DToW #3 (Co-Design)

This week I want to talk about teamwork in game design.  There are a lot of ways to go about this, but I am going to focus on co-design this time.

What are the benefits of Co-Design?

There are a quite a few benefits, but I think I can demonstrate the most important ones through an anecdote.  When I first started designing The Last Bastion, the game came together fairly quickly.  I was enjoying creating and tweaking until I got stuck.  I had a game, but it wasn't fun.  The mechanics all worked.  There were interesting decisions.  But something was missing. I lost motivation and the game sat shelved for months.  It was my first design and I wasn't trying to be a game designer so I just went back to playing games.

Then I met Mike.  He wanted to look at what I had created.  We played it together and he immediately had all kinds of great ideas for how to make it better.  Streamlining the game, while adding more tension and fun.  My energy was renewed and together we built something fun.  Then we broke it, started over and built something better.  Then we broke the new game, started over and built it better again.  I think this happened over 14 times.  But we never got bored or frustrated, or threw it aside to work on something else.  Because we were having so much fun building it and breaking it together that it never got stale.

For me these are the greatest benefits of having a design partner.  Someone to bounce ideas off of at 5pm when you are driving home from work.  Or shoot a quick e-mail to in the middle of the day when inspiration strikes.  SOMEONE WHO CARES ABOUT THE PROJECT AS MUCH AS YOU DO.  Mike is someone who shares my passion and if fuels it even more.

With a partner I also found that problems don't stay problems for long.  If one of us hits a wall the other one usually finds a solution pretty quickly.  Which again drives the process forward.  The creativity of 2 people coming from completely different directions makes the games better with each iteration.  If one of us has a crazy idea, we try it before bringing it to our partner.  We will always tell each other about it so we can try and shoot holes in it before we spend a lot of time playtesting, or going down the wrong rabbit hole.  If it works, then the other one tries it and if we agree, we implement it.

Other benefits, which I will probably get into more in future editions of DToW, are: Working conventions together.  Or working them apart if someone can't come.  Playtesting at twice the speed.  For example, we were trying to get a new change implemented for Salvation Road one weekend and together we got 40 playtests in.  Working your strengths, and letting your partner work theirs (I think this is our biggest advantage).  Making a bond closer than any normal friendship.  Building something together and having someone to share your successes with.

How do you handle it when you don't agree?

I think this is probably the hardest part about working with a co-designer.  For us, we have always had a lead designer for the game, and a co-designer.  The lead designer is the one who came up with the concept and original prototype for the game.  We start by designing separately until we have a working prototype.  We will bounce ideas off each other, but really one person is doing all the work for that game.  Then we come together and figure out which of our ideas is the best/closest to being complete.  We then drop all other projects and focus on that project.

Whoever came up with the idea becomes the lead designer and if we disagree, that person breaks ties.  It has never come to that though.  We have had to go separate ways for a while, designing off the same base, but testing different ways to do it.  Then we bring the prototypes together and it is usually clear which one is cleaner and more fun.  A lot of times we take the best parts of both systems and mash them together to make something even better.  I think passion for your project, healthy debate, and a strong desire to succeed will overcome any one mechanic that you may disagree over.  Sometimes you have to lose your favorite mechanic to make the game better.  You certainly can't have an ego, saying this is my part, and that is your part.  Just remember it is "our game."  If you make all decisions with this in mind, and you want it to succeed, you will always make the right call.

Wow, that is just scratching the surface, tell us more?

Not this week.  Next time I will cover Unpublished meet up groups (mostly UnPub as that is our experience) and why they are so useful.  If you have any other topics you want to hear about, or if you want me to expand on anything I have touched on please contact me at MVPBoardgames@gmail.com or post in the comments below.  Until next time, I am Peter, keep designing great games.