Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #270 - 10 Things Every Game Needs: Flavor

Episode Date: October 16, 2015

Mark continues with part 8 in his series on 10-things every game needs.

I'm pulling away from the curb. We all know what that means. It's time to drive to work. And I had to take my daughter to the bus stop today. Okay, so today is another series in my 10 things every game needs series. Okay, so this is number 9. I've already talked about why your game needs a goal or goals, why it needs rules, why it needs interaction, why it needs a catch-up feature, why it needs inertia, why it needs strategy, why it needs a catch-up feature, why it needs inertia, why it needs strategy, why it needs surprise, and why it needs fun. So today we're going to talk about why it needs flavor.

Okay, so when you boil it down, flavor does three really big things for your game. Number one is it makes your game easier to understand and relate to. Number one is it makes your game easier to understand and relate to. Number two, it makes it easier to enjoy and to relate with other people. And number three, it makes players more likely to want to buy it. All those are really important things. So I'm going to walk through the major things that Flavor is going to do for you. So we're going to start with making your audience understand your game better.

What's going on here? Okay, so one of the things, I had a whole podcasting on a concept called piggybacking. So what piggybacking is, is the idea that when you are making a game, or anything really, but I'm applying this to games, the idea that your audience doesn't come in a blank slate. They know things, and you taking advantage of what your audience already knows can make it easier for them to learn your game. So the example I give, and this is just a good classic example, is we often have visitors at Wizards of the Coast, and

so one time we had the creator of Plants vs. Zombies, a guy named George Phan. George is a big Magic player, so he came to Wizards, and he and I had a chance to talk all about Plants vs. Zombies. So, for those who have never played Plants vs. Zombies, it is a very, very simple, what we call

tower defense game, which means an endless stream of hordes of bad guys come at you, and you have the good guys that you position in place to stop the bad guys. So, George was trying to figure out, he wanted his flavor to be the absolute simplest version that the flavor reinforced how you played the game.

Okay, so he needed two things. First off, in a tower defense game, you have pieces that you place that you position to stop the oncoming horde. The problem was that normally, in normal games, you would place armies and things, and George was always kind of confused, because let's say I place an army here, and then really close by, I need help. Why won't my army go over there?

Why won't my army not leave the place I put them? And he said, okay, was there something I could use that would be fun, that kind of reinforces you can't go anywhere? And he came up with the idea of plants. And the reason that plants work so well is you plant a plant. It's planted. It's in the ground. It's not moving.

It's in the ground. And so plants did a really good idea of, oh, I can make these things, and then of course they can't move. They're permanently there. The other thing is he needed an oncoming horde. It needed to be a slow horde because in order for you to have time to build up, it couldn't be fast, but it needed to be something that could slowly

keep coming at you and build over time. And so as he looked around, he said, well, what would that be? Zombies ended up being a really good choice. Zombies, they're slow, but eventually they overwhelm you with a wave of zombies. That's how zombies work. And so plants did what he needed them to do. Zombies did what they needed. And they had a fun sort of feel to them. But it wasn't that he made plants for zombies because, oh, they're just weird. Plants are funny. Zombies are funny.

It was no. Plants reinforce mechanics. Zombies reinforce the mechanics. And the idea of piggybacking is just that. It says, okay, my audience knows things. Now, you can piggyback in a couple different ways, and this is important. Flavor can work in multiple different ways.

Number one is, rules-wise, as explained with plants versus zombies. I need a rule to understand that once I plant a plant, I can't move it. Well, luckily, plants, the flavor, reinforces that rule. I naturally assume that rule to be true, because you don't just tear up plants and plant them somewhere else.

