Robin D. Laws - Dear Indie Game Designers
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09:20 am
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Dear Indie Game Designers
You know I love you. It is only out of the staunchest hope and admiration that I say any of these things. I want only to be able to spotlight pure awesomeness during the annual post-Gen Con Tribute Pile Shout Out (which due to various family events will probably appear after the film festival this year.) And you all seem to have gotten the memo about pitching your games clearly and concisely. So please, Indie Game Designers, please contemplate the following additional admonitions.
Learn the difference between a text font and a display font. I know you adore that kooky font. But I really like ice cream and don’t eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Take your favorite passage from your game and read it out loud in the voice of Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel from The Simpsons. That’s the impression you’re giving my setting your main text in a goofy, hard-to-read font.
A game is not a forum post. No matter what amazing advice Ron Edwards or Luke Crane have given you, you don’t need to quote them in the body of your rules text. Nor does it help to cite RPG theory to explain what you’re doing. If you can’t explain it in plain language without citation or reference to critical vocabulary, what you’re saying doesn’t actually make sense.
Likewise, minimize the discussion of the long personal journey the rules represent for you, and also how great your various collaborators are. How can I congratulate you if you’re already doing it yourself?
And, most of all...
Show the same excitement in your writing as you do in all those demos you run. If indie gaming is all about expanding boundaries and exploring new territories, why do so many of the rules texts read with all the zest of a clock radio instruction manual? Psych yourself into GMing mode before you sit down to write. Zing up that prose, horizon-busters!
Tags: gaming hut
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Nor does it help to cite RPG theory to explain what you’re doing. If you can’t explain it in plain language without citation or reference to critical vocabulary, what you’re saying doesn’t actually make sense.
Words to live by. We need this attitude over in academia.
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/51283505/20459) | | From: | ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) gobi |
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| Date: | August 30th, 2007 01:56 pm (UTC) |
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I think the lack of zing may come from a hesitance to sound like one of those guys who says their game is the most awesome thing to ever awesome.
When it comes to board games, I find that I learn a lot more about the fun parts of the game by teaching it to someone else. With that in mind, once I'm done playtesting Do, I'll be writing the actual text in such a way that it teaches the reader how to play the game and how to teach the game to friends. I hope to capture a bit of that "Oh, cool!" experience in this way. Let's hope it works. :P
In regards to fonts. Yes, I could not agree more. Ryan Macklin of the Master Plan is going to be interviewing me about layout and typography in games, so I'm presently compiling a list of ten rules of thumb for those who've not gone to school for this stuff. The display vs. text typeface will be near the top of the list.
Still, the 'zing' is part of a larger principle: Whatever you're doing at the table needs to be in your game. That includes your excitement and joy, but also means "if you're unconsciously house-ruling something, alarm bells need to go off" and a host of other things.
Well said. I don't have as much problem with the "thanks and acknowledgements" sections, although they could probably stand to be at the back rather than in or before the introduction.
Learn the difference between a text font and a display font
::sniff sniff::
I weep with gratitude that someone of your importance in the industry lends his name to this cause. Those of us who are font nerds thank-you. Thank-you.
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/11569400/789610) | | From: | chadu |
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| Date: | August 30th, 2007 02:08 pm (UTC) |
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Another one that is thankfully growing less common:
Don't diss other games in your text. Insulting other games makes you look like a jerk, doubleplus jerk if you're disrespecting a game that your reader happens to like, and tripleplus jerk if your reader ends up not liking your game.
CU
Wow! Do people actually do this? I don't think I've ever seen an example that I can recall, and I agree, that would be crazy behaviour!
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/60610727/10595384) | | From: | jkahane |
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| Date: | August 30th, 2007 02:32 pm (UTC) |
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Excellent advice, Robin, to all the folks who design games in the Indie business. Truer words to live by were never spoken, and hopefully some of them are reading this wondeful blog of yours. :)
Man oh man, you hit just about every reason why I have passed over most indy games. Let's hope the indie crowd listens to you.
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/63823672/1357870) | | From: | foxbat |
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| Date: | August 30th, 2007 03:57 pm (UTC) |
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Amen from me too.
