Soren Johnson

Designer Notes 5: Daniel Cook

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In this episode, Soren interviews Daniel Cook, who is the Chief Creative Officer at Spry Fox. He is best known for his design work on games such as Triple Town, Realm of the Mad God, and Steambirds as well as for his writing on game design at http://lostgarden.com. They discuss the joy of making tile sets, why Lost Garden was originally an anonymous blog, whether Triple Town should be free-to-play, and why we wish we had been neighbors.

 

Games Discussed: The Faery Tale Adventure, Tyrian, The Circle, 1 vs. 100, Steambirds, Triple Town, Realm of the Mad God, Road Not Taken

 

https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/daniel-cook

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I guess this must have been recorded at the GDC in 2014? I've played Road Not Taken, and it is really excellent and a unique design (and also far too difficult for me to actually complete!)

 

I was wondering why I had heard of Tyrian when I knew that top down shooters are not a genre I've ever messed around with, and then I remembered that Tyrian 2000 is actually a free game you receive when you sign up for a GOG account.

 

http://www.gog.com/game/tyrian_2000

 

I really connected with Daniel talking about the period of time when he was just designing games as a hobby rather than engaging in the marketplace. That's certainly the poisition I'm in at the moment. And then he mentioned about how he felt like he was leading an "intellectual dual life", and while I had never thought about that before, it has become pretty clear that it is a very accurate description of me. So now I have a lot to think about!

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Yep, the Lantz, Fahraeus, and Cook interviews were all in the can since last GDC. I stocked up with 5 more this GDC that I'll be releasing over the year.

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I just finished listening to this, a really good episode! Daniel is really good at talking about game design.

 

He said one phrase I started thinking about, that didn't get mentioned again. "The aesthetics of systems". That set my mind racing, because I've never considered that systems can have aesthetics before.

 

We're so trained that there's ART and then there's SCIENCE. Humanities or STEM. Left brain or right brain, etc. A game, more than other mediums, have the two sides interlocking so much, especially if there's anything procedurally generated. Yet it seems game studios also often have this invisible wall or tension between the programmers and engineers, and the artists, writers and designers.

 

 

 

I started thinking about Threes as soon as the discussion went to Triple Town starting more complex with more combinations, and then getting boiled down. So I was glad to hear it mentioned later in the cast, and I would love to listen to one of these with Asher Vollmer.

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