A GDC 'Rules of the Game' session featuring five game designers sharing uncommon techniques. John DeNoe covers intentional friction to build emotional resonance, using examples from Falcon Age and Thirsty Suitors. Alicia Thayer shares three lessons for technical designers about balancing order and creative chaos, arguing that iteration is messy and patterns should crystallize naturally. Noah Falstein advocates for Einstein's simplicity principle applied to game mechanics, cutting back until something breaks then restoring just enough, with emergent complexity as the solution to oversimplification. Carla Engelbrecht discusses ruthless prioritization using constraints as design catalysts, drawing from Netflix's Bandersnatch and Sesame Street Wii games. Harvey Smith closes with design layering in immersive sims, using Prey 2017 as a case study for nonlinear space, reactive physics, finite resources, and sensory-based AI creating decision-rich player experiences.
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