3/6/15 Episode 207: Design 102

All podcast content by Mark Rosewater

I’m pulling out of my driveway! We all know what that means! It’s time for another Drive to Work.

Okay. So today, I did a podcast a little while ago called Design 101. Which was based on an article that I did many, many years ago, in which I was giving tips to new designers. Well, I did a follow-up to Design 101 called Design 102. And that is going to be today’s podcast.

So the idea is, in Design 101, I talked about the most common mistakes that designers make when they first start designing cards. Now note, by the way, I’m talking about people who, for fun, want to make their own Magic cards, and this is sort of talking about the design mistakes I see in beginners making cards.

Now, one of the things is, I’m not allowed to look at a lot of unsolicited material, so this is—a couple times I’ve done stuff where I’ve been allowed to look at things. You Make the Card, the Great Designer Search, so a lot of this is from experience where I’ve been allowed to look at things. But from those experiences, I did have a chance to see a lot of design. So I have a decent sense of kind of some of the beginner rookie mistakes.

So Design 101 was directly talking about those mistakes. Design 102 was “What can I do to become a better designer?” I get this question all the time. People are like, “I want to be a Magic designer, what can I do to become a better Magic designer?” And so today is all about what you need to do.

So number one is you need to know your Magic history. One of the things about designing for Magic is, Magic is a game that this year will be 22 years old. Well, that’s a lot of work’s been done. And if you want to sort of design Magic, you have to understand Magic. And to understand Magic, you do have to do some studying, if you will, of the history.

Now, we have Gatherer, the card database online that has all the Magic sets in it. One of the things that important is, you need to know what’s come before. Why is that important? Well, number one, it will teach you what’s been done.

One of the problems I have found when I have new people is like, I have had designers come into Magic that are experienced designers that had done other games but hadn’t done Magic, and a real common sort of early mistake they’ll make is, they’ll turn in stuff, and I’ll go, “Oh, that’s great, but we did that ten years ago.” “Oh, that’s also great, but we did that four years ago.” “Oh, that’s also great, we did that sixteen years ago.” That if you want to design Magic, you’ve got to understand what we’ve done and haven’t done.

The second thing is they’ll provide valuable templates. One of the things you want to do, and when I talk about templates I mean how the cards are worded, look at newer cards to do this. The farther back you go, the less realistic the templates will be because we’ve changed templates over time. But it’s a good thing to give a sense of making your Magic cards read like Magic cards.

Now templating is complicated. I’m not particularly great at templating. But it’s important when you make your cards to have them sort of resemble Magic cards and resemble Magic templating. So one of the good things about studying old cards is, they help provide you with valuable templates that you can use.

Also, the designers have learned a lot. If you sort of study the history of Magic, what you will see is, there’s a lot of technology that’s improved over the years. There’s lots of things that we as Magic designers have learned. And part of studying history is so that you can learn from mistakes of others.

There’s a great… I think it’s a Newton quote? [NLH—Yes.] That if I see farther, it’s because I stand on the shoulders of giants. Talking about how you build on the work that comes before you. That part of what makes anything advanced, be it science or game design, is that people learn things and improve upon them, and that Magic has done a lot of work. There’s a lot of things we’ve learned.

I wrote a lot of articles about Magic, and that one of the ways to study Magic is to go back and look at cards, read a lot of stuff that I’ve written. Read stuff, different development columns. Magic has done lots and lots of stuff. We have creative columns. We’ve had lots and lots of behind the scenes stuff for you to look at. Sort of get a sense of what we’re up to.

And when each Magic set comes out, I write an article and I explain what we’re up to. I explain the rationale behind the design and the thought process of how we put it together. If you want to design Magic cards, you need to put your work in. You need to understand its history of Magic.

Because that is where we learn from. That is where our lessons have come from, being in the trenches and making cards. And so if you want to make cards, it is very valuable for you to understand what has come before.

And I know some people—so two things to remember. When you are looking at the cards, here’s things you want… you want to have a critical eye. Like when I went to film school, one of the things they made me do is take a lot of classes where we watch film. Well, why is that? Why do I have to watch so many films in film school? And the answer is, let’s see what the masters did. Let’s see what the people who know what they’re doing. Let’s learn about it. Let’s figure out what are the good films and what makes a good film?

