfast. Click here if you don’t know what I’m talking about.)

One day, she asked the class the following question: What is the most important responsibility for a writer? Her answer—to be honest. To be honest to what, we asked? To everything—to yourself as a writer, to your characters, to your story, to your audience. The most important task of writing, she felt, was finding the truth in the story you were telling. What exactly does that mean? She answered that the core of writing was about observation and communication. You, the writer, were searching for some truth about the human condition and once you found it you were digging down to its essence, then sharing that with your audience.

Another way to think about this is to approach it from the other side, as a reader. Think back to books that have spoken to you. What makes you love a book? Chances are the author managed to find something that you could really connect to, some basic idea that spoke to your core. The writer put into words something you were always feeling but never had the ability to express. The author made a connection with you, the reader, perhaps emotionally, spiritually, logically. They said something in a way that no one else was able to.

If the ultimate role of an author is to make that kind of deep connection, then it is fundamentally important that they approach the situation at hand as honestly as they can. If they are going to dig up truths, they have to be honest with themselves in the search for those truths. Why is this hard to do? Simply put, people lie to themselves all the time. Life is often awkward and uncomfortable. Certain facts are painful to deal with. As such, humans are pretty good at avoiding things that would be painful if actually confronted. Authors, though, don’t have the luxury of avoiding these things. They have to face them head on, and that is not easy to do.

What does any of this have to do with design? Everything, of course. I believe that authors do not stand alone in their quest for truth. I believe all artists struggle fundamentally with the same issue. As I feel designers are artists, perhaps you can see where I’m going.

A game designer has a similar task at hand. It is our job to create a game that seeks out the same type of connection with our audience. We too, are trying to find truths. The big difference is that our truths are a different kind of truth than an author looks to find. Why? Because we are working in different mediums. Writing is about words; it’s about communication. Games are about actions; they are about decisions. The way a game designer helps his audience find a fundamental truth is by forcing him or her to encounter a situation that parallels something from their life.

I’ll give an example. One of the truths that games can connect on is adversity. One of the truisms of life is that there are hard decisions that have to be made. These decisions are difficult to make in the moment but shape us into who we are as individuals. The feeling of pulling through adversity, the emotions of stepping up to a challenge and finding what it takes inside of you to make the hard decisions when bad things are happening all around you is a universal feeling. Games allow you access to that feeling in a much safer environment, much as books can allow you to emotionally connect with feelings that would be much scarier to face in the real world. Games, much like books, have great potential for catharsis and identification.

How does this apply to Magic design? It says that designers have to be willing to examine what they do from the macro (block design) to the micro (card design) and make choices that come out of pursuing what the different element needs to be. Part of this is being willing to listen to your intuition about what feels right. Part of this is making sure that the flavor matches your mechanic. Part of this is making sure that your little picture matches your big picture, that common has the same message as mythic rare, that your creatures are communicating the same message as your instants.

Being honest means making sure that you aren’t letting your love of craft overstep your vision. Your cards shouldn’t be about what you can do but what you need to do. Cards need to ring true both in a vacuum and in conjunction with one another. Things need to do what your audience expects them to do. In short, being honest as a Magic designer means taking all the steps necessary to have your cards serve the vision.

7) Good design is durable.

When I was a baby, I was given the gift of a soft, fluffy bright yellow baby blanket. Eventually it became a soft, not so fluffy, dull yellow baby blanket. My earliest memory of it was as a soft brown blanket that I slept with. In my youth, I carried my blanket (named, by me of course, “Blanket”) everywhere I went. Eventually, my parents told me that Blanket was getting beaten up enough that it wasn’t a good idea to take it out of the house, as having to clean it would probably do significant damage to it. Some time later, my parents informed me that Blanket really should just stay in my room. I could sleep with it at night, but Blanket had to curtail most of its daytime activities. Then around age seven, Blanket, as I remember it, slowly vanished.

One day, when I was fourteen, while riding up a chairlift with my mother (most of my families vacations in my youth were ski vacations), she mentioned off-handedly about the time they “cut up my baby blanket”. What?! She went on to tell the story about how when I was seven, she and my dad contacted my pediatrician because they were worried that I was getting a little old for a baby blanket. The doctor agreed and made the following suggestion: each night over the course of several months, they come into my room when I was sleeping and cut a tiny bit around the edges of my baby blanket. This way the blanket would slowly shrink over time. When it got small enough, they could convince me to put it away in a memory book so it doesn’t get lost.

