Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #284 - 10 Things Every Game Needs: Hook

Episode Date: December 4, 2015

Mark continues with part 9 in his series on 10-things every game needs.

I'm pulling up my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so today is the 10th in my 10-part series, 10 things every game needs. So, I've talked about why you need a goal or goals, why you need rules, why you need interaction, why you need a catch-up feature, why you need inertia, why you need interaction, why you need a catch-up feature, why you need inertia, why you need strategy, why you need surprise, why you need fun, why you need flavor. So today, I'm down to the final one, why your game needs a hook. So the interesting thing is this all began because in fifth grade, when my oldest daughter was in fifth grade, I got called to talk to her class.

They had an assignment where they had to make, for the Revolutionary War, their American Revolution segment, they had to make a game that was flavored to the American Revolution. And so I was brought in to sort of talk to them to say, hey, here's some tips about making games. And so I made my speech about an intro to gaming called 10 Things Every Game Needs. Obviously, that beget an article in my column, which beget a podcast, which beget a series of podcasts. But the interesting thing is when I first did it, when I first wrote down the things I wanted, I actually had nine things, not ten. had nine things, not ten. And I was like, oh, the aesthetic lover in me knew that ten was just a nicer number. I mean, there's top ten lists all the time. Ten is, it just felt like when you got to nine, you kind of had to get to ten. And the obvious thing that

was missing for me was the hook. But at the time, I was like, well, I'm talking to little kids about making a project for school. They're never selling time, I was like, well, I'm talking to little kids about making a project for school. They're never selling this project. So like, well, it's not really relevant. But then part of me said, you know what? It's part of game making. I'm not going to dwell on it when I talk to the kids, but I'll mention it. As something like, somehow it appears to me, it's like, well, I should actually like,

one of the things that's really important to understand, what today's is all about is Like, one of the things that's really important to understand, what today's is all about, is when you make a game, part of your job is to make the game in a vacuum. Just make an awesome game. But, if you're actually trying to, beyond just make something for you and your friends, if you're trying to sell the game, you have an obligation as a game designer in creating the game of making sure that you build in it what we call a hook. Let me explain what I mean by a hook. What I mean is you have to make the person want to play your game. So, for example, when I was in Hollywood, I was a writer for many years. You don't know.

I was a screenwriter. And I thought the hardest part of Hollywood was going to be writing a good script. So I spent a lot of time. I wrote some scripts. There were some I'm very proud of. And what I found was writing a good script. So I spent a lot of time, I wrote some scripts, there's some I'm very proud of. And what I found was writing a good script wasn't the hard part. Finding people, getting people to read your script was the hardest part. Because there's so many people wanting to read the script that just, you know, it's hard to get someone to actually read what you've done. And so what I realized with making a game is you can make great games. I, for example, at home, I have, in my library,

I have two whole bookcases dedicated to games. And then downstairs in my basement, I have three more bookcases dedicated to games. I have a lot of games, hundreds of games. I'm a gamer, for those who haven't figured this out yet. What's one of the most common things about all those games? The most common thing is most of them

aren't made anymore. The vast majority of games I own, you can't go buy. And why is that? Because games, as a general rule, most games are actually short-lived. Excuse me? And there are exceptions.

I got Scrabble. I got Chess. I got, you know, Trivial Pursuit. I mean, I have games that have lasted and will last the test of time. But the point is, most games that get made are only made for a short period of time because they don't succeed. And the funny thing is, you might be like, well, only the good games succeed. No, I have a lot of good games. Games that I, as a game player, go, wow, this is a really good game, fail.

Why is that? Because one of the biggest challenges of making a game is selling a game, is getting people to want to play your game. And so you, as a game designer, have to be conscious of saying, one of the things when you are making your game, what is going to make my audience want to play my game? Or, you know, the audience want to play my game.

