Creative Diary 1 : Theme & Mechanisms

I've always been more of a ''theme guy''.

As much as I enjoy exploring new mechanisms and diving into them, I can't deny that the theme is what will get my attention first and, ultimately, will probably determine if I'm going to buy a game or not. That being said, publishers and fellow designers out there: have no fear, for my interests know almost no boundaries. Pirates, aliens, historical events, love stories, zombies, cats, dinosaurs or birds - count me in.

When it comes to game designing, I tend to use the same approach. I start with a theme rather than with a mechanism. I don't think there's one way better than the other, but I do think it's important to know yourself and how you operate if you wish to improve. As I'm writing this first diary entry, I'm working on my second design. The first one was somewhat of a failure, but I won't get into it in this post. Maybe another day. All you need to know for now is that, in that first design, I went head first into my theme, including some mechanisms along the way, not thinking much of them.

After all, the THEME is all that's important, right? Right...?

I learnt a lot with this first attempt at designing. But failure is not something always easy to see and accept, and so it took me a long time before I felt ready to come back.

For this second game, of course, the idea first came as a theme. Although, this time, I'm trying to lean more into the mechanisms I want to implement. In other words, what kind of game do I want to design (and play)? This idea, I've had it for a while, bouncing in my head, dissipating, coming back stronger every time. It evolved, too, on its own, navigating the currents of the daily inspirations. It changed as I changed, as my tastes and myself evolved, but also because I played many games with the same theme. Each time, I could see what's already been done, but I also got better at targeting what I envisioned, mechanically, for my own design.

So, let's talk about it, shall we?

Let's start with the theme: dinosaurs. I'm a dino-nerd. Always have been, always will be. When the idea first came to me, it was WAY to big of a project. I wanted a big map, with dinosaurs (represented by minis, of course) roaming the tiles, and the players would have to work together to take care of them - feeding them, curing diseases, protecting them, etc. Many problems here for a first-time designer: big project equals big costs, which mean that it would be difficult to pitch it to a publisher, and I'd need to develop mechanically a AI to direct the behavior of all dinosaurs species. It's not impossible, but I lacked the skill to pull it off - for now.

I had to scale it down. I thought of leaning toward a dinosaurs park - like a certain movie franchise - but there's already many games that went that way, brilliantly, even. Dinosaur Island, Dinosaur World, Dinogenics and Sauria, to name a few. Then, I thought of what has NOT been overly done with the theme, and that is paleontology. A game about discovering fossils and trying to learn about the different species. A couple of games exist with this orientation too (Bone Wars and Fossilis, for exemple) but I think there is still a bit of place for me to add a box on the shelf.

As for the mechanisms, I'm still working it out and trying different things. I try to keep my mind flexible on that regard. That being said, there are two main mechanisms that resonates with me.

The first one is a form of Probaility Management. I'd like the game to feature a bag full of different colored rocks, which players would draw from, representing the dig sites as they try to uncover fossilised bones.

For the second one, I'm looking at Sleeve Crafting, to upgrade cards within a sleeve. I think it would be pretty nice to upgrade a specimen card that way as you study it and learn more about the dinosaur itself along the way.

We'll see if both survive playtesting.

Before closing this post, I have to say: I doubt anyone is reading this. But if you are, thank you. Thank you for your time, and thank you for your companionship.

The journey is only starting, but I'm confident with the path I'm (we're) on.