{"id":1418,"date":"2018-04-04T11:10:44","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T18:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/?p=1418"},"modified":"2023-03-31T10:43:30","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T17:43:30","slug":"know-your-inheritance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/know-your-inheritance\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Inheritance (GDC 2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I gave a short talk at GDC this year on the importance of understanding what your game has inherited from the past. They have already posted the video here (my part starts at 28:50):<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bh5oqH1Dv8g?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;start=1731&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Since my talk was short and scripted, I am also posting the slides and words for your reading pleasure!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1420\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-1-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-1-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-1.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This phrase is so common, it\u2019s basically an idiom. Indeed, while some of our non-American friends here might be baffled by baseball in general, they probably still know this rule. However&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1421\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-2-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-2-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-2.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8230;it\u2019s not actually true. The batter is not out after the third strike. It\u2019s only when the catcher catches the ball that the batter is out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the catcher drops or misses the pitch, then the batter is not out and has a chance to advance to first. This almost always results in an out as the catcher simply picks up the ball and makes the easy throw, but occasionally, this little-known rule can become a big deal, as it did in last year\u2019s final game in the playoff series between the Chicago Cubs and the Washington Nationals. Max Scherzer threw a third strike past a swinging Javier Baez, but watch what happens&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 584px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-1418-1\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/third-strike.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/third-strike.mp4\">http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/third-strike.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8230;the Nationals catcher Matt Wieters missed the ball between his legs, allowing Baez to make it safely to first base. This would have been the third out of the inning. Instead, the Cubs scored two more runs and later won the game by only one run and advanced to the next round.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, an obscure rule knocked the Nationals out of the playoffs.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where exactly did this rule come from?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1424\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-4-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-4-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-4-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-4-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-4.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It actually reaches back to the very first time the rules of baseball were put down in print, by the German Johann Christoph Friedrich Gutsmuths.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He outlined something called \u201cEnglish Base-ball\u201d, which was a game of innings with a batter, fielders, safe bases, and scoring at home plate. However, there were no strikes or balls yet. The pitcher stood close to the batter and more or less \u201cdelivered\u201d the ball as a soft lob to be hit. The pitcher wasn\u2019t trying to challenge the batter; the game was about fielding the ball AFTER it was hit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, what happens when there is a terrible batter who can\u2019t hit anything? In Gutsmuths\u2019 game, he had a special rule for this situation &#8211; the batter gets only three swings. On the third swing, the ball is automatically in play whether it is hit or not. So, the batter will run to first either after hitting the ball or missing for the third time. Indeed, there is no catcher to receive the ball; so the pitcher would need to run to home plate to pick it up and throw to first.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1423\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-5-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-5-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-5-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-5-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-5.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1845, the American Knickerbocker Base Ball Club wrote down their rules for the game, and some things had changed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pitcher was now much farther from the batter and threw the ball horizontally, which required the new position of catcher. However, they preserved the logic of the old Gutsmuths rule &#8211; that the ball was in play after the third missed swing &#8211; like old legacy code lying around.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The \u201cstrikeout\u201d was actually emergent gameplay because after the third miss, the ball was now <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">technically i<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">n play, and the catcher turned it into an out by catching the pitch. Thus, there was no actual difference between the catcher making an out from catching a popup and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the catcher making an out <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from catching the pitch after a third missed swing. In each case, the ball was now \u201clive\u201d and the catcher made an out by catching the ball before it hit the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-6.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1427\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-6-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-6-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-6-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-6-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-6.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, they had to patch the game later because of an unintended consequence of not taking the time to make the strikeout an official rule. Because the ball would be considered \u201clive\u201d after a third strike, the possibility for a cheesy double- or triple-play existed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, if the bases were loaded, then the catcher could intentionally drop the ball, pick up it up again, step on home plate for an easy out, and then throw to third and on to second for two more. Therefore, in 1887, they added a new rule so that the batter would automatically <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">be <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">out if a runner was on first base AND there were less than two outs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, Three Strikes and You\u2019re Out &#8211; the way everyone assumes baseball is played &#8211; is true&#8230; but only under a very specific set of circumstances. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They opted for an ugly patch instead of just rewriting the rules to match how the game was actually being played!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-7.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1426\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-7-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-7-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-7-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-7-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-7.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indeed, think about the situation with Javier Baez. There WAS a runner on first base\u2026 so, even though the catcher dropped the ball, it should have been a strikeout\u2026 except, there were two outs, so we\u2019re now back to the original dropped third-strike rule again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They could have just rewritten the rules so that Three Strikes and You\u2019re Out applies at ALL times. Wouldn\u2019t that be simpler? More intuitive? Why go to the trouble of fixing the one glaring issue with catchers intentionally dropping the ball and not just get rid of the old, vestigial rule.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-8.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1425\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-8-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-8-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-8-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-8-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-8.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reason is that we inherit our game design from everything that comes before us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes, this inheritance is obvious &#8211; <em>Civ 6<\/em> inherited from <em>Civ 5<\/em> which inherited from <em>Civ 4<\/em>, and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-9.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1428\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-9-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-9-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-9-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-9-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-9.