Comments on: Toys Before Games

By: sjml

sjml — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:31:00 +0000

I’ve actually had mixed results with building the toys first — it was definitely our mantra on Experimental Gameplay, but sometimes it would lead to fun toys without any suggestion of goals.

It can also be hard as a developer to separate the “great, it works” endorphins from the “this is fun to play” endorphins. Thus testing your toy in its pure state can lead to false positives of fun. (The need for detachment is true of all stages of development, but I’ve found it particularly hard to get when making software toys.)

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:44:00 +0000

There are a lot of great examples of this from development. Katamari Damacy and Halo’s Warthog being two that immediately spring to mind.

By: solipsistnation

solipsistnation — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:45:00 +0000

You had to try it out to see if beeping and flashing lights were fun? Sheesh, I’d think that would be obvious!

By: Darius Kazemi

Darius Kazemi — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:45:00 +0000

Irony detection FAIL!!