0:00:03.860,0:00:09.480
It's almost impossible to imagine the game[br]Ape Out without an ape.

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And yet, that's exactly how it started life.

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According to designer Gabe Cuzzillo, this[br]was supposed to be a time-looping stealth

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game where you'd use push and grab[br]mechanics to slink along walls.

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But if there were going to be guards in the[br]game, then naturally you should be able to

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use those same mechanics on them, leading[br]to gameplay that has you holding guards hostage

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and chucking them at walls.

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This turned out to be the most interesting[br]part of the game: and so Gabe decided to wildly

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change direction and actually build the game[br]around this core concept.

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He removed everything that didn't need to[br]be there, like stealth and time-loops.

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And did whatever he could to emphasise this[br]idea - most notably, by swapping the bald

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guy for a rampaging, 300-pound gorilla.

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This is an example of a game design methodology[br]called "Follow the Fun".

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It’s the deceptively simple idea that designers[br]should ignore their plans and preconceived

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ideas - and instead look to the game itself[br]to find out where the development should lead.

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So take the microscopic tactics gem, Into[br]the Breach.

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This game started life as a pretty standard[br]Advance Wars-style game, where enemies chose

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attacks at random and hid their intentions[br]until their turn.

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But one foe in the game would show you exactly[br]what they were about to do on their turn,

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by highlighting the tile they were going to[br]attack.

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The developers at Subset realised that this[br]was the single most enjoyable part, and so

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decided to focus the rest of the game almost[br]exclusively on these telegraphed attacks.

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And this actually helped dictate the rest[br]of the design decisions that the studio had

0:01:51.009,0:01:52.009
to make.

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Because, if you know what the enemies are[br]going to do, can't you just move your own

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units out of their attack zone?

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Alright, maybe the game is actually about[br]protecting static buildings.

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And so now it's about pushing the enemies[br]around so their attacks will miss.

0:02:06.640,0:02:11.370
But actually, you could use this to trick[br]the enemies into killing each other.

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You can probably see why the designers who[br]use this method often say that their game,

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to some extent, designed itself.

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Here's Sam Coster from Crashlands-developer[br]Butterscotch Shenanigans.

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SAM COSTER: "We like to think about this process[br]as the game discovering itself over time.

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Because as iterators, rather than designers,[br]it's our job to simply play the game, listen

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to it, feel it, and kind of feel out what[br]it seems to want to become - and just follow

0:02:39.200,0:02:40.700
the trails of what's fun."

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Now, the idea of a game designing itself is[br]surely rather exciting for those looking to

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make the next big hit.

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But, it's not like amazing game ideas just[br]appear from the ether.

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So, where do they come from?

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Well, let's look at the origins of the rhythm-based[br]roguelike Crypt of the Necrodancer.

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Designer Ryan Clark wanted to see if he could[br]put Spelunky's quick-fire decision making

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into a more traditional turn-based dungeon[br]crawler.

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So he made a quick prototype of a roguelike[br]where you only have a second to make your

0:03:12.970,0:03:14.420
next turn.

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When he played it, Ryan realised that it had[br]an almost rhythmic-like quality - and it became

0:03:19.410,0:03:25.280
obvious that the game should be set to music.

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Or perhaps we should take a look at the iconic[br]mid-air movement of Rocket League.

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When Psyonix was working on the game's predecessor,[br]Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars

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- they've learned a lot about marketing since[br]then.

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Uh, they had built a game about battling cars,[br]but wanted to add a speed boost mechanic.

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So the devs simply applied a physics force[br]to the back of the car.

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In testing, they discovered that players could[br]use that force in mid-air to rocket about

0:03:52.080,0:03:53.080
the arena.

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That wasn't the plan, but the developers realised[br]that this actually added enormous depth and

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a whole extra dimension to the game - so they[br]kept it.

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The studio says “we developed this mechanic[br]almost by accident”.

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In fact, there's a whole history of games[br]where bugs, glitches, and accidents in the

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development process were turned into features.

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For example, Hideki Kamiya found a bug in[br]Onimusha: Warlords that let you juggle enemies

0:04:20.110,0:04:22.180
in the air by repeatedly slashing them.

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It was fixed in Onimusha, but Kamiya developed[br]it further, and turned it into the premiere

0:04:26.139,0:04:28.710
game mechanic of Devil May Cry.

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The point being, this process involves taking[br]some initial idea - however loose, fuzzy,

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or unoriginal it might be - and actually building[br]a working prototype.

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And it's here - during the process of coding[br]and playing - that new ideas can spring up.

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And so it's up to the designer to be open[br]and attentive to what the game is saying.

