A Dozen-ish Questions for Designing Your Game

I’m right at the beginning of the design process on a few different projects, one in particular in a pre-mechanical stage: I know what the game is about and roughly what you do in it, but I don’t know how or if those things will be made manifest in the rules. It’s an interesting place to be!

I’ve found myself returning to some questions I often ask other people when they share work in early stages. Some of these are classics, some I learned from friends, some I adapted from screenwriting advice, some are just whatever I like to think and ask about. I like to bust them out like tools when I’m stuck on a particular design problem.

The big one, which I’ll set aside here at the top, is “what is your game about?” This is often such a broad question as to be useless when applied to a specific situation, but I always find it a good reminder to ground myself and return to whatever is emotionally important about the game to me. When in doubt, “waht is your game about?” is a good question to start with.

Here’s some more.

If your game has scenes, who frames them and who cuts them? How are they framed and cut?

If your game has conflict, what kinds of conflict does it have, and how is each kind resolved?

What in your game are you leaving up to play culture, and what are you creating rules for?

Who is your game for? This is not an abstract question. Name the people you want to play your game with. What choice about whatever problem currently has you stumped would most delight them?

What is the bare minimum you need to do to get from where you are now to running a playtest? Include recruiting players and scheduling and consider workload relative to other projects. Is it time to back-burner this project?

Could [X piece of the game] use a specific example? For example:

• Should your rule to define a relationship during character creation instead be a list of d6 juicy relationships or a specific predetermined relationship?

• Should your procedure for generating widgets instead be list of your d6 favorite widgets or simply your single favorite widget?

When there’s a question about the fiction, in what order should players turn to their own imaginations, the game’s text, a GM’s prep, real world knowledge, or something else? What tiers of truth does this game operate under?

If your game has a GM, what if any tools will they need for prep? Be honest. If the answer is they may need many but you’re leaving that up to culture of play, be up front about that.

Could [X piece of your game] be shorter? Do you really need it at all?

What happens when you playtest this thing you’re struggling with? Does it work in practice the way you expected it to?

Has some other game already solved your problem? If you take their solution, will it play differently in the new context you’re giving to it?

How do you want people to feel while they play your game? How do you want people to feel immediately after playing your game?

How do you want your game to end?