{"id":632,"date":"2013-09-04T06:53:10","date_gmt":"2013-09-04T13:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/?p=632"},"modified":"2013-09-04T07:06:06","modified_gmt":"2013-09-04T14:06:06","slug":"design-of-the-times-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/design-of-the-times-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Design of the Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summer, Game Developer magazine shipped its last issue<\/a>, yet another casualty of the journalism\u2019s transition to digital. Since 2008, I had been writing a bi- or tri-monthly design column entitled Design of the Times, so the end of the magazine marks the end of that column as well. My blog earned me the initial opportunity; I posted about \u201c8 Things Not To Do<\/a>\u201d as a game designer, which attracted the attention of editor-in-chief Brandon Sheffield, who was looking for a new design columnist who would focus more on the details and mechanics of game design. I didn\u2019t feel equipped to produce 1,600 words every month, so I contacted my favorite game design blogger, Damion Schubert, to see if he would alternate months with me. (Damion gets credit for the name, by the way.) Eventually, we added a third columnist, Jason VandenBerghe, who probably wishes he had gotten a few more columns in before the end.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed having a gig that forced me to put my thoughts down on paper on a set schedule. As random ideas floated through my head, I would saves the most interesting ones in a Google doc (which I may as well make public<\/a> now), so that I would have a big backlog of column topics. After picking one, I would ruminate on it for a month or so until I had enough material for a full column, which is much more preparation than a typical blog post receives. I also tried to write columns that felt as much like journalism as they did like opinions, which meant doing research, quoting sources, and interviewing developers. For example, I talked to Days of Wonder CEO Eric Hautemont for my column on digital board games<\/a>. Ultimately, I wanted to get out of my own head as much as possible.<\/p>\n

My column essentially killed this blog as my writing energy focused on producing one piece of high quality every other month. Fortunately, Brandon agreed to let me repost my column online, so that my blog did not entirely disappear. (Damion\u2019s blog, in fact, did die and only returned<\/a> after the magazine disappeared.) I, too, am now returning to blogging although I am curious how relevant blogs are in the age of Twitter and Tumblr, not to mention Polygon and Gamasutra. (My post on stories and games garnered only two comments here<\/a> but got 88 on Gamasutra<\/a>.) I am not sure if I have the discipline to produce long-form pieces as with my old column, but I don\u2019t think short-form posts have much value anymore. Fortunately, my career is undergoing an enormous transition, so I am at least going to have a lot to discuss.<\/p>\n

In sum, I produced 25 columns, totaling about 40,000 words, which is almost as long as a standard size non-fiction book. My earlier columns focused mostly on very concrete, nuts-and-bolts topics and can be read almost like chapters in a game design textbook:<\/p>\n