So, okay, so I want to talk today about the idea of the pitch. How you sell your game. Okay, so one of the things is, back in my screenwriting days, I took a bunch of classes in how to pitch to people. is back in my screenwriting days, I took a bunch of classes in how to pitch to people. And one of the things that's really important

that you learn is you can't talk for very long. That if you spend too much time, they just zone you out. You know, if I go into a room for a pitch and I just start talking for five minutes straight,

wow, I mean, I could be super compelling. Maybe I have an awesome story. I'm not saying you can't necessarily hold their attention. But what's way more better is if you go in a room, you talk for a minute, and then they ask you questions, and you spend four more minutes answering their questions.

That five minutes in which they are involved in the connection between what you're doing versus five minutes and whatever. I'm using five minutes as an example here. But the idea is what you want to do in a pitch is not just talk at the person you're pitching. You want the person you're pitching to come back to you. You want to evoke questions, evoke things out of them that force them to respond, force them to

do something. Because when they ask you a question, when they say, hey, I want to know something, they're drawn in. It's human nature that when you ask something, you want to hear the answer. Because you've initiated the question, so you want to see what it is. So one of the big things they taught me about pitching is you don't want to just talk to them. You want to just talk to them. You want to make them ask you questions.

You want to answer the area that they're interested in. And part of doing that is making a pitch that makes them go, ooh, I'm interested. I want to know more. Okay, so if you're selling a game, I want to talk about how there are two different pitches that you make when you're selling a game. What I will call the 5-second pitch and what I will call the 30-second pitch. Okay, the 5-second pitch is I have something that I'm encapsulizing my game into a very short, pithy thing. And the way to think about it when your game is on a shelf is that five second pitch is the front of the box.

I don't get a lot of words on the front of the box. I get maybe a picture, a logo, a name, maybe a little descriptive sub-name, and that's it. That's what I get on the front of the box. And the parallel to this, by the way, is when you have a game and you are playtesting,

the one thing I talk a lot about is when you get playtesters, you want to get people who are trying your game, who are not invested in your emotional well-being. What I mean by that is people who don't care whether or not you're happy. Because if people who are your friends and family play your game, even if they don't like the game, they want to find positive things to say about it. You know, they know you worked hard. They don't want to disappoint you.

And you need people who are willing to disappoint you. You need people who are going to playtest your game who are going to say, yeah, this sucked. Yeah, I didn't enjoy this at all. Because you need to hear

the blunt feedback. Now, I'm not saying you can't, obviously professional relationships, I mean, when I work in R&D, we are friends, but I will get blunt feedback from them because we're used to that and we understand that's what's needed.

But without people that are used to that, it is hard to get blunt feedback. What you want to do is get people who are willing to tell you what they think and aren't invested in whether you're happy or not. So part of the same thing, the pitch I'm talking about is, it's not just the one way to think of the pitch is the game box on the shelf. That's one way you sell it.

One of it might be the game, you know, on a screen because maybe it's a digital game that people aren't even buying it in a store. Or another thing is somebody is telling them. So when I want somebody to play a play test, I have to interest them in a store. Or another thing is somebody is telling them. So when I want somebody to play a play test, I have to interest them in the game. It has to be worth their while. So the first thing I do is I'm giving them what I call the five-second pitch,

which is something that says enough to grab their attention. So let's say I say, okay, hey, do you want to come play my game? It's called Monster Zombie Trucks. Five seconds. When I say five seconds, I mean up to five seconds. It could be less,

but you have no more than about five seconds for your first initial, like, just immediate boom. You know, and hopefully you say, you know, Monster Zombie Trucks, and, you know, and then maybe you have the time

for the little sub thing. It's like, it's, you know, it's Demolition Derby and the zombie apocalypse. And then hopefully people go, oh, well, are the zombies driving the monster trucks, or are you hitting the zombies with monster trucks? And the second somebody asks you the question, okay, now you've got to go to the 30-second pitch. And the 30-second pitch. And the 30-second pitch is where you describe the game in a short synopsis, like,

what kind of game am I expecting? You know? And you might say, oh, it's a demolition derby game where you're trying to be the last monster truck standing. But you have, you know, you're fighting in the zombie apocalypse, so you have, not only are you fighting monster trucks,

but you're fighting other zombies. And then somebody might go, oh, how does that work? And then, you know, whatever. But the idea is, the five-second pitch is just the short sort of, okay, just get me interested in the general sense, and the 30-second pitch is like, well, what am I actually doing? So, like, we'll take magic as an example. The five-second pitch, you know, it's a trading card game where you duel with magic.

