Thread by @Totter87

I have to make a teaching tool that is a satirical list of bad game design habits that should be avoided titled “how to be a 10x game designer” now, don’t I?

1) A 10x game designer doesn’t know any modern game engines or development tools but you know that the 10x game designer got here somehow. The 10x game designer is too busy making those sweet sweet ideaz.

2) The 10x game designer know that difficulty = fun. If the player gets frustrated, that just means your game is more awesome.

Please notify the intergalactic game design council if a controller is broken. You will be provided an IGF trophy as compensation.

3) 10x game designers don’t need to playtest.

4) 10x game designers make exclusively “art games”. They don’t need testing for user experience or bugs because they are art. 10x game designers will stand next to their art game to tell you what it means.

If you find a bug you are wrong and it will not be changed because art.

5) 10x game designers only reference other games, anime, and pop culture. They have no other influences. The 10x game designer got into games to avoid boring things like art, literature, and history.

6) The 10x game designer knows that the game designer is the architect and the artists, programmers, etc, are the contractors that make their sweet ideaz happen.

The contractors honor the 10x game designer for this. The 10x game designer totally knows how architecture works.

7) 10x game designers know that if their game is good enough, audiences will find it. Marketing effort is not game design and can be ignored.

8) 10x game designers take all the credit. If other team members don’t like this, it’s actually their fault.

What’s gaslighting again?

9) 10x game designers know that if someone doesn’t want to harm their physical or mental health to make the 10x game designer’s vision, they’re just not passionate enough.

(If anyone is jumping in here, THIS IS SATIRE)

10) 10x game designers know that the best game is always the one with the most technology and graphical effects. 10x game designers start on final art right away so playtests are pretty and perfect.

What’s grayboxing?

11) The 10x game designer knows that games and works of art are definitely never political and never reflect anything about the social context in which they were made. 10x game designers don’t have to think about the implications of the content they make.

12) the 10x game designer never consults their team members for input. The 10x game designer doesn’t need to realize that a diversity of life experiences brings fresh new ideas to a project.

13) The 10x game designer knows that digital and non-digital games share no common traits and that paper prototypes do nothing for the digital game design process.

14) The 10x game designer ignores the craft and usability standards used in commercial when making serious and educational games. The 10x game designer knows that theme is enough to make effective procedural rhetoric.

15) The 10x game designer’s favorite words are “immersive”, “edgy”, and “fun.”

16) The 10x game designer starts all designs by determining which is the technology that will make them the most money & with overly-generalized demographic research.

The 19x game designer is really into mobile VR experiences powered by b l o c k c h a i n, featuring lootboxes

17) 10x game designers know that how much money your game made is the ONLY metric of success.

18) 10x game designers don’t meaningfully interact with or contribute to the broader game development community. 10x game designers can only be great if they don’t get feedback on their games from others or mentor new designers. Being haughty and aloof is helping them get to 11x.

19) 10x game designers have never networked.

20) 10x game designers never step away from their work to take a break. 10x game designers can’t be a “rare breed” if they do things like eat healthy and exercise.

If the 10x game designer has friends or well-wishing peers, they are worried about the 10x game designer.

Possibly the best thing about this meme is that you can make a typo on “10x” and it only enhances the joke. This is a 19x meme.

(This is a bad habit that can’t really coexist with #1)

21) The 10x game designer makes their identity about a software tool. The 10x designer knows that tool use = deep knowledge of the universe. The 10x designer knows that creative skills are meaningless against Maya skillz

22) The 10x designer doesn’t think about what happens when the software tool that their life is about becomes obsolete.

Can the 10x designer crash with you for a while? The 10x designer is going through some rough times while searching for a lead Torque dev gig.

23) The 10x game designer knows that the hero’s journey is the only narrative structure

24) The 10x game designer accepts all game design theory as absolute canon and doesn’t stop to think that game studies is only about 20 years old and definitely hasn’t figured everything out.

25) Even the 10x game designer is obsessed with spreadsheets.

Thanks for liking and sharing! If you liked this, please support my latest game, La Mancha. It’s storytelling game based on Don Quixote!

It’s great for game night, but is also useful as a #games4ed game (10x game designer hates that it works for both) lamancha.backerkit.com/hosted_preorde…