Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #207 - Design 102

Episode Date: March 6, 2015

Mark gives a follow up to the basics of design introduced in Drive to Work 154.

I'm pulling on 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, 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 column, or not column, 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 we'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 an experience where I've been allowed to look at things. But from those experiences, I did have a chance to see a lot of designs. 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 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's, you know, 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. You know, one of the things that's very important is you need to know what's come before. Okay, why is that important? Well, number one, it'll teach you what's been done, you know? Like, one of the problems I've found when I have new people, like, I've had designers come into

Magic that are people, experienced designers that have 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 go, oh, that's great, but we did that 10 years ago. Oh, that's also great, but we did that four years ago. Oh, that's also great, we did that 16 years ago. Oh, that's also great, but we did that four years ago. Oh, that's also great, but we did that 16 years ago. You know, if you want to design magic, you've got to understand what we've done and haven't done. The second thing is it'll provide valuable templates, meaning 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 change templates over time.

But it's a good thing to give you 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 can 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 where we as magic designers have learned. And part of studying history is so that you can learn from the mistakes of others.

There's a great, I think it's a Newton quote, that if I see farther than others, it's because I stand on the shoulders of giants, talking about how you build on the work that comes before you. That, you know, part of what makes anything advanced, be it science or game design, you know, 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, you know. I write a lot of articles about magic and that one of the ways to study magic is go back and look at cards, read a lot of stuff that I've written, read stuff that we've had different development columns.

You know, magic has done lots and lots. We've had creative columns. We've had lots and lots of behind-the-scenes stuff for you to look at to sort of get a sense of what we're up to, you know. 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 and how we put it together. You know, if you want to design magic cards, you need to put your work in. You need to understand the history of magic, you know, because that is where we've learned from. That's where, you know, our lessons have come, is 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, a few things to remember. When you are looking at the cards, here's things that 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 did I have to watch so many film at 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 are 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? You know, as you look at cards, where did the card shine? Where is an example of magic doing something right, of design doing something right? You know, now on the flip side, what was done poorly? You know, using time

on our side of hindsight, where did this card go wrong if a card went wrong? You know, Magic has had a lot of successes, but we've had failures too. And part of studying the history is to study our successes and our failures. Like, one of the reasons I've been doing my 20 years and 20 podcasts is I kind of want people to know the history of the game

and understand sort of the, some of the times we went through and, you know, here was a shining moment in Magic Design, here was a low point, you know, and that the reason we went through, and here was a shining moment in magic design, and here was a low point. The reason I walk through the history is because I want people to understand that. It's important as you go through cards to sort of understand the historical ramification of the cards. Like I said, there's lots and lots and lots of articles people have written about different cards.

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? You know, how is this card similar to other cards? One of the big things that designers do is there's a certain mindset you get where 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, I know architecture students, is that they go and look at buildings, and 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? How is it made? That's pretty much what I'm asking is, as you look at cards, you know, 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 can't mean you can't understand creative. They're all intertwined together. Then 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?

You know, 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. You know, what we call house rules. And that 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 game better? And there's a lot of games I have house rules and we play a little slightly differently than the game was made. You know, 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, you know, 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. Are there anything you'd do different? Is there something on 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 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 maybe played magic,

you know, that are older than have played magic before you. I mean, one of the things that's really important is, and something I try to do in 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. You know, the history of the game shapes it. And if you want to design for it, it's something you have to understand. You know, and beyond just the cards themselves, but 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 got to play a lot of magic. This one hopefully is an easy one because hopefully you got there because you like 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, adapting and playtesting. Well, a really important part of the iterative process that you're constantly adapting and playtesting, adapting and playtesting. Well, a really important part of the iterative process

is the playtesting. That magic is a game and 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 have 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 a film, you know, after I took all my film courses, I would watch a film and I would start thinking, oh, where's the first plot point? You know, what's the character arc? I would start looking for things that I know were important. And I would, you know, There's a lot of fascinating things. I took a class once where we only watched the first ten minutes of a movie

to see how movies began. I was a little frustrated, by the way, when we hadn't seen the movie before. Although most of them were pretty famous ones I had seen. It was very interesting just watching the first ten minutes. All we care about is introductions here. All we care about is how are they introducing 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 thinking. 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, you know, something where the people are having a good time playing. Okay, well, 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, you know, they think