So here’s what I want you to do. Is when you take a look at cards, a couple questions to ask yourself as you look at cards from the past. Number one is, what about the card is well-done? As you look at card, where did the card shine? Where is it an example of Magic doing something right? Of design doing something right?

Now on the flipside, what was done poorly? Using time on our side, hindsight, where did this card go wrong if a card went wrong? Magic has had a lot of successes, but we’ve had failures too. And part of studying the history is studying our successes and our failures.

That part of—like one of the reasons I’ve been doing my Twenty Years in Twenty Podcasts is, I kind of want people to know the history of the game and understand some of the times we went through, and here was a shining moment in Magic design and here was a low point. And that the reason I walk through the history is because I want people to understand that. And it’s important, as you go through cards, to sort of understand the historical ramification of the cards. And like I said, there’s lots and lots and lots of articles people have written about different cards, and that part of, like I said, being a good designer, is understanding where things have been.  

Okay next, we look at a card. What other cards are like this card? How is this card similar to other cards? One of the big things designers do is there’s a certain mindset that you get. When you sort of think of cards—the connectivity of cards. Of “this card, oh, this mechanic is similar to this mechanic,” or “this card is similar to that card.”

And that you want to understand where—like kind of what they say when you—architecture students, is that they go and look at buildings, and then one of the things they say to them is, try to understand the infrastructure for that building. Once you strip away the outer part, what’s underneath it? What’s holding the building up? How is it made? That’s pretty much what I’m asking is, as you look at cards, go deeper and try to figure out where were the components that were working?

Now, by the way, I’m talking about design. That doesn’t mean you can’t understand development. That doesn’t mean you can’t understand creative. They’re all intertwined together. If we look at a card, why was it successful? Was it telling an important story point? Was it a power level card that really defined the metagame? Trying to understand where cards came from and what they did is very important.

So the other thing you can do is, you’re allowed—like one of the things I say when you play games is, I like the idea of people being free to add rules to their games. That if you play a game and the game’s not doing what you want, try adding a rule. What we call “house rules.”

Like house rules are a really good way to start learning game design, because you are adapting something else. You haven’t made the game, but you’re adapting. You’re like, “How can I make this better?” And there’s a lot of games I have house rules that we play slightly differently than the game was made. We normally try the way the game was made first, make sure that you’re seeing what the person who intended to make the game, what they wanted, but it’s okay to tweak it. If you as an audience want something slightly different, you’re allowed to change up games and make new rules. That’s one of the cool things about games.

So when you’re looking at cards, it’s the same thing. Is there anything you’d do different? Is there something about the card you go, “Ooh, I like this card, but I would change this.” What would you have done differently? And it’s also important to understand the card’s history, which is, how was this card played? Was it played in tournaments? Was it a good card? Was it mocked for being a horrible card? What was the history of the card?

Okay, so number one, understand history. Know the history of Magic. And you do that by looking at the cards, by reading articles, by just having interface, talking with people that are older, that played Magic before you. I mean, one of the things that’s really important is, and it’s something I try to do with this podcast is, I want to share the history of the game. I want you to know about what came before. Because that shapes the cards and shapes the game. The history of the game shapes it. And if you want to design for it, it’s something you have to understand.

And beyond just the cards themselves, sort of the dynamic of the cards, and the sets, and mechanics, and what worked and what didn’t work, and where did Magic shine, and where was its high points and low points? All that’s important.

Okay, number two. You want to become a good Magic designer? You’ve got to play a lot of Magic. This one hopefully is an easy one, because hopefully you got there because you liked playing Magic. But it’s important that you play the game that you are doing.

We talk a lot about iteration, about how Magic design is an iterative process, that you’re constantly adapting and playtesting and adapting and playtesting. A really important part of the iterative process is the playtesting. That Magic is a game, and it is experienced through play. If you want to design more Magic cards, you have to understand how Magic works. And to do that, you have to play Magic.

