#jesse schell

A Few Thoughts on Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design

There is the innate gift of a given skill. This is the minor gift. (...) The major gift is the love of the work. This might seem backward. How can the love of using a skill be more important than the skill itself? It is for this simple reason: If you have the major gift, the love of designing games, you will design games using whatever limited skills you have. And you will keep doing it. And your love for the work will shine through, infusing your work with an indescribable glow that only comes from the love of doing it

[after two whole pages that contained a single list describing the most useful skills for a game designer] Daunting, isn't it? How could anyone possibly master all of these things? The truth is that no one can. But the more of these things you are comfortable working with, however imperfectly, the better off you will be, for growth only happens when we exceed our limits. This is another reason that game designers must be confident and fearless

Some of the greatest innovations have come from people who only succeeded because they were too dumb to know what they were doing was impossible

As a novice designer, you will think "I've never done this–I don't know what I'm doing." Once you have a little experience, you will think, "my skills are so narrow–this new title is different. Maybe I just got lucky last time." And when you're a seasoned designer, you will think, "the world is different now. Maybe I've lost my touch." Blow away these useless thoughts. They can't help you.