Once you plant them, that's kind of where they are. So the flavor did the job of explaining that without you needing to go there. The other thing you can piggyback sometimes is you can piggyback not just how the rules work, but sort of the general mood or tone of what you're trying to do. For example, I use plants for zombies, that's the one I'm using, the style of the pictures, the kind of tone of the game, the zombies and the plants were very cartoony. The names of the plants and the zombies were all very silly names. You know, it was a, you know, the wall was not just a wall, but a wall nut, you know, that

the things that shot, they were pea shooters, right, that the things that they were done in a tongue-in-cheek way that your flavor reinforced the tone, that you get a sense walking in right away from just seeing the visuals and hearing the names, you get a sense of the tone of the game right away

and that's a lot of what tone of the game right away. And that's a lot of what Flavor does for you is it allows you to shorthand a lot of what you have to teach your audience about the rules or about the nature or the tone or the style of your game in a way that's really quick and easy to absorb. So one of the things to understand, let me talk a little bit about how people learn because this is really important. So people, the way it essentially works is the brain works as follows. A, the brain can remember so many things. We refer to it, they call it chunking, which is

your brain is, at any one time, you can absorb so many pieces of information. It's either, I think, three, five, or seven, depending on the circumstance and the kind of information. It's either, I think, three, five, or seven, depending on the circumstance and the kind of information. Your brain can kind of hold on to so many things. So what happens is, if you give more things than your brain can hold on to, your brain goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I can't handle all that. But the way that your brain can help you is an ability called chunking. So what chunking is, it says, okay, let's say I have two things,

and the brain goes, well, if I can combine those, if I can think of them what chunking is, it says, okay, let's say I have two things. The brain goes, well, if I can combine those, if I can think of them as one, like, for example, bread is one thing and cheese is one thing and ham is one thing. But if I say a ham and cheese sandwich, oh, that's ham and cheese and bread.

That's all of it together, but I'm not thinking of three things. I'm thinking of it as one thing. My brain is taking these three components and chunking them together into one thing. Oh, I can remember ham and cheese sandwich. And then all of a sudden, I'm remembering one thing, not three things. So what happens is whenever your brain encompasses information, it's trying to chunk the information together.

It's trying to make it easier to digest. And the thing that flavor does for you is flavor aids with chunking. It makes it easier to connect things. Because, for example, if you have choices, and the choices all stem out of, oh, well, I see I am in a zombie apocalypse. I have a choice between a chainsaw or a sword or a gun. And I go, oh, well, those are the kind of things I'd expect in a zombie apocalypse.

All of a sudden, they don't seem random. They seem like pieces that logically follow through. So one of the big things about flavor in general is it's able to do that. It can help you chunk things. Now, another thing to remember is when someone is learning your game, it's what I call memory weight, which is essentially there's a point at which someone goes, that game is too heavy in its rules.

I can't handle it. That game is beyond me. I can't play that game. Now, a lot of people, diehard game people, they'll stick it out. They're like, whatever. A whole rule book of rules, I'll learn them. There's diehard gamers that whatever the game is, they'll try to learn. But most players, that's not true. They're like, I. A whole rule book of rules? I'll learn them. There's diehard gamers that whatever the game is, they'll try to learn. But most players, that's not true.

They're like, I'll try to learn, but at some point, if I feel overwhelmed, I'm out. And what you need to do is make sure that you convey enough information that they can play the game, not all the information, but enough to play before they go, oh, that's it, I'm out. And flavor helps with this, and chunking helps with this, because every time you say something, there's a little bit of mental weight added to it. Okay, I've got to remember that. Okay, I've got to remember that. But when you're using something that's familiar to them,

instead of it being heavier, it gets lighter. For example, in magic, there's an ability called flying, which basically says, if I, the creature, was flying, you can't block except with another creature was flying. It's pretty intuitive. In fact, when I tell people about flying, usually I can see them detense. Okay, here's a new rule. It's called flying.

Well, what does it do? What flying does. And what happens is, the reason there's usually a relaxation is like, oh, okay, I understand flying. I know birds. I got it. A bird flies over. I can't block the bird. It's in the air.

And what we've done is we took a rule, which could be a complicated rule, which could be a rule that maybe would cause strain, and instead they're like, oh, I feel relaxed. I already know that. That's already something I know. And so whenever your rules can be implied in a way the audience already knows, it becomes easier to understand. And so one of the things that's important about flavor is flavor is spoon-feeding things to your audience

in a means that they already understand, if you're using it correctly. Also, flavor is just less intimidating. It's one thing to say, we're going to play a game in which we're all going to have statistics and modify each other's statistics until one of us gets from a score of 20 to 0.