Okay, that sounds, you know, or once again, the five-second pitch doesn't even need verbal. The five-second pitch might be just, I show you some cards. And you go, ooh, what are those? Look at those pictures, you know. The idea is the five-second pitch just gets you interested. So you have to make sure that you can encapsulate your game into five seconds, okay? And part of that is figuring out what's unique about your game. Because part of having a hook is having something that in five seconds you can go, ooh, what is that? And then in 30 seconds, having enough substance that people go, ooh, that sounds fun.

Okay, so there's three different ways to have a hook. Well, I mean, there's many ways to have a hook. There's three major categories, I'll say, to have a hook. So let's talk about the three categories. Okay, category number one is innovation. Is you've done something in a game that hasn't been done before. For example, Magic, when Magic first came out, it was a trading card game. You know, trading cards, like baseball cards, like movie cards, like people knew trading cards, people knew card games.

So you say a trading card game, it's like, ooh, you're taking trading cards and you're taking card games and you're pushing them together. So the first time you hear that, it's like, ooh, that's interesting. Wow, what does that mean? I've seen trading cards, and I've seen card games, but never together. So, you know, one thing you can do with innovation, you can just do something that's never been done before. And even in the confines, if you're talking like a magic set, like maybe in this set, like, ooh, for the first time ever,

we have some new mechanic that you've never seen before, right? That we're, okay, it's now, it's morph, it's kicker, it's flashback, it's cycling, you know, it does something. You're like, oh, okay, I have spells that you can cast a second time. I have creatures you can cast as a face down tutu that you can turn up later. I have creature, I have cards that you can trade in a face-down tutu that you can turn up later I have cards that you can trade in for mana to get another card you know

different mechanics within a game is oh wow that sounds interesting I've never played that before so innovation means you're giving something to the player that they just haven't heard before now sometimes maybe what you're doing is you're taking a known thing it's not doing is you're taking a known thing.

It's not necessarily that you're taking an unknown game. For example, we'll use Cards Against Humanity. Cards Against Humanity, when you look at it from a game design standpoint, it basically takes the game structure of apples to apples. But it adds this layer of an adult quality to it. You know, apples toles is a family game. It's very friendly and, you know,

Cards Against Humanity says, okay, what if, what if we add in this layer of adult content? You know, Apples to Apples is fun. That gameplay is fun. Ooh, how about Apples to Apples with adult content? And all of a sudden you're like, ooh, wow, adult content, that sounds interesting.

Tell me more, show me some cards or whatever, you know, that you can get, innovation could be taking a sudden, you're like, ooh, wow, adult content, that sounds interesting. Tell me more. Show me some cards or whatever, you know, that you can get. Innovation could be taking a known, like, either doing a brand new thing or taking a known thing and putting a twist on it. You know, and I think a lot of trying to make a hook that's innovative is saying to somebody, oh, I know something. I'm playing, like, trading card games. It's like, I know trading cards. I know card games. Ooh, what happens when you mix them together? Or, for example, like my little,

my funny little pitch is, you know, monster zombie trucks. It's like, oh, I know monster trucks and I know zombies. Oh, what happens when you mix, you know, what happens when you mix those together? Those are both interesting things. What happens when you mix them you know, what happens when you mix those together? Those are both interesting things. What happens when you mix them together?

So innovation has the ability to, it can be a combination of things you haven't seen before. It can be a new thing that you haven't seen before. But the idea is when somebody hears your hook and it's an innovative hook, it's, wow, I've never seen that before. I'm interested. Tell me more. I want to understand that thing. Okay, the second thing is a novelty hook. What a novelty hook is, you're just doing something slightly different.

