Every working designer has them: unique techniques or "tricks" that they use when crafting gameplay. Sure, there's the general game design wisdom that everyone agrees on and can be found in many a game design book, but experienced game designers often have very specific rules that are personal to them, techniques that not everyone knows about or even agrees with. In this GDC 2015 session, five experienced game designers join the stage for 10 minutes each to share one game design "trick" that they use to make compelling gameplay. 

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GDC Festival of Gaming

A GDC-style panel featuring five experienced game designers sharing their personal design rules. Laurelyn McWills advocates for building emotional connections into game systems using an 'experiential core loop' framework, illustrated with Full Spectrum Warrior and Free Realms. Chris Avalone argues for finding design inspiration in seemingly bad movies and media. Dan Teasdale explores the cognitive science behind the 'rule of threes' and chunking in UI and game design. Kim McAuliffe champions fighting for small, delightful features that create social currency and player engagement. Nels Anderson closes with the principle that designers cannot objectively evaluate their own games due to insider knowledge, and that playtesting should focus on identifying problems rather than accepting player-suggested solutions.

Rules of the Game: Five Tricks of Highly Effective Designers