Starter Kit for Independent Game Developers: Perry Board’s Amazing 3-Part Manual

If you developers out there need any inspiration, this is the set of articles to read: Starter Kit for Independent Game Developers by Perry Board.

He sucks you right in from the first paragraph:

Starter kits are great. You can get them for just about anything. A quick web search turns up starter kits for wireless networking, harmonicas, aquariums, sushi and vermicomposting. (If you don’t know what the latter is, get the starter kit.) Good starter kits are shrink-wrapped in plastic and contain lots of tiny pieces you can lose in the cracks of your sofa. Bad starter kits count advertisement brochures as package contents and expect you to go buy or find about half of the stuff you really need.

He fills it in with solid material, excellent advice -

The design phase is the decision making process that answers the question, “What is the game and how do you play?” …. you could use an existing pattern or genre: first-person shooter, real-time strategy, RPG, simulation, arcade and so forth.

Most difficult, but possibly very rewarding, is the invention of a new pattern. … It’s very hard to come up with something that has never been done before - at least something that’s fun to play. In fact, it might not be a good idea to abandon all existing patterns in favor of your own unique concoction. There’s a reason why so many games implement concepts like “scoring points” or “inventory.” Players learn to recognize these fundamental building blocks and can quickly get up to speed. If you invent something so unusual no one can figure out how to play without reading your hefty instruction manual, you’re going to face an uphill battle to success. On the other hand, if you do invent something completely original and people love it, you’ll be really cool and maybe rich.

Truly a masterpiece.