I am currently reading Gut Feelings: Short Cuts to Better Decision Making by Gerd Gigerenzer. If you’ve ever Read Blink (or even if you haven’t) then I recommend this book as it deals with the concept of intuition, instinct and the unconscious in a much more detailed way. I’d argue that you can completely bypass Blink altogether and go straight for this  as it is a much more useful book and very easy to read.

However this post isn’t about the book (I’ll save that for when I’ve finished it and filled it full of post-its). It’s actually about what I’m doing on this site.

When I write a blog post I am not so much telling the world things or laying out facts. This is part of my learning process. By writing about the things I discover or have learnt I’m helping to improve my understanding of them. I actually use this blog as a mnemonic device. By the act of writing about a topic I am ushering that information into my unconscious and hopefully helping it to become intuitive.

In short I’m writing this for me and not you. If you find it helpful than I’m glad. But be aware that what you see on these pages is rarely ever backed up by anything resembling evidence or research. It’s either all cribbed from books I’ve read or lessons I’ve learnt so take it with a pinch of salt.

Like a lot of Designers I tend to operate on my gut instincts a lot. When generating a new design or mechanic I tend to operate on automatic, letting my instincts rule the creative process. I believe that in the early stages of Design when you are roughing out what you want this is the best way to operate. By Instinct. Our unconscious mind is powerful as anybody who does anything remotely Creative will attest. Companies pay a lot of money for people with good instincts.

There comes a point however when Instinct isn’t enough. When your design that you felt in your gut was perfect turns out to be exactly the opposite. For whatever reason nobody is having fun playing your game and you don’t know why.

This is why I feel that a good Designer never stops learning. A good Designer doesn’t copy what other games have done without first trying to understand why it’s worth copying.

There have been several movements within Games Design to try and create a lexicon or identify good mechanics and while I find this very honourable and interesting I often feel like a it is only focusing on “What or How” and not “Why”.

“Why” is a word that drills down to the core of a subject. It’s the basis of the Scientific Method and Philosophy. By continually asking “Why?” we might eventually get at the truth of things.

“Why?” is all about Critical Analysis.

I am reminded of my GCSE History lessons, I had a Teacher who was something of an inspiration to me (one of very few) who I believe taught me not just about dates and wars but taught me how to think about things critically. To try and seek the truth behind things. The importance of continuing to ask the question: “Why?”

It is in order to help me answer this question that I am teaching myself as much as I can about Cognitive Psychology. In this I am not alone. Just as I know Designers who are comfortable never understanding “Why” I know of those that strive to understand and have also inspired me along this path.

We have reached a point in the Games Industry where Play-testing and Usability studies have spawned an entire industry purely devoted to providing a Designer with feedback on their work long before their game ships. This information is incredibly useful in identifying what does and doesn’t work but rarely ever gives you the reasons. For this we must turn to Critical Analysis. This is where our instincts begin to fail us.

Faced with a problem in a Game Design and with no clear understanding as to what may cause it we typically resort to trial and error. A costly process which can take several failures before you hit upon a solution. Even if you do find a solution you still may be none the wiser as to why it worked when previous attempts failed. You may have added a technique or mechanic to your arsenal but you are no closer to a real understanding of the problem or the solution.

This is not inherently a bad thing. Clearly we’ve managed to make some amazing videogames this way. I wouldn’t be able to tell you which ones but I’d be willing to bet it’s a large number.

However speaking personally I find these victories to be hollow. I’m not satisfied having just solved the problem. I want to understand why it was a problem and why the solution worked. I believe that by understanding this I will add that knowledge to my unconscious and refine my instincts meaning I will intuitively avoid or identify those problems in the future. This is the point of Critical Analysis, to help make the concious unconcious.

The ability to think critically about your work though is hindered by your own knowledge. So I push myself to learn and understand more outside of videogames. I don’t believe that everything we can know about videogames can be taught by them. The realm of interactive entertainment didn’t pop into existence with the microchip. People have been playing and interacting with each other since… well since I don’t  know when. The medium may be new and unique but the principles are not, Philosophers and Psychologists have been striving at the nature of enjoyment, fun and imagination for centuries.

