Design by asking and answering questions

These are great questions and are questions you should ask all the time. The thing you should note is that as you go long your game design, the more the questions you answer will start affecting everything else in your game. What you change by asking one question will impact all other aspects of your game.

For example, if you ask "What is on the player cards?", work on the solution, then ask "What are the actions players take?" the solution may very well change how the player cards look because you're adding or subtracting what's on the player cards.

But I do ask questions when I design. I ask more broad questions and work my design around the first question. For example, I recently asked myself, "Is there a way I can make a party game where its primary mechanic doesn't use math and is not 'Apples to Apples-esque'?". My recent game design has been around this question.

If you're going to ask the questions you're proposing in your OP, keep it loose and create frameworks with some wiggle room. Make logs of everything you do; I usually use Word, Excel, whiteboard scribbles I take a pic of, whatever.

Various questions I ask are:

"What mechanics are thematic to this game?"
"What choices are my players making?"
"What makes my game different than other games?"
"How can I make this game stick out from all the other games?"
"What icons can I use for X, Y, or Z?"

Asking questions is a great way of creating game designs, but make sure your answers are open to changes as your design grows.

Hope this helps, good luck.

I don't agree with this. If you're giving the players multiple choices and the player is making the same choice over and over, then the designer hasn't created viable choices in the first place.

For example: Shotgun or Pistol? A shotgun has few bullets, but kills everything in short range. A pistol has far more bullets, but you need accurate shots and you have the benefit of longer range. Both are viable choices that the player can explore, but doesn't force a player to choose one thing and opens up the game to variable strategies.

But I do believe there should be easy decisions as well. Knife or Gun? Knife is unlimited and might kill short range, but if you're dealing with things that have to be killed from a distance, then you obviously take the gun. But the knife is still viable, so you might put it in your backpack for emergency use.

To me, you give a mixture of easy and hard decisions so that 1) the player doesn't feel like they're dumb, 2) the player can make meaty choices and 3) reduces AP by giving easier choices that help with the hard decisions.

This way of designing "for me" is odd.

Usually when I have a game design, I know what I want to accomplish in terms of what the game will be like. Once that "big picture" is defined, then I go forwards and examine what components (game elements) would be necessary to fulfill that vision.

Lots of time, there are issues on the "backburner". Things that are still not 100% clear about how to implement them. And those items usually take more time to crystallize. And I wait until there comes a time where I am more certain or have someone offer advice (on BGDF) and at other times, my design are "on hold" (take Quest AC 2)...

Meanwhile I'll be checking out videos of more games - to better see how the mechanics in games are being used. I'll help work on other designer's issues (wherever I can) ... And that also helps me by helping this community flourish! :)

I don't focus on one aspect or another, instead I work on achieving my "vision" of the game... And sometimes it's not possible or the resulting game is uninteresting. I think I must have designed about five (5) duel games that just plain "sucked"! :o

On the 6th one now - and I think I'm finally onto something good! ;)

Best of luck with your designs!