It's another thing to say, we're wizards dueling with magic. That just sounds cooler. I'm like, ooh, I want to hear about wizards dueling with magic. The more flavorful you make it, the more like, oh, I'm not thinking about the raw rules of it. I'm thinking of the fun, like, oh, I'm a wizard. Ooh, what cool wizard things can I do?

Can I cast spells? Well, yes, you can cast spells. And that when you put someone in a game and there's a flavor aspect to it, learning becomes less daunting also because the kind of thing they're learning just sounds more fun. It's all about teaching, for example. A lot of the things they do with teaching is they use games to teach

because games are just less threatening if you feel like, oh, I'm having fun rather than I'm having fun rather than I'm learning something. And so flavor does all these things. Another thing that flavor does is it helps with terminology, which is, like I said, flying is a good example, which is if I teach you something and the word I teach you is already familiar to, it already has a meaning, and the gameplay, and the English meaning, or the, you know,

the language you're in, the language of the word, and what it normally means, and what it means in the game, if those things are connected together, it just makes terminology less scary. And one of the things about games with terminology, Magic is a good example, is, what I find is, the terms that players clearly understand, flying, like, that's not scary to them. Terms in which they haven't really known the word or they don't understand the context of the word, oh, it's a little more. It's like, okay, I've got to learn a vocabulary word.

You know, even if it's a real word, if it doesn't have context to them, they've got to learn it. The other thing the flavor does for you is it can do a really good job of explaining premise. So once again, let's say it's a zombie apocalypse game, and it's like, okay, there's a zombie apocalypse. What do you think you want to do? Kill zombies?

Do I got to kill? Yes, you got to kill zombies. Okay, you got the premise right now. Survive the zombie apocalypse. You know, in Magic, it's like, well, what I'm trying to do, I'm trying to beat the other wizard. You know, that you could, in a lot of ways, your goals and your rules are all helped

if your flavor kind of reinforces and says, hey, what's the game about? This thing. Okay, so that talks a lot about how it's just easier to learn. That the thing that a flavor does is it takes your game and it puts it in an understanding context where, A, people are less afraid of it, they're more familiar with it,

and it makes them want to learn because it sounds more fun, and it just gives them terminology they already stand. Okay, let's go to the next part. Why does it make the game more enjoyable? Because it does. Number one, we talk a lot about fun.

The last podcast was all about fun. One of the big things about fun is when people come into a game, they already have things they like and dislike. Like, you're not a blank slate. When you interact with your player, it is not as if your player knows nothing. You don't come at them with, like, I have to teach them everything. They know absolutely nothing.

No, they have a life experience. They know things. So if there's things they already enjoy and you tie into things they already enjoy, well then guess what? You've just made your job easier. The key to making someone just feel more at ease is saying, hey, this thing has the thing you're already familiar with or you like. You know, a lot of choosing your flavor is that you want people to sort of feel at ease when they see your game. You know, I'm just, for some reason, I'm on the zombie apocalypse today. But, like, let's say you like zombies. Zombies are fun.

You like watching The Walking Dead or you like going and seeing, you know, a Romero movie. Or you like reading The Walking Dead comic book, or whatever. You like zombies. Zombies are fun. When you see a game, it's like, oh, it's a zombie game. I bring all this to it. Stuff that the game designer did not even, you know, you get all this wealth of happiness

that the player brings with them. Not just familiarity, and that helps them learn the game, but just general, I like this topic. That is cool. I have spent lots of my time interacting with zombie stories or fantasy stories or stories about magic or whatever your game is. That they walk in because there's a familiarity

that, once again, you can piggyback the rules, you can piggyback the emotions, and that's really important. That when your game taps into something larger, you get the benefit of everything that players had that they positively interacted with that thing. That if you have a zombie game

and they like zombies, they're just starting from a better place. So one of the things that's really important is the idea of context. Which is when you start a game, if you're ever teaching somebody a game, the very first thing you have to do

is you have to understand why the person playing your game will enjoy your game. And that you, the person teaching the game, have to make the connection very quickly. Now, for different players, there's different reasons. For example, I'm going to use magic.