So next time you’re playing here’s some questions to ask about. What I want you to do is play, but with a critical eye. It’s kind of like when I went to film school, I got to watch films, but I had a critical eye. And when I watched the film, after I took all my film courses, I would watch the film and I was sort of thinking, “Oh, where’s the first plot point? What’s the character arc?” I would start looking for things that were important.

And I would—there’s a lot of fascinating things. Like, I took a class once where we only watched the first I think ten minutes of a movie. To see how movies began. Now, it was a little frustrating, by the way, when you hadn’t seen the movie before, but most of them were pretty famous ones I had seen.

But it was very interesting just watching the first ten minutes, and like, all we cared about is introductions here. All we care about is how they introduce the elements. How are we meeting the characters? How are we meeting the environment? The plot? How is it all being introduced to us? And the same thing is when you play, I want you to think. So here’s the things to think about.

Number one: What about the particular game you were playing was fun? Where was the fun in the game? Because Magic design, game design in general, is about making a fun experience. It’s about making something that’s enjoyable and something where the people are having a good time playing it.

Okay, when you were playing, what was fun? What was fun about the game you were playing? And focus on it. What, specifically, was the fun part? What cards were the fun part? What moment was the fun part? What interaction was the fun part? Where did the fun part come from?

You have to actually analyze fun. That’s one of the things that people sometimes go, they think that I’m joking around. But part of making something is understanding what makes it tick. I used to do stand-up comedy, and one of the things we used to do all the time is, when you weren’t doing stand-up comedy, you would stand in the back and watch other stand-up comics.

And watch their timing. And see their joke. And figure out where they make something work. And do they do something that you had never thought of? Is there some technique they use that you hadn’t thought of? You could learn a lot by watching other comics. And that is true of anything. That you want to get in there and you want to see what others have done of something you want to do.

Okay. Now. Not only what is fun what wasn’t fun? What didn’t you like about the game? Where did the game fall down? Where did a card not succeed? You want to examine and understand what were things working, what were things not working? And part of being a designer is figuring out what aspect you would like to see in the game.

Now be careful. Part of game design is not just designing for yourself. That’s a good place to start. That’s a fine place to start. When you first start designing games, you are designing for yourself. Like house rules are for yourself. But eventually you have to learn how to design not just for yourself, but for many types of players. That’s why learning about the psychographics and understanding why people play and what they’re looking for becomes important.

Because one of the biggest mistakes that designers make is, when they start, is they design for themselves, assuming that what they want and how they enjoy the game is what everybody wants and how everybody plays the game. And it’s not the case. But it is important to understand when you’re playing, at least for you, where was the fun and the not fun?

Okay. Next is, what’s making the game tick? What exactly—get down to the crux of it. What is the game about you’re playing? Whatever mechanics or cards you’re playing with. What do they make the game about? What in this particular circumstances, when you pull things way, what did the game end up being about? And is that interesting?

Part of understanding things is being analytical. I know that when you take biology, you study the human body. You figure out what all the pieces do. What is the mouth for? What’s the esophagus for? What are the lungs for? What is the brain for? What is the kidney for? What’s the spleen for? You have to understand all the individual components because that’s how you understand what’s making it work.

Now, the last question you ask is, is there something that you wish existed? And this is a very valuable tool for making new Magic cards. And this happens to me all the time. I play a game, and I go, “Oh, you know what I could use right now? Card X. You know what? Card X doesn’t exist. I should make Card X.” So that’s a really valuable way for you to understand how to make cards. You play, find areas you go, “Ooh, you know what? I would love to do this thing. I don't know if it’s possible. I haven’t seen it before.” Maybe do a little research. See if such a card exists.

Like I said, Gatherer, the database online, it’s very good, you can search for words in rules text. And one of the things that’s interesting is, once you make cards, by the way, go look and see if the cards you made are similar to cards that exist. It’s not a bad thing, by the way, one some level when you’re first starting out, if you make cards that match things we’ve made, that means you’re getting the general sensibility of how Magic works.

Now eventually, if you’re going to start making your own stuff, you want to really understand what comes before. Not that you can’t reprint things or repeat things or put new creative on old things, but you want to understand when you’re repeating something vs. when you’re doing something new.

