Drek T Idiot's Design Rules of Thumb
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Moved from the Game_Design page, because most of the information was elsewhere, and moved here for posterity.
Drek T. Idiot's Design Rules of Thumb
When making a post to the Brainstorming or Game Design forums, it's useful to keep the following in mind:
- Realism arguments are frowned upon. Given two competing ideas, we'll take the one that's more fun over the one that's more realistic.
- Some realism arguments can get you banned. You'll be nicely asked, then warned, and eventually asked to leave is you make realism arguments based on modern real world politics, religion, or other contentious issues. These sorts of issues tend to cause unproductive flamewars, so the Powers that Be have righteously taken a hard line on this issue.
- KISS. Keep it simple. We tend to like simple game mechanics that can be successfully described to a bright child.
- Decent English is a good thing. While it's understood that not everyone speaks English as a first language, contributors should strive to make their postings as comprehensible as possible. Elite hacker speak, text messaging abbreviations, and other butcherings of the language are not at all encouraged.
- Sliders suck. If your system/idea includes a slider to control some aspect of gameplay, rethink it. This item is more of a strong suggestion from me to you than a hard rule. It's an argument that has been re-hashed on the boards numerous times and in my mind discussed to death.
- AI is an oxymoron. If your system is dependent upon the computer making smart decisions for the player, rethink it. This especially includes Viceroys/smart build managers. Again, this argument has been re-hashed over and over again. This is another strong suggestion; not a hard rule.
--Drek
