Designing for Others and for Myself

There are two schools of thought among designers. One is to design the type of game you want to play and not worry if there is an audience. The other is to design primarily with your audience in mind. Both of these concepts are a little foreign to me. 

As an independent designer, I find motivation to design when I enjoy the games I'm working on. So, at the beginning of the process I am designing for myself. This is further compounded by the fact that many of my game ideas will never see the light of day. In order to keep exploring new designs to find the good ones, I need to amuse myself. In order to keep working on a game to get it to a sharable state, I need to care about it. For me, I care about a game most when I am excited by the theme. When I get excited by a theme, I am more willing to put in the three to five years of work it will take to get the game (potentially) published. 

It's only once I'm playtesting that I start to get invested in the game as a product. I begin to trim down my wild ideas, cut mechanics, and dial in gameplay. All of which is done with an audience in mind. Because I am also not working three to five years on a game if no one else wants to play it. This is where I start to focus more on mechanics that draw players in and that create the experience I want. I'm generally willing to add, cut, and rearrange elements in order to improve gameplay and make a more appealing product. I'm less flexible on thematic changes during playtesting, unless I'm in talks with a publisher. 

When it comes time to pitch, I'm prepared to change anything thematic or mechanic. I've likely spent several years working on my game. Now, a publisher wants to pay me for it and take over some of the work that the game still needs. If a publisher wants to see some changes before they offer a contract, I will make those changes to the best of my ability. There is no other feeling like a publisher getting excited about your vision and wanting to make it real. That's the real reason I'll never self-publish. The game may end up vastly different from what I imagined, but as long as there is a healthy line of communication I don't mind. After all, I'm not the one investing thousands of dollars in production. (Of course some things can hurt to change. I have started responding to certain feedback by saying "I'll mull it over and see what I can do" to give myself a window to feel sad then get excited again about the new direction.)

Unless you are a full-time employee at a design studio and don't get to pick your projects, you should work on games because they excite you. Then you should spend the rest of the design process making your game excite other people.