And by the way, don’t be afraid. If you’re making your own card set, you can repeat things that come before. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Every card doesn’t have to be different. We don’t make every card different. We repeat things. When you have something that just works, use the thing that works. You don’t have to change just to change. Being different for the sake of being different is not valuable. You want things to be different because they are helping by the difference, not for the sake of being different.

Okay. The next key to becoming a good designer is number three, design a lot of cards. I know when they ask writers about how to become a good writer, the answer always is “Write. Write a lot.” I had a roommate that was an artist, and he said, you know how he learned to become a good artist? Draw a lot. That whatever you want to do, I mean I’ve talked before about Outliers and 10,000 hours, and you want to become an expert at something, just, you’ve got to do it. There’s really no way to get better at something without the trial and error of doing it.

Now, the important part is, that it’s not just the act of doing. You must also seek out feedback. You must also have a critical analysis of what you did, and understand what worked and what didn’t work. It’s not enough just to do. Doing is useful, but you also want to understand. You want to look at what you’ve done and say, “What do you think?”

And part of that is, when you make cards, go look and see. Do they match other Magic cards? Are they something that’s been done before? Have not been done before? If they’ve been done before, how is yours different than those? Having a critical eye to understand how something has functioned is very valuable.

Okay. Number four. Know what you want. So this is another big thing about design that people don’t realize, so when you’re… a lot of metaphors today. When you’re writing a paper for school. One of the things they teach you is to make an outline. Is to say, “Well, figure out what you’re trying to say, and make an outline. Collect your thoughts.” And when I did a whole series called Nuts and Bolts, where I talked about design skeletons, and design skeletons are an outline for design. Important tool. Very valuable early on.

One of the things in general is, make sure before you start designing, you have some idea of what you’re trying to do. And this is an important point. When designing, you need to create a bullseye for yourself. And what I mean by that is, you will design better if you’re aiming at something. That if you’re wildly just going out of nowhere, you will be much more haphazard and much less focused.

Now, that doesn’t mean the target you set for yourself can’t change. That doesn’t mean you can’t decide in the middle to do something slightly different. The target isn’t there to be a hard, fast thing to keep you from doing anything else. It’s there as a guideline to help focus you.

Because one of the things—I talk about this a lot, but this is important, so I’ll bring it up here. The way the brain works is, the brain will take the most common path it knows to get to where it wants to be. And the reason is, if you want to figure something out, the brain is like, “Oh, I’ve done that before, let me help you.”

Normally, that’s good. Normally it’s like, “Oh, how do I do thing X?” and the brain’s like, “I’m going to get you right there, you’ve done it before, let me help you.” But when trying to be creative and doing new things, the problem is, the brain will take you places it’s taken you before. If you try to problem solve, and don’t change anything, your brain tends to come to the same solutions.

The trick to doing this is, if you change the input or change the criteria, then your brain has to function a little differently. Like, I’ve talked about this before, like if I’m getting stuck designing, I just give myself a parameter. It’s not that I have to have the parameter, it’s a bonus to me. Because by having the parameter, I now just think a little different.

If I say, okay, I’ve got to design the card, but this next card is going to be inspired by a legend from the Legends set, so I’ve got to go look at the Legends set. Or the next card is going to be inspired by a Simpsons cartoon. Or the next one’s going to be inspired by a superhero from the Legion or Superheroes. Whatever it is, it just makes your brain go to a place you haven’t gone before. And that is very, very important. Part of being creative is just connecting two new things. Just thinking about things in new ways.

The reason, for example, it’s good to brainstorm with other people is, other people think differently than you and will get you on different paths. That’s why a group brainstorming is very valuable. Because each one of you has your own way of thinking. But when you combine, you as a group have a different way of thinking than any one of you individually.

Okay. Number five. Okay. You’ve made some cards. You’ve thought about it, figured out what you wanted, you did some history, you studied. You made some cards. Next. Play with your cards. I talked about how playing with Magic’s important to learn Magic, the ropes, it’s also important, when you do design stuff, it’s like it’s one thing to design a car and go, “Ooh, let’s look at the car, and how do the tires look, and how does the windshield look?” You can analyze to death. But until you get in it and drive it, you’re not going to know. A card is for a game. It’s a game component. Until you play a game with it, until you play with it, you will not know what it’s capable of.