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 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 jokes, and figure out where they made something work and do they do something that you had never thought of? Do they try? There's some technique they use that you hadn't thought of? You know, 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 know, you

want to examine and understand where were things working, where were things not working? You know, and part of being a designer is figuring out what aspects 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. It's a fine place to start. And 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, what, at least for you, where was the fun and the not fun. Okay, next is what's making the game tick?

What exactly, you know, 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, you know, when you pull things away, what did the game end up being about? And was that interesting? You know, part of understanding things is being analytical. You know, I know that when you, you know, take biology, you study the human body. You know, you figure out what all the pieces do. What is the mouth for? What's the esophagus for? What are the lungs for? What's the brain for? What's the kidney for? What's the spleen for? You know, 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 your magic card. 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. You know what? Card X doesn't exist. I should make Card X.

So that's a really good valuable way for you to understand how to make cards is play, find areas where you go, you know what? Oh, 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, the Gather, the database online,

it's very good. You can search for words and 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.

On 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 it's become before. Not that you can't reprint things or repeat things or, you know, put new creative and old things, but you want to understand when you're repeating something versus

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 have 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 their 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. 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 know, you want to become an expert at something, just you 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. Right? 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 have been done before,

how is yours different than those? You know, having a critical eye to understand how something is 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 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'll 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 need to figure something out, the brain's like, oh, I've done that before, let me help you. Normally, that's good. Normally, it's 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?

Well, the brain's like, I'm going to get you right there. You've done it before. I'm going to help you. But when trying to be creative and do new things, the problem is your brain will take you to the place it's taken 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 tends to come to the same solutions. The trick to doing this, to making,

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, that 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 got to design a card, but this next card is going to be inspired by a legend from the legend set. So I got to go listen to the legend set, you know, 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 of 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 to 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 brainstorm 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 your individuals.

Okay, number five. Okay, you've made some cards. You thought about it, figured out what you wanted. You know, you did some history, you studied, you made some cards. Next, play with your cards. I talked about how playing with magic is important to learn magic and get the ropes. It's also important when you design stuff, it's like, it's one thing to design a car and go, oh, let's look at the car, and how do the tires look,

and how do 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 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 that is capable of. Now

imagine we do a lot of what we call theory crafting, where you look at something and using knowledge of the game you already have, you can extrapolate and make some wise decisions about upcoming mechanics. But in the end, you're not really going to 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 that 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 to think about the card differently, play with it. That'll force you to think about it in different contexts. And not just different contexts, real in-game contexts. A lot of times I can make a card, oh, this is a fun card.

And I'm playing 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's going to happen a lot. So that's important to do. And here's why when you play with the cards, 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, you know, that it combines in ways I don't think, or the way I think, the function I'd use for it.

Or I've made mechanics, and, like, for example, there's a card called, I think, Hand to Hand. So the card said, no instance or effects, spells or abilities during combat. The idea is you're going to fight, just

fight. No giant grows, nothing to interact. You and that person just go to fight. And when people started playing with the cards, what we found out was it got used as a means to stop Circle 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 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 an 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 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 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? That's a real common thing, by the way, which is, if you have a playtest, and you have the same card, and nobody ever 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 for the limited, which is, if you have a playtest and you have the same card and nobody ever plays with that card, take a look at the card. Understand it. It's not that there can't be cards people don't play with for the limited, but especially a common, understand why the card is in and what it's doing.

Next, the card might need additional text. One of the things about playtesting cards, especially with other people, we'll get to that in a second, is you might go, oh, this doesn't explain something. Now that I, now that I'm in the situation and I need to understand something, I have to look for 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 like, oh, this is a little, 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 you 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 know 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, oh, that card's a problem, okay, change to this. And 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 the 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. Don't change the card in the middle of play. And that's a really experience, but in general, you're playing with other people, change in between games. Don't change the card in the middle of play. And that's a really experience, but in general, you're playing 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 played Magic before.

