You know what aspect of game design is so boring, no one likes to talk about it? Documentation. You know what aspect of game design I’m going to touch on today? That’s right, documentation. Now, it’s true that there’s not a lot of pulse-pounding excitement in docu-land, but I’ll try to keep out of the snooze-zone while we visit.
One part of documentation that’s often overlooked (by me, at least) is the reasons behind changes in design. It’s one thing to track the evolution of the game through some sort of change log, but another to annotate those changes with why they’re being made.
Obviously, all changes are made in order to make the game better, but it’s important to note how they make it better. Is it shorter? More interactive? More generous with catch-up options for players who are behind? Or, to put a finer point on it:
What problem does this change solve?
For example, you might find that in a tabletop game, players keep running out cards, so you change the rules to say that players draw four cards a turn instead of just one.
Tracking the “why” of design changes is useful in three ways:
- It provides a more complete picture of the changes the game goes through during its development.
- If the problem that it solves comes up again, you can refer to the change to see how you (tried to) fix it the first time, allowing you to seek a different solution or double-down on what you’ve already tried. (“Players are still running out of cards! Let’s try drawing eight a turn and see how that goes.”)
- Most importantly, long after your short human memory has filled up with other things like song lyrics, and you find yourself asking, “But why did we make the game this way?” you can refer to this record and remember.
The question “But why?” usually comes up when an issue arises with that part of the game. (“Player turns are taking 10 minutes apiece because they have so many cards. Why are they drawing eight cards a turn?”) By looking back at the problem you were originally solving, you can decide whether that problem still exists, or whether a better solution is now available. (“Players were running out of cards because cards were too easy to play. We fixed that, so we can reduce card draw back down to one a turn.”)
If you don’t track the “why” it’s a lot harder to tell what changes are there as support, and what are essential, load-bearing rules.
