Read on Twitter
there are a lot of people who still need to understand that style is just another kind of substance
Killer 7 is one of my favorite games. Playing it can be kind of miserable sometimes but that's OK, as long as the reasons for that were intentional (and they are)
Desktop HEBOCON Battle Kit is far from deeply strategic but its chaos perfectly evokes the spirit of the thing
Desktop HEBOCON Battle Kit is far from deeply strategic but its chaos perfectly evokes the spirit of the thing
I could post a million movies that people adore for perfectly executed style but my point is that we're capable of extending this understanding of "style as substance" to other mediums, yet expect games to provide entertainment per hour chasing some kind of objective standard
Entertainment and being entertained is inherently a subjective thing, and by extension that means that if you vibe with a particular execution of style then the game actually being "technically good" is as irrelevant as anyone's attempt to assign a numerical score to a game
now that said - style is more than pretty pictures. Style is a mood, a feeling, an experience. Covering a game in nice art and fancy components with no craft is not style. See AAA video games and Kickstarter minis boxes.
style is substance because it is another school of design
style is substance because it is another school of design
I'd go so far as to say that anyone could design a functional game these days, especially a board game. We have literal dictionaries of game mechanisms and enough places to crib ideas from that it's very doable with some development.
But you can't emulate style. People can tell.
But you can't emulate style. People can tell.
"oh this reminds me of X" is the death knell of style, the point at which a game loses its ability to resonate because the player is only thinking of it in terms of how it relates to that other thing
yes this IS also a thread about originality again, I TRICKED YOU
yes this IS also a thread about originality again, I TRICKED YOU
Look, none of us play/make games in a vacuum. Inspiration is a good thing. But at a certain point a game must offer more than its bare gears. It needs to evoke, elicit, inspire, something. Otherwise it's just that, a box of parts.
the style is the substance
the style is the substance