Now, in Magic we do a lot of what we call “theorycrafting.” Where you look at something, and using knowledge of the game you already have, you could extrapolate and make some wise decisions about coming mechanics. But in the end, you’re not going to really understand the mechanic until you play with it. Because that mechanic will do things that other mechanics have not done, and make you think in ways you have not thought. And you will not do that until forced to do that.

Same way—basically the same lesson I just gave, which is, if you want think about the card differently, play with it. That will force you to think about it in different contexts. And not just different contexts, real in-game contexts. A lot of times I make a card, like, “Ooh, this is a fun card,” and I play it, and I’m like, oh. I didn’t take into account Thing X. But now that I’m playing with it, Thing X is going to happen all the time. Oh, I’ve got to account for Thing X. I just didn’t think about that. But yeah, that is going to happen a lot. So that is important to do.

And then here’s why when you play with the card, here’s what you will find. Number one, the card doesn’t work the way you think it does. Sometimes you think you understand how it’s going to work, and you play with it, and you’re like, oh wow, that isn’t really… it combines in ways I don’t think, or the way I think, the function I use for it. Or I’ve made mechanics, and like for example there was a card called I think Hand to Hand. [NLH—Yes.] The card said, “No instants or effects—spells or abilities during combat.” The idea is, you’re going to fight, just fight. No Giant Growths, nothing interactive. Just you and that person just going to fight.

And when people started playing with the cards, what we found out was, it got used as a means to stop Circle of Protection: Red. Because it was an activated ability that happened during combat. This is before we changed how protection worked. That you had to use it after the damage happened, not before.

And it was this interesting thing where until I played with the card, I just never saw that. I never saw it. I didn’t even think about that. But once you’re playing with it, and you go, “Okay. I have the card in play. How can I use it?” you start to discover those things.

Number two. The card’s power level is different than you expect. Sometimes you think you have a pretty fair card, and you start playing with it, and you’re like, whoa, this is not fair! Not fair at all. I thought this was a simple little effect, no, it’s a dominating effect.”

Or vice versa. Sometimes you play with the card and you’re like, “Why would I want to play with this card?” and you just don’t even want to play with it. There’s a real common thing, by the way, which is, if you have a playtest, and you have the same card and nobody plays with that card, take a look at that card. Understand it. It’s not that there can’t be cards people don’t play with at Limited, especially at common, understand why the card is in or what it’s doing.

Next. The card might need additional text. One of the things about playtesting cards, especially with other people, I’ll get to that in a second, is you might go, oh, this doesn’t explain something. Now that I’m in the situation and I need to understand something, I have to look at the card. And then the card doesn’t tell me. Oh, well that’s a problem, the card doesn’t tell me something. Well, I’ve got to figure out what the card’s supposed to do so it can tell me that thing.

Next is, sometimes when you’re playing, you will just see a more elegant solution. Sometimes  you’re just like, “Oh, this is a little…” What’s the word I want? A little hacky. It isn’t quite doing what you want. And on the fly a lot of times, you’re like, “Oh. I could just have it do this other thing.”

And by the way. When you’re playtesting, there is nothing wrong with on the fly changing cards when you realize they’re not working. In fact, if you realize a card’s not working, why play for the rest of the playtest with it? What are you going to learn? Change it.

We change it all the time. That’s something that’s a running joke in R&D, you’ll be playing, like, “Okay, that card’s a problem, change it to this.” And mid… the second we figure out that it’s a problem. We change it then and there. We change it right away. And the reality is, you have a limited amount of playtest time, why playtest a card once you know it’s not going to be what you want? Change it.

The one caveat is, when you are playing with new people, usually you do not change cards mid-game with people that aren’t part of your design team, only because it’s very disorienting to people that aren’t used to that process. But if you’re playing with you and your fellow designers, change it in the moment. If you’re playing with other people, change it between games, not… don’t change the card in the middle of play. Unless they’re really experienced. But in general, (???) with other people. Anyway, we get to number six. Have other people play your cards.

