[waldothedog]

Hey, congrats! Spent a good chunk of time fiddling with indie games… as some others have mentioned Jesse Schell is cool, also Ralph Koster. I know you’re looking for communities/resources, been there! But the best thing to do, is make games repeatedly. Apologies in advance for the length, but this is a part of my life I genuinely wish I could reset and retry w/ hindsight bc it feels so obvious now!

I found trying to make demos of individual mechanics pretty critical. Like any design process: high volume, low(er) fidelity until you find a meaningful direction (best case: lots of play testing from folks who are not the creators)

Even really abstract approaches for balancing XP a character, or moving on screen in a unique/tricky way can be useful to look for a signal of enjoyability (which option do folks want to replay, which do they seem less interested in… and why?)

I often try to think about the “play” part (pure delight/fun) vs the “game” part (winning conditions, confounding advantages, etc) separately

Last, I enjoyed talking to people (including myself) and trying to dissect WHY they like the games they like. There are genres and typologies that can be interesting creative inspiration (a game with a sudden-death condition mixed with the thrill of a race)

Try to make COMPLETE demos (beginning, advancement, winning conditions) and also honestly concept art (tell the visual story, we eat w our eyes first)

And just have fun! Man I am jealous, no time for games these days :/

[stevekwon211]

Thinking of “play” and “game” as separate things feels really interesting and worth digging into. People enjoy different things, right? So figuring out those key points could be super important for making a good game. I need to talk to the gamers around me a lot more.

It’s too bad you don’t have time to play games these days haha. You should try making an indie game again someday! It’s never too late—when you feel like it, just jump in :)