Today, I'm going to go over a very simple idea: How Do You Start Game Designing?
The simple answer is "Just Do It."
We can break down the process of creating your game in about five easy steps: Idea, Anchor, Core Mechanics, Exterior Mechanics, and Refinement.
The Idea
The Idea is simple, it's your idea! The entire reason you started this project. Ideas can be broad, all encompassing, and usually bad. But the idea allows you to get a broad scope idea of what you want to do, the b
road strokes that keep the painting in check. Sometimes your idea will be specific, such as adapting a specific franchise, but other times you may just say "BIOPUNK FANTASY!" or "WILD WEST ALIENS!" and that's fine as well. Get your idea, write it down, note it all down, every little "thing" or thought that goes with it in a blobbed up "Idea."
We'll use an example game here, let's say I want to make a simple game, we'll say an "Aerial Dogfighting Game with Dieselpunk look" alright, that's a solid idea, we're getting somewhere.
Der Anker
The second part is your anchor, which can be pretty easily summarized as your "Refined Idea," now some ideas can be just be the Anchor, while others are not. But the best way to get the concept of an Anchor is to understand that this is what most things are going to be based off of in one way or another. This is the binding agent, even if its minor, those little notes you took earlier, this is where you formalize them down.
For our game, our anchor is going to be a "Dieselpunk Aerial Dogfighting Game about Daring Pilots and Suicidal Odds," we've refined the idea down, we've also added some more about what the game is. The Anchor never needs to be long, but detailed enough for you to start working on everything.
Héxīn lìxué
Core Mechanics is usually a bug bear to many. The Core Mechanics are what everything else is based around in one way or another mechanically. Some games may call this "The Engine" or "System," but it forms the beating heart of your game and ties back into that initial idea and Anchor. Not every system can simply be ported over, using our example above, we want some hardcore dogfighting rules as well as some rules for pilots. The game also sounds like it's going to be lethal, so we need to anticipate a player going through at least one or two characters over the course of a campaign.
Core mechanics can range in forms and appearances, D20 Roll Over, D6 Dicepool, D8 Variable TN Dicepool, D100 Roll Under, Stacking Dice Attribute, and a plethora of other options out there. My suggestion is pretty simple.
Read everything and steal what looks good.
There are an absurd amount of options out there for how to roll dice and enjoy doing such, but the most important thing to consider is to understand what makes the game fun for you. Using our example above, we probably want to go for something, light, but punchy. Perhaps a D6 Dicepool emphasizing individual skill and our plane's ramshackle construction. Now this is ALSO the section where you should be thinking about the core features of things, asking important questions like "Is Combat important?" "how do I want to handle social encounters?" "How do the Character's die?" and everything else you feel is the "CORE" (get it) of your game.
Oebu Yeoghag
Moving on, we see the final major part, Exterior Mechanics. These are things built from your core mechanics to successfully get across the nature of YOUR game to the world. This also allows you to start really personalizing it to fit your desired concept.
Taking our plane game, we want our planes to be the forefront of the game, so we'll need a large selection of different parts and doodads to slap on our flying rust bucket, as well as wanting a "social credit" system to show how famous our pilot is before their untimely demise. Exterior mechanics come in a lot of different shapes and sizes, these can be equipment, monster creation, special events, levelling up, and many other things which simply give your game its face you could say.
Without these exterior mechanics, your game is just a bundle of numbers, but each of thesse has to play into that core anchor as well. Our plane game probably doesn't need extensive boating skills, but it better have a damn good amount of plane tricks to pull off.
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The final part is pretty simple, refinement, you have everything written down, then go in, playtest the shit out of it (or get other people to do that) and add, remove, and tweak.
END
Creating a game is easy, creating a good game is harder, but I want you to remember, that regardless of what you made, that you made it. It's something that you should derive enjoyment from and push forward with what you want with it.
Now as a few side notes
It's fine to edit an already existing system, many designers do this when they first start out, it's fine. Just don't try to sell someone's words.
Originality isn't always the best, because being an originally Cindy doesn't always mean that it'll be "good"
Take your time, you don't need to write the entire game in a week, it's alright to space things out, just keep notes and tabs on everything you think of, even if it's something little.
A game doesn't need to be 250 pages, what it needs to be is functional. Your first draft should be exactly what you need to play and understand what you're presenting to your audience.
All developers are valid, except 1-Page LARP writers, they are inhuman and dilute everything with garbage.
Read everything that seems like it fits under your game or idea, hunt for books that have the mechanic you may be looking for. Even if its something only tangentially related, it's better to go in prepared than blind with no faith.
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