Obviously, it's my game. So, okay, let's say I want to teach someone to play magic. Obviously, it's my game. So, okay, let's say I want to teach someone to play magic. Well, maybe the reason they love it is they love magic. The idea of casting magic

is awesome to them. Tell me all about the magical spells and then I get into, ooh, you have sorceries and I'm talking all about the cool things you can do. You can cast lightning bolts

from your hands. Or maybe it's something they love fantasy. They really enjoy the genre of fantasy. I'm like, oh, we have elves and dragons and dwarves and I can talk all about

the fantasy thing the games have. Maybe they just love the psychology. Magic has the color wheel and each of the five colors, the colors mean something. And some players are really like, oh, I really agree with blue or black or red or whatever

that I can start talking about philosophies, ethos. Sometimes that's how I draw people in. Some people, they love the art. I can just show them the cards, let them look at the art of the cards, ooh, that's so pretty, what's that? Whatever it is, whatever is the thing that your audience will attach to, you want to

make sure that you can get that quickly to them. Flavor is a big, big part of this. A lot of magic success has to do with the fact that it's in the genre of fantasy, which people like, and the cards, the art, the presentation of the cards. It's really compelling that I have almost never given somebody a pack of magic cards for the first time and not had them just want to look through it. They're just cool looking. What is this?

I talked about this before. When you are teaching a game, one of the best things is not for you to talk to the person you're teaching, but have them ask you questions. Because when someone asks you a question, they're invested in you answering their question.

Better than saying, let me tell you about this, is're invested in you answering their question. So better, better than saying, let me tell you about this, is them going, I want to know about something because when they want to know about something, they have made an investment. Asking a question is making a personal investment. Flavor helps lead you there. Literally, when I teach someone magic,

the first thing I like to do is put the cards in their hand and let them just look at the cards. Just look at the cards. Because what will happen is, they'll usually have a positive experience and then want to know things. What is this? How is that?

And that is a great way for me to lead into the game, where they're going, I'm excited, tell me more. Remember that. Whenever you can get your audience to ask you questions about the game, you're in a good position, because when you ask a question, when a human asks a question, they want to hear the answer because they feel like this is something that I've given you, give me back.

And so the flavor serves a really important point. Now, the other reason that flavor makes it more enjoyable is it adds an element of role playing to a game which says people like stories. Humans crave stories. What you want to do, I've talked about this before, is you want to create a narrative for your game. What I mean by that is, I, the player playing, what am I doing?

Who am I? Why am I doing this? And games like to have some explanation. In Magic, what am I doing? Oh, I'm a wizard. I'm a planeswalker, meaning I walk between the worlds. Walk between the planes. And I duel other planeswalkers with my magic.

What am I doing? I'm having a magical duel. I'm a wizard. I'm a planeswalker. I'm having a magical duel. I got it. There's a story going on. The story is I am dueling this other person and things are going to happen. I summon things and they summon things. It's a story. The more your game is a story,

the more, A, people get to role play within the story, which is fun. Games are escapist and people like to be other things. It's one of the reasons people like stories in general. Two is it makes it easier for someone to convey to somebody else what they're doing. Remembering word of mouth is a big part of getting people to play your game. Some people will see it on a shelf. I'll talk about this in a second about selling the game. But people talking about it is really important. A big way to get people to talk about it is putting it in a context that makes an interesting story. Well, the more narrative your game has, the easier it is to convey to other people what the story is. Hey, so here I was playing this game and this cool thing happened. And then the person who hears the story goes, ooh, that sounds cool. I'm now more I was playing this game and this cool thing happened. And then the person who

hears the story goes, ooh, that sounds cool. I'm now more interested in playing that game. That sounds like a cool game. And in general, if each person is playing a role and everybody in the game understands that, you get to have fun gameplay moments. So for example, trash talking.