Innovation is about doing something that has been done before. Novelty is about doing something. Sometimes it's both innovative and novel, and sometimes it's just novel. You know, for example, like double-faced cards, we did them in magic. Sometimes it's both innovative and novel, and sometimes it's just novel. For example, like double-faced cards, we did them in Magic. Normally, Magic cards had one side. Now we have cards with two sides. Okay, that is innovative, but it also has a huge novelty factor to it.

It's sort of like, oh, sometimes you will make a game, and it just has a component to it that's like, wow, I've never seen it with that, you know, there's something about it that just tickles your funny bone or makes you stand up

or like, wow, they've done something to it that just has a different quality. Now, once again, you can mix and match these.

I'm not even saying that your novelty needs to be innovative. Sometimes the novelty is just saying, here's a thing that people really love but I've now applied that thing they love to this new thing.

And that, you know, maybe I'm making my monster zombie truck driving game, and I have a neat, I have pieces that represent the monster trucks. You know, the monster trucks are represented by monster truck, you know, figures or something. And you're like, oh, wow. You know, like, that is very interesting.

It's, ooh, it's neat that part of your game is this component. So novelty can be one of your hooks, that you are sort of doing something in a splashy way. The third category, I would say, for hooks is flavor-based hooks. And there's a couple kinds of flavor-based hooks. One might be you are using an existing flavor from a known quantity. I'm making the Walking Dead game.

Oh, I like that TV show slash comic book. Maybe I would enjoy a game based on it. It's a Star Wars game. It's a Batman game. It's a Jurassic World game. Like, each one of these is like, oh, I like the property. What happens when I get a game about it? And that's enough these is like, oh, I like the property. What happens

when I get a game about it? And that's enough for people to go, oh, I like this thing. I want to play it. Now, the flavor might be something in which you're being resonant.

Like, I'm talking about I could make, for example, a game about vampires. It's not about specific vampires. It's not like I'm doing a Dracula game, but it might just be about, oh, I like vampires in general, or I like the horror genre in general, or I like Greek mythology. You're like, Magic has done a bunch of sets, Innistrad, Theros, for example, where it's like, hey, do you like this kind of thing? Do you like horror? Do you like, you know, Theros was Greek mythology? You know, part of the hook sometimes

is just saying, hey, are you playing in a resonant space of something you like? The other thing creative can do is creative just kind of awesome visuals. When you see it and you're going, oh, wow, that's really compelling. Now, maybe it's because it's resonant.

Maybe because it's flavorful and novel. Maybe because it's flavorful and innovative, you know. For example, maybe I have a vampire game, but my vampires are clowns. Okay, what does that mean? I understand clowns. I understand vampires. But, oh, what are vampire clowns like?

What does that mean? And right off the bat, vampires, but oh, what are vampire clowns like? What does that mean? Right off the bat, once again, you want your audience... Here's why I'm just thinking of the box. I think of the front of the box as being the 5-second pitch, the back of the box being the 30-second pitch. I see the front, I see the name, I see

the subtitle maybe, I see a picture maybe, I see something that just is a very short, quick thing that goes, and the goal of the front of the box is to get you to look at the back of the box. The back of the box then starts describing the game, probably shows you the game, and in brief simple terms, that's why I say 30 seconds, it describes you what's going on. The idea from there is, now, hopefully someone will buy the game. The idea from there is now hopefully someone will buy the game. Now that same dynamic works not just on a box.

It could be, let's say, for example, I'm trying to convince someone to play. So one of the big things about game is word of mouth is very important. If your game is fun, and I'm not saying your game shouldn't be fun. Of course it should be fun. Fun was number eight. You need to have fun, but you want a game in which people are, one of the ways to sell your game is word of mouth. Is that people play the game and go oh my god, that was fun. Hey

Bob, Ted, Carol, Alice, have you played this game? Or maybe, hey, I'm going to bring this game over, let's play it. You know, often they'll sample the game. But one of the things about getting people to play a game is the same thing. Verbally, I have to get you to go, yeah, that sounds fun. Now maybe, maybe I'm pitching

on, trust me, it's a good game, maybe. Or maybe it's like, hey, um, hey Bob, it's the monster zombie truck game. And Bob goes, oh, I love monster trucks and I love zombies, let's play it. Or, they just go, what, what, what? Well, okay, what does

that mean, you know? Oh, how are the zombies in the game? Whatever. Whatever they want to know, you then get to give the 30-second pitch, which is a little sort of synopsis of what the game is. And the thing to remember is that sometimes there's a lot of different ways to get somebody hooked into the game.