Even somebody who's good with games and not familiar with the game you're playing will be a problem. Especially with a game like Magic, there's 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 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 something. Usually people will tell you when they're happy, so you're not getting as much from the experience. You'll get something. Usually people will tell you when they're happy, so when they're enjoying something, they'll tell you. But it's important they 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 a playtesters that understand what they do and don't like. A playtesters that, that having opinionated playtesters can be helpful. If you have a playtesters that are not sure why they like things and go, eh, I mean,

it's always valuable for people to tell their 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 having someone have a good sense of what they enjoy and don't enjoy will help them 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 when we have outsiders have a playtest, is we have, 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 we'll have particular questions. How do 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 needs are. Because certain stuff's like, oh, on this particular set, I'm curious about this. Also, when you have outside playtesters, especially if they've never played before, you get a lot more first impression things. 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, did they get things? Did they understand things? Because your 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 has no emotional,

I'm sorry, has no, does not care about your emotional welfare. 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 when being critical. Because they know you've worked hard in this. They know you care about it. And unless there's someone who's used to giving

critical analysis, and some close friends can, but usually having a stranger or someone who's just not really familiar with you play means you'll get a lot more honest opinion. You know, when we play test

and do sort of fancy play test, you know, the actual designers might be behind a two-way mirror, but we're not interacting usually with, or if we are interacting with the people, we do not let them understand that we are the people who design the game. Because people will react differently.

People don't want to hurt your feelings a lot of time. I mean, 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 they mean.

Because there's just less interpretation on your part to understand 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.

So 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 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, and this is very similar to writing, one of the things they say is when you write a draft, write a draft and 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 come back with a fresh set of eyes.

For example, early on in Magic, we will do playtesting every like three or four weeks and that allows us to sort of spend some time, make it,

and then work on it and we'll come back to the playtesting. We haven't playtested in a little while. You have a little fresh set of eyes that you get a, I mean, obviously then work on it, and we'll come back to the playtesting. We haven't playtested in a little while. You have a little fresh set of eyes that, you know, you get a, I mean, obviously you've played it before, but you get a sort of play at having not just played it the day before. And that is really important, that having the, part of being a good designer is getting back

from your work, of getting to see it from a distance. Sort of seeing the force for the trees, if you will. And one of the things is when you're in the middle of making something, you're really in the details. And my metaphor for this is that if you get on Google Maps and you zoom in on things, when 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. 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 be able to see the whole journey on one screen.

Because you want to get a sense of, oh, big picture. I get it. I'm going to this highway and that highway and getting off. You know? And that if you are zoomed in close and try to figure out where you're going, it's harder to understand the bigger picture. And that's important with design. That when you get in deep and you're, I mean, you want to get into the weeds

and worry about the wording or the choices of individual cards. I mean, R&D will spend endless hours discussing minutia. And minutia is important. It's very important. But you 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 cards? 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 was 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 use, I mean, 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, then you've got to play the game. And 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 one thing that I didn't explain real quickly, because I have a red light here. One thing that I didn't explain when I was talking 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? And 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 it 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 went, made all the through design, but got changed in development. How many cards get made, but, you know, to print? And the team decided it was about 100 to 1. 100 to 1. So if we make a set, and the set has 300 some cards that means we made 30,000 cards because

part of making magic is you're just making cards constantly, constantly now a lot of those cards I mean, there's a lot of magic is we're constantly innovating a lot of those cards are different versions of cards, and we try 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 made 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 bullseye. have a vision, understand what you're aiming to do. Number five is play with your cards. Make sure that, you know, 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 other people make it. And ideally, like I said, get somebody not emotionally connected with you or multiple people to play test. 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 a chance to not just look at the nitty-gritty but back up and look at the big picture. So all seven of the things time to breathe. Make sure that you have a 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 it in the parking space, which means, you all know what that means. It means this is 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.