So I write this blog and try to understand what it is they can teach me. And I pray that I never understand everything because then I would have nothing left to learn.

However research papers are often very dull and you ussually need to have a dictionary on hand to make sense of them. So here are ten books that aren’t about Games Design but will make you a better Games Designer…

Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

This is something of a Bible among games designers and is always the first book I reccommend to people. While it’s marketted as a feel-good self help type book it really isn’t so don’t let the subtitle fool you.

The book is very easy to read and explains the concept of “Flow” – A state of conciousness where a person loses the concept of self and becomes entirely involved in what they are doing.

The Design of Everyday Things – Donald Norman

Ever wonder why you sometimes try to push a pull door? Or why some TV remotes are easier to use than others? Don is here to explain all of this and more.

All the lessons in this book are easily transferred to Videogames and may change the way you look at the things you use everyday.

How to Lead – Jo Owen

A common mistake new Designers make is thinking that the most important part of being a Designer is “Designing”. It isn’t.

The most improtant part of a being a Designer is being a good Leader. 

Designers are required to interact with everybody else on the team all the time. We are the people who have ideas and are then responsibile for convincing everybody else to follow us in developing them into a reality.

Every Designer has to be a Leader so better make sure you’re a good one.

Writers’s Journey – Christopher Vogler

I choose this version of the classic Heroes Journey because for me it was the easier one to read. It’s stuffed full of modern film references so you don’t need to know anything about mythology.

The Heroes Journey as a concept is important not just for story writing but story telling. Understanding what makes a good story helps you design a game that will give the player good stories of their own whether you’re making a narative heavy adventure game or a hardcore online shooter.

Universal Principles of Design

This is something of a guilty secret of mine. Every so often somebody would trot out a phrase like “Ockhams Razor” or “Hick’s Law” and I didn’t actually know what they meant.

This book includes 100 of the most basic Design Principles and concepts that every Designer should be aware of (but probably isn’t). 

If you want to find ways to improve your documentation then this book is for you.

The Laws of Simplicity – J Maeda

As a Designer you can quickly get caught up in details and end up in a spiral of constantly adding to something.

At only 127 pages the book itself follows it’s own rules and keeps the topic of Simplicity… simple.

If you ever felt overwhelmed by the complexity of your own creations then you can learn to deal with it from this book.

Freakonomics – Levitt & Dubner

Learn to look at the world differently and find the true cause of something rather than the obvious one.

How did Legalising Abortion reduce the Crime Rate? Why is your boss more likely to steal a Bagel than you?

In a time when focus tests and usability studies are more and more common in games it’s important that you learn to look at Statistics from all angles.

Emotional Design – Donald Norman

Back with another great book Emotional Design examines how we relate to things emotionally.

Being able to identify the Visceral, Behavioural and Reflective elements of a Design and understanding the relationship between the box something came in and how people treat that thing can change how you think about your game.

More up to date than Everyday Things this book actually has an entire chapter on Videogames.

Creativity – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Creativity is a fairly nebulous concept. In the game industry you can be an artist without being remotely Creative.

Understanding what Creativity is and how to idenitify and nurture it is the difference between resigning yourself to working on boring licensed crud and celebrating the opportunities an established license gives you to revolutionise a genre.

In a Creative atmosphere with Creative people whatever you do will be Creative.

Hows and Whys of Level Design – Sjoerd De Jong

OK I lied. The tenth book is actually about Game Design.

However I have good reasons. There is very little printed on the art of Level Design and Hourence has managed to distill alot of concepts into a very easy to read PDF.

There is far more to Level Design than alot of people think and I feel that alot of the knowledge of Level Designers has been trivialised in the name of “making shit look cool”.

Level Design does not stop at Sketch-Up.  It is merely the start.