Okay. So. Here’s what you look for in a good playtester. Number one. That they’ve played Magic before. Even somebody who’s good with games, if they’re not familiar with the game you’re playing, will be a problem. Especially with a game like Magic that has so much nuance. That you really want someone who knows Magic.

Next, you need someone who will give you an honest opinion. The point of a game, or a game playtest, is to learn from it. If the people playtesting aren’t willing to openly explain to you what the problem is, then you’re not getting as much from the experience.

You’ll get some things. Usualy people will tell you when they’re happy. So when they’re enjoying something they’ll tell you. But it’s important to tell you when they don’t like something. And the problem sometimes is, some people are very hesitant to say they don’t like things. And so you have to be very careful to make sure that the playtesters you have are willing to say that.

It’s also important to have playtesters that understand what they do and don’t like. Playtesters that… having opinionated playtesters can be helpful. If you have playtesters that are not sure why they like things and go, “Ehh…” I mean, it’s always valuable to (???) others feelings and how they feel about something. But it’s even more valuable if they can explain why they like or don’t like something. And someone having a good sense of what they enjoy and don’t enjoy will help explain it.

You want someone who has time to playtest thoroughly. If someone cannot finish the whole playtest, they’re less valuable to you. You want someone who can come, who can play, and who will have time after the playtest to talk to you. And explain.

And a lot of the most valuable information… usually what we do if we have outsiders have a playtest, is… well, internal we make a thing on our wiki and people fill out notes. External, we have a sheet for them to fill out. And particular questions. How did you feel about Thing X or Thing Y? Because we want to know about particular things, and so we ask them.

Usually, from set to set, we change what we’re asking based on what that set’s needs are. Because certain stuff’s like, “Oh, well in this particular set, I’m curious about this.” Also, with outside playtesters, especially who have never played before, you get a lot more first impression things. Of did they understand things. Was it clear? It’s also important if they liked it, but once you’ve used something multiple times, they start to understand mechanics, and so you miss a little bit of do they get things. Do they understand things. Because the players will walk in not knowing anything, and you want to make sure they understand it.

So one of the things I say about the most ideal playtester is, the best playtester is someone who does not care about your emotional welfare. And what I mean by that is, it’s best to playtest with somebody who doesn’t really know you. Or at least not well. Because if you’re playtesting with somebody that cares about your own emotional well-being, they will temper their comments from being critical.

Because they know you’ve worked hard in this. They know you care about it. And unless they’re someone who’s used to giving critical analysis, and some close friends can, but usually having a stranger or someone who’s not really familiar with you play means you’ll get a lot more honest opinions.

When we playtest, and do sort of fantasy playtests, the actual designers might be behind a two-way mirror. But we’re not usually interacting with… or if we are interacting with the people, we do not let them understand that we are the people who designed the game. Because people will react differently. People don’t want to hurt your feelings a lot of times. Not everybody. Some people are more than willing to be blunt. But a lot of people will curb their comments if they think that what they’re saying might be upsetting to you. And you really want the blunt comments. You want people to say what the mean. Because there’s just less interpretation on your part to say what the problem is.

Okay, number seven. You need to give your set some time to breathe. And what I mean by that is, part of the iterative process is, we spend a lot of time making Magic. We don’t make Magic—like, I spend, now I spend half a year in pre-design and a year in design. And sometimes I spend a little time before pre-design.

But that’s a minimum of a year and a half working on something. And the reason for that is, Magic is a complex game, part of what we need to do is we want to make sure that we can absorb what’s going on. And part of that is that from time, you have to put the set aside and think about it.

One of the things—I mean, this is very similar to writing. What they say is when you write a draft, write a draft, then put it away for a little bit so you can come back with a fresh set of eyes. It’s important when making a game that you build in some stuff to (???) with a fresh set of eyes.

For example, early on in Magic, we will do playtesting every three or four weeks. And that allows us to sort of spend some time to make it, and then work on it, and then when we come back to the playtesting, we haven’t playtested it in a little while. That you have a fresh set of eyes. That you get—I mean, obviously you’ve played it before, but you get a sort of… play it and not just played it the day before. And that is really important. That having—part of being a good designer is being back from your work. Of getting to see it from a distance. Sort of seeing the forest for the trees, if you will.

