Ultimate Guide to Designing for Yourself for Indie Developers

Designing Games for Yourself: A Design Experiment

Indie game development offers unparalleled creative freedom. But where do you even start? Often, the best place is you. Designing a game that deeply resonates with your own tastes can be a powerful way to create something truly unique. Think of it as a design experiment: can you translate your personal preferences into a compelling player experience?

This isn’t about pure indulgence. It’s about leveraging your intrinsic understanding of what you find fun and engaging. Let’s break down how to do it right.

Defining Your Personal Design Pillars

Every game, consciously or not, is built on a foundation of core design principles. What are yours? These aren’t just vague feelings; they need to be concrete and actionable.

Start by identifying your favorite games. What makes them tick? Is it the strategic depth of Civilization, the emotional narrative of Life is Strange, or the satisfying loop of Hades?

Write down 3-5 key elements that consistently draw you to these games. For example:

• Meaningful player choice
• Emergent storytelling
• Challenging but fair difficulty
• Visually striking art style
• Deep sense of progression

These become your design pillars. They are the guiding principles that will shape every decision you make.

Prototyping and Playtesting: Lab Rat Yourself

Now it’s time to put your pillars to the test. Build a rough prototype that focuses on showcasing these elements. Don’t get bogged down in polish at this stage; focus on core mechanics and feeling.

Then, play it. Critically. Forget you’re the developer.

• Does the game actually deliver on your design pillars?
• Is it fun? (Be honest!)
• Are there any unexpected issues or opportunities?

Iterate based on your own feedback. This is your first feedback loop.

Avoiding the Scope Creep Pitfall

A major danger when designing for yourself is scope creep. You might get carried away adding features that you think are cool, even if they don’t serve the core design. This is where your design pillars come back into play.

Constantly ask yourself: “Does this feature reinforce our core pillars?” If the answer is no, it probably needs to be cut.

External Feedback Loops: Leaving the Echo Chamber

You can’t rely solely on your own judgment. You need external validation. This doesn’t mean showing your half-finished game to everyone you know. Start small, and target your audience.

Find a few people whose taste you respect and who are likely to enjoy the type of game you’re making. Observe them playing. Don’t interrupt. Don’t explain. Just watch.

• Do they understand the core mechanics?
• Are they having fun?
• Are they getting stuck or frustrated?

Use this feedback to refine your design. Be willing to kill your darlings. If something isn’t working, no matter how much you love it, it has to go.

Document Your Design Journey

This is where many indie developers fall short. Don’t just design; document your design process. Keep a development journal. This is crucial for several reasons.

• Tracking Progress: A game dev journal helps you track your progress. It shows what you’ve accomplished and how far you’ve come.
• Staying Consistent: Regular entries help you stay consistent, maintaining momentum and focus on your project.
• Organization: It organizes your thoughts, ideas, and decisions, making it easier to manage complex projects.
• Learning from Mistakes: Documenting your struggles and failures helps you identify patterns and avoid repeating them.
• Refining Your Vision: A development log allows you to refine your vision for the game as you go, ensuring it stays true to your goals.

Examples from Indie Developers

Many successful indie developers swear by game development journals. They share their progress, discuss challenges, and provide insights into their creative processes. This transparency not only helps them stay organized but also builds a community around their projects.

Tips for Effective Game Dev Journaling

• Be Consistent: Aim to write in your journal regularly, even if it’s just for a few minutes each day.
• Be Specific: Don’t just say “worked on the game.” Detail what you did, what problems you encountered, and how you solved them.
• Be Honest: Be honest about your successes and failures. This is a learning process, and honesty is crucial for growth.
• Be Visual: Include screenshots, sketches, and diagrams to illustrate your ideas and progress.
• Organize Your Entries: Use categories, tags, or timestamps to organize your entries and make them easy to find.

Think of your development journal as your lab notebook. Record your hypotheses (design decisions), your experiments (playtests), and your results (feedback). Over time, you’ll gain a much deeper understanding of your own creative process and what works (and what doesn’t) for your target audience.

This approach helps refine your design sensibilities and the type of game you want to make.

Iterative Design: Rinse and Repeat

Game development is an iterative process. Don’t expect to get it right on the first try. Continue to prototype, playtest, and gather feedback throughout the development cycle.

Each iteration should be informed by the data you’ve collected in your development journal.

Turning Personal Vision into Player Delight

Designing for yourself is a great starting point, but it’s not the end goal. The ultimate aim is to create a game that others will enjoy. By following this structured, iterative process, you can translate your personal vision into a compelling player experience.

The final step in this whole process is meticulously track the results of your ‘experiment’ with a dedicated development journal. Documenting your design journey allows you to understand your creative process better and see how your personal vision impacts the player experience. And what better place to start than with our journaling tool, designed to help you every step of the way? Start tracking your progress today!