Magic the Gathering's design articles
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 5:17 am
Reading through his Magic The Gathering articles, it's a long running game with a lot of good design so always neat to see how the designers view things.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2016-05-30
Lesson #1—Fighting against human nature is a losing battle
Lesson #2: Aesthetics matter
Lesson #3: Resonance is important (Cultural context, trends)
Lesson #4: Make use of piggybacking
Lesson #5: Don't confuse "interesting" with "fun"
Lesson #6: Understand what emotion your game is trying to evoke
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2016-06-06
Lesson #7: Allow the players the ability to make the game personal
Humans associate what they know with 'quality'
Lesson #8: The details are where the players fall in love with your game
Ex: A background character became a merchandize mascot for a set
Lesson #9: Allow your players to have a sense of ownership
Building your own deck, commander format makes it more accessable
Lesson #10: Leave room for the player to explore
"Don't talk at, talk with the audience", getting audience to ask a question then answer is more engaging than just stating the answer
Lesson #11: If everyone likes your game but no one loves it, it will fail
Making something to fall in love with is the priority
Lesson #12: Don't design to prove you can do something
The example is Tybalt was a 2c planeswalker just cause there wasn't one before
Lesson #13: Make the fun part also the correct strategy to win
Or, avoid degenerate play
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2016-06-13
Lesson #14: Don't be afraid to be blunt
The example is players hesitant to attack with a huge creator, so a new version of that card always attacks to show how good it is at attacking
Lesson #15: Design the component for its intended audience
Having psychological profiles of players
Lesson #16: Be more afraid of boring your players than challenging them
Lesson #17: You don't have to change much to change everything
Example is that Invasion block was "play 4-5 colors", Ravinca is "play 2 colors", both are multicolor blocks but a small change makes it feel different
Lesson #18: Restrictions breed creativity
Lesson #19: Your audience is good at recognizing problems and bad at solving them
Lesson #20: All the lessons connect
My take on organizing these 20 lessons...
Feel, Emotion that game invokes in player
- Fighting against Human Nature is a losing battle
- Aesthetics matter, like an 8/8 costing 8 feels better than costing 7
- Understand what emotion you want to invoke, don't sacrifice
- Be more afraid of boring the player than challenging them, give them something to love even if some will hate
- Leave room for player to explore and project and bond, specific details can be greatly appealing to diverse audience
Context, Player's pre-existing knowledge and associations
- Make references to what audience knows, if not then build meaning for that image yourself (ex: a wooden horse in a fantasy setting will be filled with soldiers, a wooden lion is further removed from the troy meme)
- Know psychological profile of players, can be diverse reasons to like the same thing
- Don't be afraid to be blunt to get players to play the game 'right' and have fun doing so
- Don't have to change much to make fun new things
- Audience is good at recognizing problems, bad at solving (you show them the way or solve them)
Challenge, Skill element
- Don't confuse 'interesting' with 'fun', don't do something just because it hasn't been done without understanding why
- Restriction breeds creativity
- The fun way to play should be the optimal way to play
- Customization gives a feeling of ownership and bonding
Will make more posts reading more MtG design articles
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2016-05-30
Lesson #1—Fighting against human nature is a losing battle
Lesson #2: Aesthetics matter
Lesson #3: Resonance is important (Cultural context, trends)
Lesson #4: Make use of piggybacking
Lesson #5: Don't confuse "interesting" with "fun"
Lesson #6: Understand what emotion your game is trying to evoke
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2016-06-06
Lesson #7: Allow the players the ability to make the game personal
Humans associate what they know with 'quality'
Lesson #8: The details are where the players fall in love with your game
Ex: A background character became a merchandize mascot for a set
Lesson #9: Allow your players to have a sense of ownership
Building your own deck, commander format makes it more accessable
Lesson #10: Leave room for the player to explore
"Don't talk at, talk with the audience", getting audience to ask a question then answer is more engaging than just stating the answer
Lesson #11: If everyone likes your game but no one loves it, it will fail
Making something to fall in love with is the priority
Lesson #12: Don't design to prove you can do something
The example is Tybalt was a 2c planeswalker just cause there wasn't one before
Lesson #13: Make the fun part also the correct strategy to win
Or, avoid degenerate play
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2016-06-13
Lesson #14: Don't be afraid to be blunt
The example is players hesitant to attack with a huge creator, so a new version of that card always attacks to show how good it is at attacking
Lesson #15: Design the component for its intended audience
Having psychological profiles of players
Lesson #16: Be more afraid of boring your players than challenging them
Lesson #17: You don't have to change much to change everything
Example is that Invasion block was "play 4-5 colors", Ravinca is "play 2 colors", both are multicolor blocks but a small change makes it feel different
Lesson #18: Restrictions breed creativity
Lesson #19: Your audience is good at recognizing problems and bad at solving them
Lesson #20: All the lessons connect
My take on organizing these 20 lessons...
Feel, Emotion that game invokes in player
- Fighting against Human Nature is a losing battle
- Aesthetics matter, like an 8/8 costing 8 feels better than costing 7
- Understand what emotion you want to invoke, don't sacrifice
- Be more afraid of boring the player than challenging them, give them something to love even if some will hate
- Leave room for player to explore and project and bond, specific details can be greatly appealing to diverse audience
Context, Player's pre-existing knowledge and associations
- Make references to what audience knows, if not then build meaning for that image yourself (ex: a wooden horse in a fantasy setting will be filled with soldiers, a wooden lion is further removed from the troy meme)
- Know psychological profile of players, can be diverse reasons to like the same thing
- Don't be afraid to be blunt to get players to play the game 'right' and have fun doing so
- Don't have to change much to make fun new things
- Audience is good at recognizing problems, bad at solving (you show them the way or solve them)
Challenge, Skill element
- Don't confuse 'interesting' with 'fun', don't do something just because it hasn't been done without understanding why
- Restriction breeds creativity
- The fun way to play should be the optimal way to play
- Customization gives a feeling of ownership and bonding
Will make more posts reading more MtG design articles