And one of the things that when you’re in the middle of making something, you’re really in the details. My metaphor for this is that, if you get on Google Maps and you zoom in on things, if you zoom in, you get to actually see where things are. If I’m trying to get directions, I zoom in on where I’m trying to get to. Like, “Okay, where exactly is that? I get it, it’s exactly here.”

But then, if you’re trying to make your journey there, you’ve got to pull back. You’ve got to sort of—you have to see the whole journey on one screen. So you want to get a sense of, “Oh, big picture. I get it. I’m going to this highway and that highway, and I’m getting off.” And that if you are zoomed in close, and try to figure out where you’re going, it’s harder to understand the big picture.

And that’s important with design. When you get in deep—I mean, you want to get into the weeds and worry about the wording or the choices of the individual cards. I mean, R&D will spend endless hours discussing minutiae. And minutiae is important. It’s very important. But also, if you’re leading a design, you have to be able to step back and understand, well, not just how does this card work, but how does this card work in conjunction with the other card? What are you doing? Environmentally, what are you doing? How are you trying to make the whole thing set up?

And that is really, really important. That if you want to understand what your set is doing, you have to understand the micro and the macro. That you have to be able to look down deep for the details and back for the big picture. And part of doing this is, it’s very easy to get caught up in the details. That you have to occasionally let your set breathe so that you can see the big picture. Okay. I’m almost to work, so let me recap the top, the seven lessons of the day today.

Okay. So number one is know your Magic history. That if you want to build on something, know what came before. Number two is, you want to play Magic. If you want to get good at something, you have to know the thing well that you’re doing. And Magic’s a game, so if you want to understand the game, well, you’ve got to play the game. Playing the game is very important.

Number three is design a lot of cards. Part of becoming a good designer is just experience and doing it. And… oh, one of the things I didn’t explain, real quickly, just because I have a red light here, one of the things I didn’t explain when I talked about this before is, we make a lot of cards. A lot of cards.

When I asked the other day, I said to my team, I said, okay. How many cards do we make of a ratio to what gets printed? So for every card that gets printed, how many cards do you think we make? I said, I’m counting everything. You came up with it, you wrote it down on a piece of paper. Maybe you never shared it with the team, maybe it went to the team but never got put in the set, maybe it got put in the set but got taken out after one playtest. Maybe it got put in the set and played for a while but eventually changed. Maybe it made it all the way through design but got changed in development. How many cards get made, to print?

And the team decided it was about a hundred to one. A hundred to one. So if we make a set and the set has three-hundred-some cards, that means we made thirty thousand cards. Because part of making Magic is you’re just making cards constantly. Constantly.

Now, a lot of cards—I mean, a lot of Magic is innovating, a lot of cards are different versions of cards. And we try to do different things. But one of the things I want you to understand is, we make tons and tons and tons of cards. I have made thousands of printed cards, but I have made hundreds of thousands if not millions of unprinted cards. I’ve made a lot more unprinted cards than printed cards.

So fear not. Design away. There’s nothing wrong with making things and throwing some stuff away. When you’re a writer, you will write a lot of words that get thrown away. When you’re an artist, you will make a lot of art you paint over. Part of the artistic process is, you will make more than you need. But the act of making more will sometimes get you to places you couldn’t normally be.

Okay. So number four, know what you want. Make your bulls-eye. Have a vision. Understand what you’re aiming to do. Number five is play with your cards. The only way to experience the thing that you’re doing is using it in the context of how the audience will use it.

Number six is have other people playtest your cards because you have a bias and a mindset that it’s hard to understand how other people will approach it when you’re the person who made it. So you need to get external to yourself to watch how other people make it. And like I said, get somebody not emotionally connected with you—multiple people—to playtest. You want people that will give you honest feedback, that aren’t going to spare your feelings.

And then number seven, give the set time to breathe. Make sure that you have the chance to not just look at the nitty-gritty, but back up and look at the big picture. So all seven of the things are very important. And that, my friends, is Design 102.

So I’ve just parked in the parking space. Which means—we all know what that means. It means that it’s the end of my drive to work, and instead of talking Magic, it’s time for me to be making Magic. I’ll talk to you guys next time.