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To realise what's interesting, and be willing[br]to explore those aspects… even if they don't

0:04:54.800,0:04:57.960
totally align with what you originally had[br]in mind.

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That's how Gunpoint went from being about[br]a robot in space who drops fridges on people,

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to being a puzzle game about a spy who re-wires[br]buildings.

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That re-wire mechanic was just one possible[br]idea for a hacking mini-game in a side-scrolling

0:05:13.439,0:05:15.189
Deus Ex-inspired game.

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But as soon as designer Tom Francis started[br]prototyping it, the game that would eventually

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become Gunpoint started to emerge.

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Here's Tom:

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TOM FRANCIS: “It just immediately became[br]obvious that this should become a puzzle game.

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That was just a puzzle mechanic.

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And so Gunpoint just kind of told me what[br]it wanted to be.

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It just wanted to be a puzzle game, just obviously.

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And I just rolled with that, I just expanded[br]the hacking mechanic to a crazy extent.

0:05:38.880,0:05:40.960
I built the whole game around it."

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So this process generally causes the most[br]significant changes towards the beginning

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of a game’s development - which is the point[br]that Sam Coster describes the game as a white

0:05:51.089,0:05:53.589
hot ball of malleable magma.

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But it can still be used as development goes[br]on, and the game starts to form and settle

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into rock.

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Like, for content generation: Jonathan Blow[br]has said that the puzzles in Braid were simply

0:06:04.889,0:06:09.689
a showcase of the unexpected consequences[br]of his time-travelling game engine.

0:06:09.689,0:06:14.379
Blow says "I had a curator role, cleaning[br]up the answers and presenting them in such

0:06:14.379,0:06:17.249
a way that they could be enjoyed by the game’s[br]players.”

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More on that in this video.

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Or, it can be used for listening to player[br]feedback.

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When Chris Hecker made SpyParty, players found[br]all sorts of exploits and unintended ways

0:06:28.029,0:06:29.499
to play the game.

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Instead of fixing these “bugs”, Chris[br]leaned into them and made them an official

0:06:33.969,0:06:37.900
part of the game - pushing the experience[br]towards being more about

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mind-games and psychological tricks.

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And it can simply be used to help guide the[br]general development of a game.

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Here's Subnautica designer Charlie Cleveland:

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CHARLIE CLEVELAND: "You kind of think you[br]know where you're going.

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You have some place on the horizon.

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And there's many paths and you don't know[br]how to get there.

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But if you listen to the game it will tell[br]you where it wants to go."

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That's how his studio made a horror game,[br]without that ever being the intention at the

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start of the project.

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Now obviously, this sort of design process[br]can make it very difficult to predict how

0:07:10.569,0:07:12.860
long a game will take to make.

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This is one reason why the methodology is[br]more popular in the world of indies - rather

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than the fiercely regimented world of blockbuster[br]game production.

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Like, when Tom Francis made his second game,[br]Heat Signature, he hoped that the fuzzy idea

0:07:26.930,0:07:32.409
of “you go inside spaceships” would magically[br]lead to good stuff - just like had happened

0:07:32.409,0:07:33.800
with Gunpoint.

0:07:33.800,0:07:37.580
But… it just didn't. [br]At least, not for a very long time.

0:07:37.580,0:07:42.599
In truth, Tom realised that he had to make[br]a butt-load of stuff in order to find out

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what made the game interesting, which lead[br]to a protracted development where he made

0:07:46.590,0:07:52.360
a ship generation system, artificial intelligence,[br]a combat system, a whole galaxy map with an

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economy, and so on.

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It took Tom years to to figure out that the[br]on-ship combat was the most interesting bit.

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And so that's why it’s worth remembering[br]that the real phrase is actually a bit longer

0:08:03.649,0:08:05.509
than just "Follow the Fun".

0:08:05.509,0:08:09.699
I traced the coinage of the phrase back to[br]this guy - Marc LeBlanc.

0:08:09.699,0:08:14.879
He’s a designer who worked on Thief and[br]System Shock, and an educator who helped come

0:08:14.879,0:08:17.489
up with ideas like the MDA framework.

0:08:17.489,0:08:22.009
When he coined this phrase, he actually started[br]it with a well-known idiom from the world

0:08:22.009,0:08:25.550
of design and entrepreneurship: "fail fast".

0:08:25.550,0:08:30.139
That’s the process of throwing something[br]together as quickly as possible, to see what

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works and what doesn't.

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It doesn't matter if you fail, because you[br]didn't waste much time - but that so-called

0:08:35.890,0:08:40.979
"failure" will tell you so much about what[br]direction the next attempt should take.

