Game Design Meetup #3 — Micro-Talks

The third meetup, co-hosted with Ricky Abu Siddek, ran as three 15-minute micro-talks from people I've worked with and learned from over the years.

Per Storløkken spoke on managing creativity: a playful state of mind is a requirement, not a bonus, and you can't judge ideas in the same meeting where you're generating them. His trick for getting unstuck is separating context from mechanics, which lets you hold onto an idea through a roadblock instead of losing it. He also touched on how AI might change that creative process.

Jean-François Gagné spoke on consistency, across art, UI, level design, systems, everything. Staying consistent is how players learn to read patterns without getting blindsided by the game. It's also the easiest principle to quietly abandon under deadline pressure. His point wasn't "never break it" though — designers should break consistency on purpose to create a standout moment, as long as it's done with intent. Most of it lives in gray zones.

Graham Hill closed with a talk on what he calls the LinkedIn effect: community, mentorship, and the state of level design education right now. His advice: keep making levels, and improve through real community playtests. Talking about the craft online is no substitute. Work on what makes you happy because it makes you happy, not because LinkedIn told you to. He wrote it up in full: lnkd.in/d7i-gGq5.

My own takeaway, watching all three: every designer has something they care about, and it shows in their work. I treat what I read online as material to consider, not rules to follow. Figuring out what you actually care about comes first; the resources are just there to help you get there.