Where it's like, you're competitors and you know you're fighting each other and you trash talk kind of in-char, trash talking, where it's like you're competitors, and you know you're fighting each other, and you trash talk kind of in-character trash talking. You know, I'm a wizard, and I'm going to beat you, and here's why I'm going to beat you. Or I'm, you know, we're playing Monopoly, and, like, you land on my property. It's like, pay up rent, please, you know.

I'm the landlord. You've got to pay me. There's a lot of fun of the flavor gives you little ways to catch on and have fun. People like to, while you're playing a game, there's a social component that's important, which is you're not just playing the game, you're interacting with other people. And people like to have ways to interact. One of the fun ways to do that is through either shared interest in flavor or through role playing, both of which flavor helps you do. Either you can both enjoy something

that you enjoy together, or you can share art or talk about art, or you can talk about it, or you also, within game, can role-play and say, okay, I'm a wizard, you're a wizard, I'm going to beat you down, and there's this fun interplay that goes on between there.

Okay, the final component that Flavor does, and Flavor does a whole bunch of things, by the way. I'm talking about the three biggest things it does. At the end, I'll talk a little bit about some of the other things, but the third big things it does, it helps sell your game. Okay, so when you're trying to sell

your game, there are basically three ways your game gets sold. Four ways your game gets sold. Four ways your game gets sold. Okay, so number one is somebody walks in a store and sees your game. Number one. They walk, they see it. So this is why your box is so important, how you present yourself.

There's a whole big business of just making your box pop in the store. But a big part of that is your flavor. For example, I'm going to talk about hooks the next time we play. One of the ways to have a hook is flavor. It's going, oh, oh, it's a zombie apocalypse game. I love zombie apocalypses. And even, by the way, one of the things is, not everybody who sees your game is necessarily a game player.

There are a lot of people out there who will play games that don't self-identify as a game player. But let's say you're a zombie fan and go, I love zombies. I love all the zombie things. Ooh, a zombie game. Ooh, maybe I can play that with my friends. We all like zombies.

And then maybe someone who wasn't even in the market for a game just likes zombies sees your zombie game and all of a sudden you make a sale. The box also has a chance for you to show off the kind of art and the kind of visuals and stuff you'll have. So the box, a lot of your flavor is going to be on the box. Because when you're trying to convey a game to somebody, the first thing they do is look at the cover. If the cover doesn't draw them in, they don't always look at the back. The back is where things get explained. I mean, the front, you literally have pictures and maybe a catchphrase, you know. You don't have a lot. You just got to try to draw them

in. Your flavor does a lot of drawing them in. Your flavor hopefully will get them to the back. Oh, it's the kind of thing that I like. Oh, let me look at it. And then when you get to the back, then you've got to sell them on. There's selling the game itself. We'll talk more about that in the next segment. But, flavor does a good job of just making them look. Okay, number two is

you see a game, not in the store, but through other means, on the internet, for example. I don't know whether one or two are the same thing. But, the reason it's a little bit different is when you're in a store, the box is all you see. When you're online, you get other information. You can provide other pictures and other things.

But anyway, the second place you can find things is online. Online, usually there's a little bit more information, but still, your flavor is super important. And it's possible, by the way, online, so in a store, it just has to be in the game section. That's where they're going to put it. Or maybe they put it with, you know, if you have a zombie game, there's a zombie section. Who knows?

Online, you have people can search for things. So if I want to find a game, a zombie game, and I search in zombie game, oh, now my game's going to pop up. So there's more resources to help you there. But the flavor, once again, can help people find your thing because you get to use locator tags for people to be able to find it.