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes, a designer inherits from the games he or she played as a kid (<em>Mario<\/em> -&gt; <em>Braid<\/em>, <em>Myst<\/em> -&gt; <em>The Witness<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-10.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1429\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-10-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-10-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-10-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-10-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-10.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes, games inherit from themselves. This is a timeline of the development of our economic RTS <em>Offworld Trading Company<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You might make certain development shortcuts or hacks early on just so that you can get your prototype playable, but then these assumptions are now baked into your design whether you want them there or not. You have to REMEMBER that it was an accidental or arbitrary choice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-11.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1430\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-11-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-11-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-11-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-11-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-11.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most common thing to inherit, however, is game mechanics, usually from games in the same genre.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, although <em>Offworld Trading Company<\/em> is an RTS, it\u2019s notable for being one without units. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, we didn\u2019t start there as we inherited from all the other RTSs before us &#8211;\u00a0<em>StarCraft<\/em>, <em>Age of Empires<\/em>, etc. Thus, we had scouts, builders, transports, pirates ships, police ships, and so on. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-12.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1435\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-12-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-12-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-12-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-12-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-12.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over time, we discovered that this inheritance was weighing the game down, forcing the player to spend time wrangling units that would have been better spent playing the market. Slowly, we took these units out one by one, first the transports, then the combat units, then the builders, and finally the scouts. The game looks like a radical break with the past, but it took us a long time to get there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-13.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1436\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-13-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-13-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-13-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-13-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-13.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The problem is that iterative design can be a trap &#8211; that you can no longer see those parts of your game that are holding you back from a much better design. It\u2019s easier to make small changes that fix glaring issues rather than to re-evaluate your entire design<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-14.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1437\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-14-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-14-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-14-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-14-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-14.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes, the problem with a game\u2019s inheritance can be at the conceptual level. Consider <em>Spore<\/em>&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-15.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1438\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-15-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-15-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-15-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-15-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-15.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8230;which was conceived of as a \u201cPower of 10\u201d game that went from cellular-scale all the way up to galactic-scale. That was the hook, the point of making the game. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This part of the game was widely seen as a disappointment &#8211; that the five disparate levels felt like five different games duct-taped together. However, something interesting happened with the failure of <em>Spore<\/em>&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1439\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-16-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-16-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-16-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-16-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-16.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8230;which is that it wasn\u2019t actually a failure after all. This is how many people are playing <em>Spore<\/em> right now &#8211; not bad for a 10-year-old game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-17.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1440\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-17-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-17-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-17-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-17-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-17.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indeed, check out this chart, which compares <em>Spore<\/em> to the two most successful PC games released the same year &#8211; 2008. <em>Spore<\/em> currently crushes them, and keep in mind that <em>Spore<\/em> didn\u2019t even launch on Steam.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-18.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1441\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-18-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-18-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-18-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-18-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-18.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What happened was that the most interesting part of the game did not come from the Powers of Ten concept, but from the editors inside the game &#8211; especially the creature creator, which dynamically animated the players\u2019 creations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, these editors were developed midway through the project; Maxis started making a game about one thing and accidentally ended up making a game about something else. One of the big unanswered questions about <em>Spore<\/em> is what could we have done if we had been able to ditch the Powers of Ten concept and refocus the game on the editors?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1442\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-19-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-19-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-19-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-19-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-19.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s a classic case study in inheriting bad design. Creep denial is a mechanic in the original <em>DOTA<\/em> where you kill you OWN units to keep your opponents from getting gold and experience from them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indeed, creep denial is one of the focal point of high-level play in <em>DOTA<\/em>, to maximize your experience point gain relative to your opponents to outlevel them. However, it\u2019s an open question whether this is actually GOOD design.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-20.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1443\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-20-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-20-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-20-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-20-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-20.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the very least, creep denial is ACCIDENTAL design because <em>DOTA<\/em> inherited it from <em>Warcraft 3<\/em> &#8211; this was simply how that game handled killing your own units. Indeed the fact that <em>Warcraft 3<\/em> even ALLOWED killing your own units was likely an afterthought by the designers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>DOTA<\/em> inherited this rule because the game was literally built inside of <em>Warcraft 3<\/em> as a mod. Thus, MOBAs inherited a ton of design and mechanics from <em>Warcraft 3<\/em>. The original <em>DOTA<\/em> designers may have wanted many things to work differently, but they really didn\u2019t have a choice given the limitations and assumptions of the <em>Warcraft 3<\/em> editor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-21.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1444\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-21-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-21-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-21-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-21-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-21.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>DOTA 2<\/em> and <em>League of Legends<\/em>, of course, inherit their design from the original <em>DOTA<\/em> mod, but they made different choices about their inheritance of creep denial. Basically, <em>League<\/em> dropped it while <em>DOTA 2<\/em> kept it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-22.