The Question Kit

The questions from the book, sorted by the situation you're in. Please note what they're for: finding the purpose, the feelings and the needs. They are not a checklist of design questions. The design questions come up on their own, from your project's purpose, and copying another project's questions into yours is exactly the blind imitation this book warns about (Never copy these questions).

When an idea grabs you#

Fill in the OFNR sentence honestly (A sentence to help: OFNR):

"[This event] brought out an inspiration in me, which made me feel [these feelings] because I'm needing [these needs], and I think [my game idea] is a good strategy that might fulfill that need."

If it sounds strange read back, you've found a problem before building anything. Then: Unmet needs + Strategy to meet those needs = Purpose of the project (The formula).

When you're improving an existing game#

Play it and ask (Chapter 2):

• What am I feeling when I play the game?
• What do certain parts of it make me feel? What does each detail make me feel?
• What do I want to feel from this game, its parts and each detail?
• If it's for someone else: what do they want to feel from it?

When you join someone else's project#

The six core questions, each with its follow-up (Chapter 2):

Then, about every existing plan and detail, many times over:

• "Why do you think this will work?"
• "How would you achieve that?"

And before the conversation, your own guesses from the existing material: What needs is this project trying to fulfill? What is it trying to make me feel? Why do my partners want to meet these needs in this particular way? Why do they think this strategy will be effective?

About any feature, mechanic or decision#

The why-spree, condensed (The important question is "Why?"):

• Why is it there? What purpose does it serve? What needs is it supposed to satisfy?
• Where did the idea come from? Why did it feel suitable? Why do you think it will work?
• Other options exist. Why this one, and not the others?
• If it came from another game: why do you think it worked there? Do you know, or are you guessing?
• Why is the game structured, marketed and monetized this way?

When you have to choose between options#

1. Lay every possible option you can find on the table.
2. Get familiar with each one, testing the unknown ones in the cheapest way you can.
3. Compare each option with the purpose, one at a time.
4. Choose the one that serves the purpose best.

"I don't know, but I'll find out." Never "I don't know, so I'll ignore it" (Chapter 2).

At every decision: the purpose test#

"Does this fulfill the purpose?" or "Does this bring the project closer to fulfilling the purpose?"

Yes: do it. No: change it, remove it or don't do it. I don't know: find out (The purpose test). And the second half: does it violate some other need along the way (Beware: poor design can violate needs)?

Before you build it#

From the complete investigation (Chapter 14), for each decision:

• What does it do, and what does it rely on?
• Which needs does it meet, and which could it violate?
• What will a player who is tired, broke, angry, ten years old or desperate to win do with it?
• Out of a hundred thousand players, what happens to the one in a thousand (Murphy's law)?

Before adding any reward or punishment#

Rosenberg's two questions (Chapter 9):

1. What do I want this person to do?
2. What do I want this person's reasons to be for doing it?

When money or fame is pulling at you#

Ask "What motivates me? How do I feel, and what do I want?", and if the answer is an extrinsic goal (What to do instead):

1. Acknowledge the need behind it, and that it matters.
2. Acknowledge that it can't be reached as the PRIMARY priority of a game project.
3. Stop going for it directly, without smothering it.
4. Set it aside, and make something worth making for its own sake.
5. Bring it back as SECONDARY, only in ways that don't compromise the game.