IGDA Game Design SIG

This vote is open for 24 hours.

The Game Design SIG Constitution has been ratified by a vote of 25-3, with two abstaining. It can be viewed here.

The SIG is now ready to accept statements of candidacy for leadership roles. The election cycle will be triggered upon receipt of the first statement of candidacy for any role. Once the cycle begins, there will be two weeks for additional candidates to enter the running and for any other SIG business to be voted upon to be brought to the attention of the SIG. Statements of candidacy and other actionable business should be posted to the GDSIG Mailing List.

Further updates will be posted once elections get underway.

The previous SIG Constitution ratification vote failed to meet a 50-vote quorum. A review of the results suggests that this is not due to a deficiency of the document itself, but rather due to the quorum requirement being set too high for the SIG’s current level of activity. As such, the constitutional committee has elected to modify the quorum requirement to 25 votes, and to extend the voting window from one week to two. A new version of the SIG Constitution which reflects these changes is available here.

Please take a few minutes to look over the constitution draft and cast your vote using this form. Voting will be open through Sunday, November 15.

Quick links:

The Constitution of the IGDA Game Design SIG is ready to be ratified. You can read it here (PDF). The schedule and procedures for the vote itself will be published within the next few days.

Rob Zacny has written an article for The Escapist on the evolution of tutorials. From very early control tutorials to games that are one long hint, designers have come a long way in making the teacher invisible, while making the learning process part of the fun.

Gamasutra has a features that lists the top 10 Game Design Process Pitfalls. If you’ve worked on a game, you’ve probably experienced most, if not all, the items on their list.

  1. Not structuring enough time for play
  2. Placing too much importance on paper designs
  3. Peer review not taken seriously
  4. Decision-maker picked for his producer skills
  5. Not taking advantage of placeholders
  6. Allowing the story to control the game design
  7. Not giving designers enough tools
  8. Entering production without something fun
  9. Not keeping documentation up-to-date
  10. Not making outside playtest part of the process

Unfortunately, the article doesn’t give solutions to most of the problems.

Gamasutra has reprinted an article from Game Developer magazine where the design choices made by Sid Meier are analyzed. A few of the key lessons include finding the fun, the covert action rule and make the player the star.

SIG Constitution

The Constitution of the IGDA Game Design SIG was ratified in November 2009, and can be viewed here (PDF).

Steering Committee

Josh Sutphin
Lead Game Designer
LightBox Interactive
blog | email


Coray Seifert
Game Designer
Kaos Studios | THQ Inc.
email


Altug Isigan
Senior Instructor
Creative Writing & Game Design
EMU Faculty of Media Studies
blog | email

Initiatives

Here are the initiatives which are active or in development:


Whitepapers
Michael Lubker
Josh Sutphin


SIG Blog
Josh Sutphin
Rayna Anderson


Mailing List
Sande Chen
Ryon Levitt


Forum
Coray Seifert


Game Design Wiki
Lindsey Talbot
Altug Isigan
Markster


Newsletter
Michael Lubker


Digital/Non-Digital Exchange
Michael Lubker


Design of the Month
Rayna Anderson
Michael Lubker
Josh Sutphin


Design Round Table
Corvus Elrod


Design Patterns
Martin Herink
Doug Hill
Josh Sutphin
Francois


Design Vocabulary
Chris Keeling
Josh Sutphin


GDD Standards
Martin Herink
Doug Hill
Chris Keeling


Accessible Game Design
Reid Kimball
Michael Lubker
Deborah Teramis Christian


Childrens' Games
Martin Herink
Michael Lubker


Open Source RPG Design
Chris Keeling
Michael Lubker


Ludtopia
Altug Isigan

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