So one of the things, for example, is... And I talked about this a little bit, but let me talk about it, it's just visuals. And I mentioned flavors being important as a hook, but also understand the importance of your visuals. That when you're trying to get somebody to play the game, like one of the things, for example, with Magic is, if I'm getting someone to try to play the game,

one of the things that I do is I like to put the cards in their hands. I want them to look at the cards. Now, magic has a lot of resonance. It's fantasy. You get to see elves and dragons and angels and all sorts of things. But we get magic's take on them.

People have seen angels before, but a battle angel, a female with a big sword, oh, that's a little bit different. Our elves usually take it a little bit different. Our goblins are a little different. Our goblins are sort of human. Our comic relief, which is a little bit different. Or, you know, our elves usually take it a little bit different. Our goblins are a little different. Our goblins are sort of human, our comic relief, which is a little,

I mean, we've influenced other areas, so goblins have become more comic relief. But that's something magic did really strong early on, that goblins were less scary and more funny.

And so one of the things that, like, you sort of, you want to use whatever tools you have available to help pull the audience in and understand what those tools are.

And the thing that's really important to understand is when you are making your game all these things I'm talking about understanding how you pull the audience in shouldn't be an afterthought. It shouldn't be like I've finished my game now that my game is done it is time to start thinking about how to sell the game.

No. If you're doing your job, what's going to be compelling about your game is baked into the game, into the core of the game. And one of the things to ask yourself when you're making your game very early on is, what am I doing? Am I doing anything innovative or novel or

flavorful? What sets me apart? If I'm going to get someone to play my game, what am I doing that's wow, that's different? And, for example, a lot of times people will make a game where either they're following the footsteps of something else, or like,

I'm just going to make a game like that. Like, okay, if you're making a game like that, how is yours different than that? How is yours not just a poor imitation of that thing that you like? If you're going to take a game, you need to innovate, or you need to make a novel component, or you need to add some new element of flavor

that's going to differentiate it. And a lot of today's talk is getting the general sense of what you are doing and how you are doing it. That when you are starting your game, like, one of the things in general about game design is that you are going to take a core idea

and then build around your core idea. And that at the heart of it, I hope at the heart of your core idea is your five second pitch is somewhere in your core idea. You know, your five-second pitch is somewhere in your core idea. You know, that if you're going to pitch your game to somebody, the super-fast, short, like, oh, this is the cool thing about it, that you're starting with that. The idea of that five-second hook is not added on after the fact. It's not like, well, I finished my game. Now, what's exciting about my game?

Something should hopefully be compelling you when you're making it that you should go, okay, this is where my game stands apart this is where my game is its own thing um and one of my biggest things of seeing amateur game designers is they will make games where they take components they've seen in other games and they add nothing new to it there's nothing about it that says here's you know like a lot of times I see a game and I go, oh, you're making an imitation of more famous game. Well, why wouldn't I just play the more famous game? What about your game is compelling? Why do I want to play this? And a lot of times what I see is that they are trying to do their version of something, but they don't understand

what makes it different. You know, when know, like one of the things is, we'll go back to my Hollywood days, is I took a lot of classes in writing and storytelling. And one of the things I kept saying is, I took classes, once again, in writing scripts. And what they would say is, you need to be telling a story that's uniquely your own story. The second you're telling a story that just other people have told,

now that doesn't mean it can't have components of it. Obviously, I'm a big man of archetypes and story structure. It's not that you can't have a story that's reminiscent of other stories, but what about it makes it your own story? What about it is your thing? You don't want someone to read your script and go, oh, yeah, yeah, I saw that movie. You know, you want to read your script and go, I want to see this movie. Now, another important thing to think about is when you

