Your Goals As A Game Designer

To develop a game that runs the way I felt it should. :)

Do I have to pick one goal?

My company's goal is to create more reasons for families and friends to spend time together. That sounds corny, but it's true. The more good reasons that people have to spend time together, the better. The idea is to have less people spending time with their family because "they have to" and more people spending time with their family because "they want to."

In my experience, games are the best way to do that. Sure, you can sit and watch TV together, but that's almost completely non-interactive. Same thing with books. Sitting and just talking is fine, but after a while that wears a little thin. If you have a tradition of activities that you share (games, kayaking, biking, whatever), you will build strong lasting bonds.

So, that's reason number one.

Reason number two?

To quote Indiana Jones: "Fortune and glory, shortstuff. Fortune and glory."

Note that shortstuff was the name of the person Indiana was talking to. I have no idea how tall you are.

- Patrick Matthews
Live Oak Games

Wow. This is a deep topic! For me, I'd like to design a game that has some longevity. My current fascination is with abstract strategy games, and I think that this form has the best shot of real longevity, since the format isn't laden with cultural baggage to understand. I think that a single deep game, with a dedicated following, is a worthy game design goal. I wouldn't mind a game series such as GIPF, which I've been watching with interest to see how it's been recieved. The idea of a series of related games haas been of interest for me for a long time, and I was glad to see the GIPF project get good reviews as a concept. A similar family of games is a goal of mine, but obviously not using the GIPF format of connection, of course.

Another goal is to design a game system that gains popularity, ala Icehouse or Piecepack. I favor Icehouse over Piecepack in general, since I feel the piecepack is fiddly, but the Icehouse community has been cast adrift in recent years, with no effort to advance it by Looney Labs. A shame. An opportunity like that is a goal of many abstract designers, and it's painful to see the Icehouse potential squandered. I'd hope to do more.

Like at least one other person in this thread, this really isn't a goal for me, and never really has been.

Perhaps a more productive way of expressing this particular sensibility would be to say "I want to design a game that's good enough to be publishable". I think this has an appropriate recognition of the longshot odds of getting a game published, an emphasis on the quality of the game itself (rather than the default assumption that we all seem to make that "of course designing a publication-worthy game will be no problem"), and a higher likelihood of satisfaction should one's game not get picked up. If you'll only be happy with publication, you're likely to be disappointed. But if you seek to make great games, if nothing else, you'll have a great game to play with family and friends.

I'd love to have a game get picked up someday, but I'd much rather design a great game that never got published than publish a lukewarm game.

-Jeff

After being kicked around in the computer industry the last couple of years ( two company buyouts, one department closure and (2) knifes in the back), I've been trying to decide what i want to be when I grow up. At age 35, I still have lots of time to decide. My current game making journey has only been going on for 1 year: however, I love games and use to make up fun ones in Boy Scouts. I think I'm creative which is why i'm going forward.

I'm caught in the paradox of wanting to make the million dollar game and be happy with a career that I control my own destiny. I'm in the middle stages of self publishing as I decided that I have a great idea and want to see it come out asap: however, I don't want to wait a long period of time shopping it around for possible licensing that may or may not happen. The questions I ask myself is whether I want to shop it around after I start selling it or plan on building a future game company one game at a time.

My focus is childrens non-educational games. I think the selection at Hasbro is stale and I intend to one day shake up the establishment. As I continue working on my business plan and outlets for sales and distribution, I'm sure my goals will become very clear. I do think owning my own company willwin out. To say you created something, would be that ego stroke that I sometimes need. The games I'm creating would be best played with families: however, I'm taking into account the three words that parents use quite often..."here, go play". My games need to be able to be played without adults as it's not always possible for everyone to sit down together (sad as that is)

HR Puffenstuf