[ 2]”I have no words and I must design” was originally published in a British roleplaying journal, and features Greg’s definition of a game as well as a list of different game-related things. It’s still available online at: http://www.costik.com/ nowords.html

[ 3] See for instance Salen and Zimmerman’s Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, MIT Press, 2003; or Fullerton et al Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping, and Playtesting Games, CMP Books, 2004; or C. Crawford’s Chris Crawford on Game Design, Ne w Riders Games, 2003. Even I myself have proposed a method for multidisciplinary game design: S. Lundgren, “Facets of Fun: The design of Computer Augmented Entertainment Artifacts,” Master’s thesis, Chalmers University of Technology and Göteborg University, 2006, 159-186. <http:// www.cs.chalmers. se/~lundsus/publica-tions.html>

Since most of them were developed as parts of workshops, they are between three and eight hours long. You can use them to come up with game ideas or to explore (perhaps when teaching) the close connection between a changed rule and a change in gameplay, i.e., how one design decision can affect the entire outcome. These methods are intended for groups of at least two but preferably four people. And most important, all of the methods can be used to design any type of game. A board game. A card game. A computer game. An outdoors game. A game played with mobile phones, indoors or outdoors, or perhaps over time. A game played with a Wii control or a dance mat. A game played with nothing more than a set of dice and an ability to bluff [ 4]. Any kind of game.

• The game Minesweeper and a pattern map for it.

not done it yet: to explore new problems and possibilities, and to work with a set of aesthetics that is freer— and more demanding. This leads us to the next question: How?

November + December 2008

[ 4] Yes, of course there is such a game, called Bluff or Liar’s Dice, designed by Richard Borg in 1974 and published by very many, e.g. FX Schmid, Piatnik, Milton Bradley.

I Have No Tools and I Must Design?! Back in 1994, game designer Greg Costikyan stated, “I have no words and I must design [ 2]” as a response to the upcoming breed of game designers’ need for a common terminology on game-related stuff. Since then, an extensive terminology has been created, collected, and discovered, as well as theories on how to run development and test the ongoing design [ 3].

However, there is still a dearth of idea-generation methods for games and gameplay; typically, “normal” idea-generation tools, for instance brainstorming, are described in the game design literature, whereas more direct game design methods are lacking or only briefly described.

For the professional game designer, constantly looking for inspiration and playing what-if, this may not be a problem, but the rest of us may need a hint. Therefore, I take the opportunity to present a set of methods for quick idea generation. All of them have been tested numerous times with gamers, students, and people interested but inexperienced in game design.

Redo It Right… The participants start out by playing a dysfunctional game of some sort, like a game based entirely on luck or one that is “broken” in some aspect (it may never end, it may be boring, it may be frustrating…). The game’s rules should be fairly simple; public-domain games for children (like Memory, or simple card games) can be good candidates. The game is played and analyzed in terms of what mechanics or patterns it contains and how these affect not only gameplay but also which kinds of feelings they evoke (e.g., lack of control may result in either boredom or stress). Sometimes it helps to draw a kind of pattern map to see interconnections. Then, possible rule changes are suggested, discussed, and tested. A new analy-