Apparently a seven-year-old doesn’t have the ability to notice that his beloved blanket is slowly shrinking or at least lacks the understanding that it isn’t supposed to do that, so it worked. That is, until that fateful day on the chairlift. I was genuinely upset. I had very warm memories of Blanket and learning that it came to such a grizzly end was quite bothersome to me. As I spent time thinking about it, an important question came to me. Why did it bother me so much? Because, I answered, it was my most beloved childhood item.

Many years later looking back at this incident (the discovering of its removal more so than the removal itself), I am forced to ask myself the following question: what made it my most beloved childhood item? All the memories I had with it, of course. But why did I have so many memories of it? How did it beat out my rattle and my pacifier or one of my other myriad baby blankets? One simple reason—it just lasted longer than any of them. It had so many memories because it was around. The most important trait of my beloved Blanket—durability.

If you want to create something to last the test of time it has to, well, last the test of time. I often talk about how we think about Magic. As far as R&D is concerned, we’re not making a flash in the pan but a game we expect to outlive us all. What this means to design is that when I design a card I think long term. Am I making something that we could bring back the next time we revisit this theme? My goal isn’t just to make cards that play well in the present, I’m shooting for making something classic. This drive is important because it raises the bar on your design. Disposable things use disposable ideas. Classic things use timeless ideas.

The mindset of your design is important because when you boil it all down, design is a mental activity. If you approach your problem merely looking for any answer, you will find the first one you stumble across then stop looking. When you raise the bar, you challenge yourself to look past the easy answers, to find the ones that allow what you are doing to transcend craft into art. As a Magic designer, I feel my best work will be able to stand up to the comparisons of those who follow in my footsteps. I feel that way because I know my work was aiming higher than filling holes in a file. When I design, I search for answers and, if need be, I’ll search for questions.

Along the way to making a classic game, you will have to put your design through many tests. The most important one though is the test of time. If you can make something that transcends your set to become part of your game, that is the ultimate legacy as a game designer

8)  Good design is consequent to the last detail.

One of the things that happens when you write week in and week out for years is that you start to find not just your voice but your personal themes. I’ve talked about how I once had a writing teacher (different one) that claimed that every writer had a singular theme. That if you examined the entirety of any one author’s work you will find a singular theme connecting them. As a thought exercise, she asked us if we could recognize our own theme.

After much thought, and much rereading of my writing, I came to the conclusion that my personal theme is this: while people try to use reason and logic to govern their life, people are, at their core, run by their emotions. I figured this out while directing a one act play in which the main character solves an ethical dilemma by having his emotions fight it out in a board meeting. (The play was called Leggo My Ego for those of you that keep updating my wikipedia page.)

So, what happens when I show up at R&D? I create player psychographics to help explain what things emotionally satisfy each of our different types of players. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this.) We as game designers can try to logically deduce what our players want, but in the end we have to understand their emotions to truly deliver the best experience.

What does all that have to do with this point? As I like to say—everything. Part of understanding emotions is understanding what makes them tick? While there are many answers to that question, one answer is this—it’s the little things. People have trouble focusing on the big picture, but they are great at observing the minutiae. As such, they put a lot of emotional weight on the little things clicking. The feeling is that if the artist manages to make all the little things work that it is symptomatic that the larger pieces are thought out as well.

The best example I can use to explain this is to think of your favorite television show. Think of a moment that really endeared you to it. I’ll give you one of mine for one of my favorite shows of all time, “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.” In one of the early episodes of the first season, Buffy fought a witch that was trying to live out her former high school glory through her daughter. The episode involves Buffy having to become a cheerleader, but that’s not important right now. (For the record, this episode was below average for the series at large.) The show ended with the witch being trapped inside a cheerleading trophy. We see a close-up of the trophy’s face, the eyes open up and we get that she’s trapped there.

Flash forward to a few seasons later. There’s a scene in the high school where a character named Oz (played by Seth Green) is waiting for Buffy. As he does he’s looking at the trophy case. As Buffy approaches Oz, Oz makes a comment about how one of the trophies is looking around. Now, it’s a throw-away line. Its only purpose really was to remind the audience that Joss Whedon and his writers, like us, are fans of the show and that they remember the little things. The moment, while irrelevant to that show, really stuck with me. It made me feel good about myself and good about the show.