Yeah, how horrible it would be if people actually discussed opinions in depth :)
(Though, admittedly, that thread went off the rails in countless unnecessary ways...)
Learn the difference between a text font and a display font. I know you adore that kooky font. But I really like ice cream and don’t eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Take your favorite passage from your game and read it out loud in the voice of Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel from The Simpsons. That’s the impression you’re giving my setting your main text in a goofy, hard-to-read font.
You could just as easily tattoo that to the forearm of half the graphic designers out there. The indi publishers are hardly alone in this particular crime. All those dumb so-and-sos that think they're going to be making the next Wired magazine. The worst example I've seen in the last year was Infinity, a miniatures war game, gorgeous models but crap rules. The book, when it came out, had color pages and teeny tiny helvetica text. I guess the idea what to make it look high tech, but it made my eyes bleed. It didn't help that the translation from Italian was mangled. For $35 I demand readability.
Helvetica was designe by a Swiss schoolteacher determined to make sure all school children suffered for the crime of being young. It is one of the fugliest fonts ever invented. Even worse, it's a nans-serif font designed for text. Hell, who am I kidding, it's a fugly sans-serif font designed for text.
Serif for text, sans-serif for display and headers. That's cuz it works.
Excellent advice all around (and ringsnake is right about this applying to graphic designers as well). I loooove a lot of indie games and I buy way more of them than I should, but there are many others that I just can't bring myself to read, buy or play because of these flaws.
Luckily, I had drivingblind to handle the layout for me, and he did very well on the fonts (and everything else). Though it seems that "legibility first" should just be common sense...
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/3806234/560866) | | From: | agrumer |
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| Date: | August 30th, 2007 05:41 pm (UTC) |
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Speaking of fonts, how come you wrap every entry in a FONT tag? Do we all really need to see your words in Times New Roman, regardless of our friends-page settings?
See, Robin says this and he's a hero.
I say the same thing and I'm a FARKING ICEHOLE!!!
:D
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/31456289/2302548) | | From: | chryx |
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| Date: | August 30th, 2007 10:55 pm (UTC) |
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Learn the difference between a text font and a display font.
Dictionary of Mu, I'm looking at you. There's a reason why that font is only the Exalted heading font, and not their body font.
Now I'm kinda glad I didn't buy it.
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/35194975/1935043) | | From: | pond823 |
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| Date: | August 30th, 2007 11:01 pm (UTC) |
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| | Deat professional freelancer | (Link) |
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Tell 'em like it is :)
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2007 03:50 pm (UTC) |
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Just want to add another minor quibble, now that everybody important has already commented and forgotten this thread:
* If you're not reinventing the wheel, don't reinvent it just for the sake of being "Indy". If you're using hit points, call them hit points. If it's an NPC, call it an NPC. If you have to create an elaborate lexicon to explain how the game works, then there's a good chance your terminology or some other personal agenda is getting in the way of explaining the game.
Darrin Bright
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | September 1st, 2007 12:51 am (UTC) |
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| | Style vs. System: What are we really shooting for? | (Link) |
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This brings me to a whole new level on which I think the foundation of the indie revolution is based.
Are we creating anything better than the original wheel... or just making different rims?
Do the rules have a direct impact on the system?
Does Amber diceless actually capture the feel of the stories better than if the characters were D20-ized?
What do other games do that GURPS can't?
It is endless with ever-growing fractal branches as genres blend, break off and merge again. Examples of this are cyberpunk and steampunk.
What new genres await?
My creative writing teacher said "Old wine in new bottles."
Americans seek the novel. This fuels the economy. When the bards told tells they added to the story to keep it new and interesting like the ongoing series of today.
Universal (catch-all) system vs. Abstract (genre specific)
Does the system try to set the players against each other or get them to work together?
Mentality of gamers differs from Monty Hall to Cthulhu investigators who know they are going to die.
Everway is a great system on paper
Maybe there's something about rolling dice–the physical act perhaps. Does it not seem strange that all chance is represented by polyhedrons? Pythagoras help.
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | September 1st, 2007 12:58 am (UTC) |
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| | Re: Style vs. System: What are we really shooting for? | (Link) |
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...and are we really shooting?