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1445\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-22-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-22-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-22-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-22-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-22.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is from a Reddit thread on why creep denial is not in <em>League<\/em>. Don\u2019t worry about reading this; I just want to point out how \u201cRandomGuyDota\u201d is trying to explain why creep denial is bad for the design using the game mechanics themselves. This is pretty typical reasoning for something that has become part of a game\u2019s design inheritance &#8211; the burden of proof is always on why it should be removed from the game, not on how it got added in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, I have a simpler explanation for why creep denial is bad design&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-23.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1446\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-23-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-23-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-23-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-23-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-23.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I mean, come on, you want your players to be spending their time killing their own units? Is that really a core part of what makes MOBAs work? The game would fall apart if you couldn\u2019t kill your own guys?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-24.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1447\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-24-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-24-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-24-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-24-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-24.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">aahdin perhaps sums it up better than I ever could.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At some point, you have to step back as a designer and re-evaluate your inheritance. Does the core gameplay survive without the feature? Is the feature unintuitive, making the game harder to understand or to pick up? Is there a better way for the players to be spending their time than on this feature?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the case of creep denial, the answer to all those questions suggests that the game would be better off without it. There is only one magical core feature to MOBAs, the one feature which cannot be dropped &#8211; and that is taking the scope and complexity of an RTS but focusing the player\u2019s control onto just one unit, which makes the game accessible to a larger audience by an order of magnitude. Everything else, EVERYTHING ELSE, is just accidental inheritance resulting from the genre\u2019s origin as a <em>Warcraft 3<\/em> mod.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1448\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-25-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-25-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-25-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-25-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-25.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, although <em>League<\/em> doesn\u2019t have creep denial now\u2026 they actually started with it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are <em>League of Legend<\/em>\u2019s very first patch notes, published in July 2009. They inherited creep denial but killed it very early.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, although they got it from the original mod, they were willing to critically examine their game\u2019s past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-26.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1449\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-26-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-26-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-26-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-26-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-26.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In contrast, here is the history of creep denial from <em>DOTA 1<\/em>\u00a0to <em>DOTA 2<\/em>. You can see an awareness that creep denial might not be the best thing for the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Look at 6.82 &#8211; \u201cDenied creeps now give less experience\u201d &#8211; a clear sign that they are re-evaluating this feature by changing its rewards. However, instead of ripping it out, they are making small changes around the edges.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-27.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1450\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-27-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-27-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-27-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-27-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-27.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Basically, they are doing what baseball did when they patched the dropped third-strike rule by making it not apply in certain circumstances instead of just getting rid of the dumb rule itself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remember my questions on the value of creep denial? <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does the core gameplay survive without the feature? Is the feature unintuitive, making the game harder to understand or to pick up? Is there a better way for the players to be spending their time than on this feature? Running this exercise with the dropped third-strike rule gets us to the same place &#8211; that it\u2019s bad, accidental design that is ultimately hurting baseball.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-28.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1451\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-28-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-28-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-28-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-28-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-28.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, here\u2019s a comparison of the two games, and some other MOBAs. There are many reasons why <em>League<\/em> outpaces <em>DOTA 2<\/em> by an order of magnitude &#8211; an almost three year head start is a pretty big one &#8211; but I also believe that Riot\u2019s philosophy of re-examining their inheritance from the original <em>DOTA<\/em> mod, which extends well beyond just removing creep denial, is a very important piece.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-29.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1452\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-29-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-29-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-29-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-29-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-29.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, I also have thoughts about last hitting, but fortunately, I don\u2019t have time for that. I say fortunately because, <em>Heroes of the Storm<\/em>, which is the only one of these three to drop last hitting, is less successful than <em>DOTA 2<\/em>, let alone <em>League<\/em>. Thus, I can\u2019t really make an argument that the market has proven that last hitting is bad design. Further, I don\u2019t think it would be reasonable to expect Riot to experiment with dropping last hitting at this point; it\u2019s just too late. <em>League<\/em> is one of the world\u2019s most popular games. Indeed, they are lucky that they dropped creep denial so early in their development before doing so might have split community opinion.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-30.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1453\" src=\"http:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-30-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-30-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-30-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-30-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Three-Strikes-30.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We don\u2019t always have the luxury of looking at the market to prove out our decisions, which is why re-examining a game\u2019s inheritance is such a difficult and important issue. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Choosing to erase your inheritance takes real bravery. Sometimes, you have to trust your own rational design process if you see a problem. Sometimes, you have to go with your gut. Ultimately, you must be willing to see your history, know how it led you to where you are today, and then have the courage to drop the past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>(For more background on the dropped third-strike rule, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/sabr.org\/research\/dropped-third-strike-life-and-times-rule\">this article<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I gave a short talk at GDC this year on the importance of understanding what your game has inherited from the past. They have already posted the video here (my part starts at 28:50): Since my talk was short and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/know-your-inheritance\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/third-strike-header.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3EGlq-mS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1418"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2038,"href":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions\/2038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designer-notes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}