That’s why I (and the rest of R&D) work hard to create those “trophy eyes” moments. It’s why we spend hours upon hours working on the tiniest of tiny details. Every facet of Magic is going to be explored by someone. When they do, I want to have already been there. Little things matter because to people, little things matter.

9) Good design is concerned with the environment.

I believe this point is, of the ten, the one most often misinterpreted. Most people at first blush think Rams is talking about being ecologically friendly. While it’s a nice thought (and yes, we should be where we can), it’s not, I believe, what Rams is talking about. (There is a chance I am completely wrong and if I am—go ecology!) Rams didn’t refer to the “nature and trees and stuff” environment but rather the environment in which the item being designed is to be used. If an industrial designer is making a lamp, he has to think about where that lamp is going to sit. Not just where, but how and by whom. What Rams is talking about here is—understanding where your design fits into the life of the person using it.

In Magic, this means numerous things. When designing a card, the designer has to be conscious of where the card will be played. Cards don’t live in a vacuum. They are part of numerous ecosystems. A designer has to think about that as they design. The reason we have a lead designer for each set is that it is crucial to have one person whose responsibility it is to look at all the cards in a set holistically. To use a metaphor (and I do love my metaphors), designing a set is much like cooking a meal. A cook isn’t just making various foods, he is making a meal using those various foods. Each has to be thought of in conjunction with the rest. If you watch world-class chefs, they do a lot of sampling of their food as they are constantly trying to monitor where the food is at so that they can make adjustments if needed.

Our food tastings are playtests and the method is not that far apart. In fact, one of the most important skills in design is the ability to learn from playtests. Just as a classic chef has to be able to gauge everything with a spoonful, so too does a designer has to be able to absorb as much as he can from playing with the cards. Only then, can a designer begin to understand what has to change. What needs to be added to round out a theme or subtracted to push focus back in a certain direction?

They say “no man is an island.” (That’s why whenever I would run Big Magic—Magic played at premiere events with giant cards each manipulated by a volunteer from the audience—I always picked a female to handle the islands.) Neither, I argue, is a Magic card. Well, okay I guess an Island is a Magic card, but if you go more philosophical and less literal, my point will stand. Each card lives in a context that the designer has to understand. Failure to do so will result in a set that doesn’t hold together.

10) Good design is as little design as possible.

Yes.

You have no idea how much willpower it took for me to not just make that last paragraph the entire comment on this point. (For those new readers joining us, I’m a high concept kind of guy.) Like Point #8, this is a design area that I talk about a lot. If your game can exist without a component, then that component shouldn’t be in the game. Anything that can be excised from your design should be.

Why? Why is that so? The reasoning dovetails back into something I talked about in point #6. At its core, art is about communication. You, the artist, are trying to connect with your audience. The more you clutter your message the harder it is to deliver it. The same holds true for card design. If I want you to focus on a particular aspect of a card, every addition just dilutes my message.

A second reason simplicity of concept is so important is that a trading card game is, by definition, a mixing of elements. At its very core, the player gets to pick and choose his deck from thousands of options. That means at minimum there are sixty different cards being forced to commingle. In order to keep the game elegant, you have to make all the pieces as clean as you can because you cannot avoid the complication that comes from the intermixing of the cards.

Thirdly (I hope that’s a word), design has to always be conscious of resources. While there is a large amount of design space, it is finite. Designers do not have the luxury of wasting design resources. If a card can accomplish what it needs with just one piece it doesn’t need a second—save it to make some other card shine. One of the most common mistakes I see when looking at novice designs is an inability to trust that one aspect is enough to carry the card. So many first designs are overstuffed with every thing the designer can think of. Not only are they wasting a valuable resource, they’ve so stuffed the card that no element has a chance to shine. Remember the truism above, even in card design: if something can be removed and the card will work, it needs to be removed.

Another common mistake made by designers under this point is something I talked about above. Be careful to not fall in love with the craft of the design. Instead of creating designs they need, designers create designs they can. They make cards solely because the cards are capable of being made, even if those designs have no role in the larger picture. It is this desire to add bells and whistles to designs that I think prompted Rams to include this last point. Good design has to look past what is possible for what is required.

Rams Tough

I put this presentation together because I am fascinated by design as an overall concept. As I’ve explained numerous times, I don’t see that much difference between designing a clock radio and designing a Magic set. This belief was only further entrenched as I starting looking through what Rams had to say about design. Without fail, every point is an important one to Magic design. If a man who designs lamps for a living can help make me a better Magic designer, then it helps prove my point that design is universal.（Source：wizards）