The Guardian recently posted a list of principles for aspiring game designers. Here’s an excerpt:

Choose the right project

Be realistic, and think indie. You’re not making Modern Warfare 3. “The best advice I can give is really simple: don’t make your dream game,” says [Terry] Cavanagh. “Work on small games. It’s so easy to fall in love with an idea and get carried away with it until it becomes a magnum opus that you sink all your time into, and there’s nothing more demotivating. It’s far more rewarding to work on games that you can actually finish! Every time you finish a game, you’ll learn something. If you want to be a better game designer, the best way to do it is to make games. Lots of them.”

Most indie developers start by working in a well-established genre. Platformers and shooters are popular – as shoot-’em-up expert Charlie Knight explains, “Mostly it’s because I like shooting things, but also because it’s easier to put my vision for the game across when I’m not having to work around some sort of physically accurate setting. They’re also a good showcase for more abstract graphic styles.”

If inspiration is lacking, remaking a classic title is a good way to flex those creative muscles.

– Keith Stuart @ The Guardian

Terry Cavanaugh is the author of Don’t Look Back and WWW.