Archive
Everything published here, newest first. Each month is linked from the foot of every page, and each piece is also filed under the subject tags listed on the tags page.
August 2026
- Reading a game by its verbs
Before you argue about whether a game is good, write down what it lets you do. The list is almost always shorter than the box copy suggests, and almost everything worth saying follows from it.
- Why small games end well
Short games land their endings at a rate that embarrasses long ones. The reason is structural rather than a matter of taste, and larger work can borrow most of it.
July 2026
- Paper prototypes first
A method for testing the idea before writing any code: what to cut it out of, what to write on it, and the four questions a paper version can actually answer.
- Playtesting with strangers
Friends tell you the game is good. Strangers tell you where they stopped understanding it. A practical method for running a session with people who owe you nothing.
- The rules you don't write down
Every published game is surrounded by a second, unpublished game — local agreements, house rules and playground conventions that do most of the work of making it playable.
June 2026
- Notes on difficulty
The word covers at least four different things, and most arguments about difficulty are two people using it for two of them. A sorting exercise.
- Making a game in a weekend
A practical guide to scoping something you can actually finish in two days: what to cut before you start, and an hour-by-hour shape that leaves time to end it.
May 2026
- What toys teach designers
A toy has no goal and does not need one. Looking at how toys hold attention exposes a set of habits that goal-driven design tends to lose.
- Writing about play
Most game writing evaluates before it describes, which is why so much of it is interchangeable. A case for description as the harder and more useful half.