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So, perhaps there are some concrete techniques[br]for speeding up the iteration process?

0:08:45.940,0:08:51.699
Well, one is something all GMTK viewers will[br]be familiar with: Game Jams.

0:08:51.699,0:08:56.360
Those frantic game creation marathons where[br]you have to try and make a game in, perhaps,

0:08:56.360,0:08:57.870
a single weekend.

0:08:57.870,0:09:03.019
Arvi Teikari, who dreamt up the award-winning[br]puzzler Baba is You at a Game Jam, speaks

0:09:03.019,0:09:04.469
to the power of these events:

0:09:04.469,0:09:07.320
ARVI TEIKARI: "The whole idea[br]is you can take a prototype that you have

0:09:07.320,0:09:09.829
in your head and try to make something around[br]it.

0:09:09.829,0:09:11.910
if it doesn't work, that's fine.

0:09:11.910,0:09:16.600
you can toss it away after the game jam. you[br]are not committed to the idea for longer than

0:09:16.600,0:09:18.610
the game jam takes".

0:09:18.610,0:09:24.480
Another technique is to use tools that suit[br]rapid prototyping, like Game Maker and Godot.

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Or perhaps paper prototypes, LEGO, or the[br]PS4 game-creation suite Dreams.

0:09:30.769,0:09:34.839
If you've already made most of the game and[br]just want to generate content, you can develop

0:09:34.839,0:09:39.889
some custom level creation tools to speed[br]up the creative process - and get more people

0:09:39.889,0:09:41.250
on board to help.

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So, for Mario Galaxy 2, Nintendo made simple[br]level creation tools to encourage everyone

0:09:46.930,0:09:49.839
on the team to think up unique mechanics.

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And to quickly focus on design and mechanics,[br]you can use placeholder art, music, and plot.

0:09:55.910,0:10:01.589
When Klei made the very first game jam prototype[br]of Don't Starve, the hero of the game was

0:10:01.589,0:10:03.200
actually represented by…

0:10:03.200,0:10:04.960
Link, from Zelda.

0:10:04.960,0:10:07.860
And finally, it can actually help to have[br]something

0:10:07.860,0:10:11.000
about the game that absolutely cannot change.

0:10:11.000,0:10:16.620
Sunni Pavolic from thatgamecompany says the[br]studio used a very iterative methodology when

0:10:16.620,0:10:23.170
making Journey, but always with the idea that[br]this game would explore the theme of love.

0:10:23.170,0:10:27.560
This gave everyone on the team a singular[br]direction to follow, and helped narrow the

0:10:27.560,0:10:31.920
range of possible ideas that they might discover[br]and develop.

0:10:33.780,0:10:39.319
So if there’s one thing I’d want you to[br]take away from this video: it’s to stop

0:10:39.319,0:10:42.200
waiting for the perfect game idea to come[br]along.

0:10:42.200,0:10:45.820
It’s easy to look at something like Ape Out, [br]Crypt of the Necrodancer,

0:10:45.820,0:10:50.279
or Crashlands and assume that[br]these games were designed in a flash of insight

0:10:50.279,0:10:53.490
- which seamlessly transitioned into the final[br]game.

0:10:53.490,0:10:57.230
And so if you can’t come up with an idea[br]as good as these ones - why bother trying?

0:10:57.230,0:11:02.510
But as I’ve shown in this video, nothing[br]could be further from the truth.

0:11:02.510,0:11:07.569
In reality, the thing that ties all of these[br]developers together is that they got started

0:11:07.569,0:11:09.019
and they built something.

0:11:09.019,0:11:13.970
And it was only then - as the designers tried[br]new ideas, played their prototypes, and even

0:11:13.970,0:11:17.829
created bugs - that the games we know today[br]started to form.

0:11:17.829,0:11:22.519
They’re great designers not because they[br]came up with amazing ideas - but because they

0:11:22.519,0:11:28.649
knew how to listen to the game, knew which[br]avenues to follow, knew how to fail fast and

0:11:28.649,0:11:34.750
fail often, and knew how to coalesce these[br]disparate ideas into something coherent.

0:11:34.750,0:11:39.339
So if you watch Game Maker’s Toolkit and[br]think you might like to make a game - don’t

0:11:39.339,0:11:41.120
wait for the perfect idea.

0:11:41.120,0:11:42.579
Build something.

0:11:42.579,0:11:48.550
And then you can listen to the game, follow[br]the fun - and you might just discover that

0:11:48.550,0:11:53.320
the game, in some small way, designs itself.