Are you a sculptor or a painter?
This is at the core of the identity of every designer that I’ve ever talked to.
Are you a sculptor or a painter?
A sculptor takes a big idea, a whole bunch of information, many mechanics, and everything else and starts stripping things away until they’re left with the game they want. That’s a sculptor. A painter takes an idea and adds and adds and adds until the game is finished. So, am I a sculptor or a painter? Well, I’m going to tell you a little bit about Loot! The Dungeon Game and you can tell me if I’m a sculptor or a painter.
Loot! The Dungeon Game was not always called Loot! The Dungeon Game. Just two short weeks ago it was called Loot (we’ll get into that at another time) and 6 months ago it was called Treasure Loving Monster Hunters and The Gates of Chaos. Here was the game when I first conceived it.
Players would move around a hexagonal board, rotating around a center tile, (The Gates of Chaos). As you moved to the left and right, going around in circles, this would mimic the passage of time. Days were denoted by moving closer to or further away from the center tile. The point was to make your way all the way to the center, having collected certain items along the way so that you could defeat the final boss and escape. Along the way you would collect treasure. You would build a deck. There were asymmetrical player powers. It was semi-cooperative.
It was a mess.
There was too much going on. I played the prototype a few times with the kids and, while it was playable, it just wasn’t any fun. There was ONE thing that was fun which was collecting cool cards that did fun things.
So. I took away the semi-cooperative aspect and made it a straight 2 player vs. I took away the asymmetrical player powers. I stripped away the specific collections required to escape. I took away the time travel. I took away the hexes. I took away the board. In the end, I was left with a 2-player deck builder. I added an auction mechanic for deck collection.
I took away everything that I possibly could until I was left with a sleek, fast, fun, 2-player deck-builder. I took everything else away because I’m a sculptor.
Are you a sculptor or a painter?
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