So one of the things I asked to do for my birthday was have a game day where people could just come over and we could play some of the many games that we’ve stocked up over the years. While we got to a good random sampling (I sent people back to the game cabinet and told them I’d play whatever they brought back), it was the contributions of a good friend that really got my brain moving into gear. Since the last time I had seen my friend Frank (which, granted, had been too long) he had started his own game design studio (General Nonsense Games, Twitter: @GenNonsenseGame) and he brought some of his games to share. We had a lot of fun playing two of his titles (“Speed Poker” and the one with the “A” on the back of the cards, I don’t remember that one’s name, sorry), but what it really reminded me of was my love for game systems.
Instead of doodling in class (okay, I doodled too) I would spend my time designing card games. One of my favorite systems at the time was the Star Wars Collectible Card Game made by Decipher, it had an elegant mechanism which did not require you to keep score (the cards themselves were your life total, how you paid costs, and how you randomly determined outcomes). As a result, many of my early efforts were in that vein, where much of the rules overhead was already taken care of (none of these things ever saw the light of day, they were an exercise for me). One of the reasons that I own so many games is that I love to see all the different types and rules out there. By exposing myself to a wide variety of games, I seek to find what makes games fun and unique. Though I have yet to try designing any of my own (and probably won’t due to schedules), it does put me in a unique position to give feedback when I play or see other games. I’m actually working on another game related project with another friend of mine, Stephen, which is also allowing me to stretch those brain muscles.
The long and short of it is that I love to play games, whether they be card, board, or even sports. I love examining the rules and interactions, seeing where they come together (and, if I’m playing, what I can take advantage of).
Weight: 229 Loss: 11 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 168.5 miles
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I was wrong! There are obviously game designers out there who DO get paid to do this! (Ref my comment on your Secret Project post.)