And that way you go, oh, I'm this, I'm this, and you can use those. Okay, the third way to get somebody interested is you hear about a game. And this is where the narrative becomes really important. If your game creates fun moments that your players can talk about, it helps create word of mouth. Like I have a lot, when I used to work in the game store, people would often come in and say, I've heard about this game that, and they would describe it. They clearly never seen the game, they never played the game, They never played the game. They heard about the game. And the number one thing you would hear about a game is either some fun moment or some aspect of the flavor. Like flavor again is doing a lot of the job or the

narrative of it is doing a lot of job. My friend talked about it. It sounded fun. And usually there's a story involved that your friend told. That's the kind of information that travels the easiest. The final way is your friend might actually play it with you. That you might be at someone's house and go, oh, I got a game. Let's play this game. Now, the fourth one,

you have the best chance of actually learning the rules and experiencing the game. One of the problems with some of the first ones is I see a box. It might be an awesome game. But if the box with some of the first ones is, I see a box, it might be an awesome game. But if the box doesn't sell me it's an awesome game, well, then I'm not going to pick it up. I might not even read it.

Or if I play it, if the game in fact is a fun game to play, I have the experience of having played the game. But that requires more hand-holding, it requires somebody already invested in the game. But once again, the more that experience of playing that game is something that even if you're lightly enfranchised, you can get involved in. Let's say, for example, you played the game,

and you don't quite know all the rules, but you understand the flavor, and you get sucked in or having fun. Even if you're not playing correctly, you're having fun. I talked about this before. When you're teaching someone your game, the most important thing in the game is not that they understand the game. The most important thing at the end of you showing them the game is they enjoyed the game. If they enjoyed it

but understand the rules wrong, they'll keep playing, they'll play again, and they'll eventually learn the rules. If they know the rules correctly but didn't enjoy themselves, eh, they're never going to play again. Who cares if they know the rules? It doesn't matter. So one of the things when you're teaching somebody is you want to make sure they have the most fun experience they can. And emphasizing fun when you're first showing someone a game is way, way more important than understanding everything. Let them understand what they can.

I'm not saying let them get things wrong. But don't dwell on them getting everything right versus them having a good time. And flavor is a big important part of this because a lot of why you will enjoy the game is how quickly you bond to the game, how quickly you interact with the game, how quickly you share components with other people in the game.

And flavor is doing, not all of the heavy lifting, but a good chunk of the heavy lifting, especially the first game in. Like if I don't know much about the game, I'm leaning a little more on the things I do know. So remember, people do not bond on the unknown. People

bond on the known. Let me explain what that means. That if I and somebody else are going to have a bond, have a moment, we have to share something in common to do that. We have to say, oh, I like thing X, you like thing X. We have this common bond of Thing X. So one of the things about the game is the mechanics will take a little while

to learn. Now, you can piggyback mechanics, which means, oh, this game is a lot like that game. Like King of Tokyo, for example, has a rule that is very reminiscent of Yahtzee. It's not exactly Yahtzee, but it's very easy to say, hey, have you ever played Yahtzee? Well, this component works a lot like Yahtzee. And if someone's familiar with Yahtzee, all of a sudden they get to play your game faster. Like, oh, it's like Yahtzee. All sorts of cool piggybacking you can do when you gameplay.

But the more your audience sort of has a common bond on the topic, the faster they bond. And when you use someone who plays a game, you want your audience to bond quickly. And this is why flavor is so important. It's going to take a little while to bond on mechanics, on strategy. That just doesn't come right away. But knowledge of flavor comes very fast, especially if it's something they already know. That if you're playing a zombie apocalypse game and you like zombie apocalypse and your friend likes zombie apocalypse, even if you don't quite understand the dynamics of the game,

you can right off the bat, right in the beginning, start making jokes about zombies. And then you guys can have a good time and joke all about zombies or Walking Dead or, you know, Dawn of the Dead. Whatever zombie thing that you and your friend share in common, if you're playing a game that has that, right out of the gate.

You can make jokes right out of the gate. You can make jokes right out of the gate. And that's a big part of what makes people enjoy a game, especially socially, is the connection with the other people. And the flavor does a huge job of doing that. Okay, so I said that flavor did a bunch of things, and these were the three major ones. So let me just, almost a word, talk a little bit about some of the other things. were the three major ones.

So let me just, I'm almost to work, talk a little bit about some of the other things. So, the flavor allows people, like I talk a lot about the aesthetics of gameplay. Flavor does a lot

to just increase your aesthetics. That aesthetics are a thing where when your game feels right, when things just feel like they're purposeful and in the right place, it puts you more at ease. Flavor does a very good job with helping with aesthetics. If you use the flavor correctly, it's a thing that can tie the game together.

