Design

Game design principles and old-school lessons, written as short standalone ideas.

• Design by Subtraction, Not Addition
• Enemies as Palette, Not Characters
• Genre as Constraint Satisfaction
• High Score Tables as the Entire Metagame
• Juice Before Content
• Level Design as Grammar
• Old-School Gamedev Wisdom
• Playtesting Was Just Playing It Yourself A Lot
• Procedural Generation as a Space-Saving Trick
• Start From the Verb, Not the World
• The Arcade Economics Rule - Design for the Quarter
• The Can I Explain It on the Cabinet Art Test
• The Kishotenketsu Boss Structure
• The Manual Did Design Work the Game Couldnt