It is amazing and there seems no end in sight. But Robin is absolutely right. There has to be a standard to the submissions much like screenwriting or novel writing. Even the professionals don't do cutsie things; this is why they are where they are. Nothing clever just a good solid story that speaks for itself.
Shouldn't a good game do the same thing?
Then again we are dealing with gamers here (known to have a high cheeze-factor).
Thank you for taking the time for the critique. It would be even more helpful if you could write a letter to the games in particular that inspired this post, the right e-mail can make a big difference and would be a real help to a new game designer, that is, if you don't want to say such things publically.
Can I ask you why you don't buy games? Why the tribute?
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | September 4th, 2007 04:26 pm (UTC) |
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| | Re: Dear Robin | (Link) |
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What Judd said. Robin, please buy people's games. I, for one, find it insulting to have it assumed my games are free among some cadre of hobby demigods. I find the premise of that assumption absurd.
Should I expect to receive free copies of your work? And, if the answer is "No," why is that? I really, really hope it's not "Because I'm Robin Fucking Laws!"
-Matt Snyder
If you care about this stuff, listen to Robin. He's not wrong. ON the other hand, he's also missing a chunk of the point. Publish your game, your way. That's the point of the "Indie Movement" (such as there is one). If you want to break every one of these rules, go ahead. It's quite possible you'll only sell 6 copies. But that's okay. Being Indie means not measuring yourself by any yardstick other than your own. If your 6-copy-selling weird-ass game makes YOU happy, you have the tools you need to publish it and not lose your shirt. I would hate to see that insight lost amid the growing professionalism of the small-press game publishers (which I totally support and welcome).
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | September 4th, 2007 01:08 pm (UTC) |
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You're missing the point, tigerbunny. Doing things that lose, aggravate, or insult potential customers, that get in the way of expressing your ideas clearly, that have been proven not only via market research but several thousand years of human beings exchanging that latest crudscraper for these shiny pebbles... that's *not okay*, and no amount of "chin up, you smart, dreamy iconoclast!" makes it okay. Upsetting the apple cart may be a noble endeavor, but that doesn't necessarily extend to burning every apple cart to the ground and dancing on the still-smoldering ashes. Artists who can't, won't, or don't understand how to sell their work or connect to an audience don't make better, more "pure" artists, and I'm not sure coddling them with "feel good" aphorisms is entirely helpful.
Ugh, apparently the cold, blackened, hollow lump of useless slag I use for a heart is in a foul mood today. Sorry if I crushed anyone's puppies.
Darrin Bright
I take Robin's advice to heart and don't anticipate having a hard time heeding it.
That said, the only thing that make me wince or feel guilty was the "write fun" part. As it stands right now, my game text is definitely a boring, very clear recitation of rules and behaviors. My plan is to write the game as good as I can like that, then tart it up with funness.
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | September 4th, 2007 01:39 pm (UTC) |
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Robin, these are all very good points and worth pointing out. I certainly find this helpful, and I imagine other designers do as well. Many Indie games are guilty of some or all of these. But so are very many mainstream/traditional games. I suspect you are not saying otherwsie, but I think it's worth noting that this isn't a set of flaws that is unique to Indie games. Rather, these are things that many game publishers could improve on.
As I said, I appreciate the feedback. I'll watch out for all these things in my own work.
Thanks,
Jake Richmond
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/51269253/7488275) | | From: | buzzmo |
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| Date: | September 4th, 2007 02:04 pm (UTC) |
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I'm with Jake. I'd also be curious to have names named, and wonder if Robin is including any ashcans. In the latter case, they're obviously not 100% finished product. If anything, I've noticed that indie product is often a lot more aware of these issues than many large publishers. But, that's just me. P.S., for those new to layout and typography, there's another Robin who can help.
| From: | lukzu |
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| Date: | September 4th, 2007 02:26 pm (UTC) |
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| | Really? | (Link) |
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Somebody quotes me in the body of their game? Hotness! Who? Where?
Of course, I'm guilty of this myself. I quote a passage from Dogs in the Vineyard in Burning Wheel. |
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