Sometimes, for example, you have component pieces that you need mechanically, but that are disparate, and that the flavor can be used as a means to connect them. In Magic, for example, a lot of times I will have two things on a card that are not, like, mechanically they work well, but they're a little confusing, and when the flavor can justify why those things are together, all of a sudden the things that would be awkward come together. So flavor can do a lot of fixing work in your game, where it's like, oh, I have things that have to work a certain way

because the game needs it to work that way, but it's a little confusing, and the proper flavor can make it, instead of being confusing, make sense. The other thing that flavor can do is it can be something... I've talked about it being a shared thing for bonding on the game. It can be a shared thing for selling the game. But it also can be a shared thing of just making the game part of who you are as a person. So we talk a lot about personal identity. And that one of the things that's important is people like the things people choose to identify with

not only are things they enjoy, but are things they enjoy other people noticing about them. That a lot of some of the things you choose are like, not only do I enjoy this thing, but I want to broadcast this as a way to identify who I am. And so flavor lets you play into that dynamic, which means that if I really like, for example, my wife loves pigs.

She has a whole collection of little tiny pigs. If she sees a game that has pigs in it, she is more inclined to at least just be interested in the game. Just because she likes pigs, it's a thing. And that she is more inclined to buy a game with pigs because she's known as, hey, she likes pigs. That people who, whatever it is they like,

that flavor helps them help identify, She's known as, hey, she likes pigs. That people who, whatever it is they like, that flavor helps them help identify, to self-identify themselves through means. And so flavor is another good way. I mean, part of this is how you help sell something, but part of it also is a way to make an emotional connection with a player that you, the game player, could make that click. Like, a lot of what you're trying to do is make, I'm going to use the word hooks here,

but I mean actually more literal hooks, although it's tied, that your audience can sort of find a connection to and that you want people to personify or make personal your game in a way that they connect to. So you have to leave a lot of options open to do that. Flavor is just one of the easiest ways to do that. So flavor

really allows emotional connection between your audience and your game in a way that you can't really even control. I mean, that's why choosing your flavor is so important is choosing the right flavor can do a lot to bring people in, can do a lot to excite people. You know, the flavor

has such a key role there. Okay, and now it works. Let me recap real quick. So this is our ninth series. So, flavor does three major jobs. Understand this, that this is what

your flavor is doing. That flavor is going to help people understand your game. Flavor is going to help people enjoy your games. And flavor is going to help you sell your game.

So one last thing to remember. Something I meant to say that I did not say yet. When you are playt sell your game. So one last thing to remember. I meant to say it. I did not say it yet. When you are playtesting your game, you need to treat the creative components like any other component for purposes of playtesting. You want to know what your audience perceives of things. If you...

I've literally had mechanics, had a name, had audience respond to it, then changed the name and did a different playtest, and the response to the audience is different. They liked the mechanic more because the name was different. You need to playtest your names. Your flavor is just as important as your mechanics,

and you want them to combine, and you want them to make sense. What that means is you have to make sure that you test that. That just like you're going to playtest your game, you need to playtest your creative elements. You need people to see them. If you're going to do focus testing, you should do that. You want to make sure that like you're going to playtest your game, you need to playtest your creative elements. You need people to see them. If you're going to do focus testing, you should do that. You want to make sure that what you're conveying, that the parts of your game are communicated.

And the flavor, that's just... All these things I'm telling you about teaching your game, about making your game more enjoyable, making your game easier to sell, you have to do the work to make sure that is true. You have to test that. You have to, you know, all the stuff I'm talking about, that flavor is just as important as mechanics,

and you have to spend just as much time making sure you have the correct flavor. Okay, whew! That said, I see we are at work. So I'm in my parking space,

so we all know what that means. That means it's the end of my drive to work. Instead of talking magic and game design, it's time for me to be making magic and making games.

I'll see you guys next time.