talk about it, so one of the things I keep mentioning is when I go through the ten different things is how each of them are connected. So once again, the goal goals, the rules, the interaction, the catch-up feature, the inertia, the strategy, the surprise, the fun, the flavor, each one of those is a place for your hook to be. Maybe you have a goal that no one's ever had before or super flavorful. You have a goal that no one's ever had before or is super flavorful. You have a goal that's just like, wow, you just tell somebody the goal and they want to play that game. Like, I want to try to accomplish that goal. Maybe you have something about your rules that are just super innovative, that your games, or they're novel in some way, or they use a component. I know, for example, way back in the day, Wizard of the Coast had a role-playing game

where instead of having dice, you had a deck of cards. And that was, like, very compelling. It was a game called Everwave from way, way ago. But the idea was, it was a very... When you first heard about it, you're like, wow, I'm so used to using dice. What does it mean to use a deck of cards? That was very compelling, you know?

I mean, the other... the next thing is interaction. How you make people interact with each other. Are you doing it in a way that's cool or different? Are you doing it in a way that sort of draws them in? You know, one of the things I think that is, like I mentioned the game Sorry, for example, that just having this gimmick of when I land on you, I get to say sorry and send you back, you know, is just, it is one of the selling points of the game. It's in the name. It's like, sorry, you know, and that,

there's an element of that that really says, okay, here's how we're going to interact, that I have the ability to send you back. That when I'm rolling the dice, I'm counting how many squares because I want to land on you. You can have a catch-up feature that's unique. You can do a catch-up feature that's somehow unlike any other catch-up feature that you've ever done.

You know, maybe, you know, I know that, like Monopoly, for example, that one of the things that's very, I mean, Monopoly has a lot of flavor going for it, but also I know people are very drawn into the idea of the free parking, of the idea that, like, all the bills are going here. Funny, this rule wasn't when the game started, but it's been added in since. And, like, oh, there's a chance that I can have my little payday, that I can get this and I can, you know,

I can dream of digging myself out of a hole if I get in a hole. It could be inertia. What makes your game go forward? What makes your game... Like, there's a game, Perfection, for example, where you're trying to fit little shapes in, and you turn this thing, and there's a timer, and at the end of it, it pops up.

It pops up. Well, that game has inertia. Like, you know you've got to get it done in time, because otherwise all the pieces are going to pop up. And that little component, that little drive to complete it before it pops up because otherwise all the pieces are going to pop up. And that little component, that little drive to complete it before it pops up, that makes the game exciting. There's a novelty

and an excitement that happens to that. Maybe your strategy is where your game has its hook. One of the things I know about Magic, that's what I've been talking about Magic, is it's a game that's constantly changing and reinventing itself and just trying to figure out what the right thing is because

you can do something that works and a year later it doesn't work anymore because the card pool has changed that's really compelling, the reason a lot of people play Magic is just the strategy is so deep and it's constantly evolving maybe it's a surprise maybe there's something about your game in which you have an element that people

don't know when it's coming. Like, there's a Battlestar Galactica game where somebody who's playing the game is a traitor, who is a Cylon, and is not working to help you. It's trying to stop you. And you've got to figure out who that person is, and you don't know who that person is. And while that makes the

game real, ooh, that sounds like a cool game. I want to play that game. Maybe the thing is that your game is fun in a sounds like a cool game, I want to play that game. Maybe, maybe the thing is that your game is fun in a way that's just different or cool, you know. I played a lot of games, like my kids had a game when they were kids, it's called Elefun, where like, it shoots little tiny butterflies in the air, and you have little nets, and you have to catch them in the nets. And my kids loved that game, because it just, they'd never seen anything like it. And I remember the first time I introduced the game to them, their eyes lit up.

They're like, things shooting in the air? I'm catching them? That sounds awesome, you know. I already talked about flavor, but like, flavor, flavor has one of the greatest senses, one of my buckets. So obviously, you can have great flavor and do cool things, and you know, like one of the greatest senses, one of my buckets. So obviously, you can have great flavor and do cool things and, you know, like one of the things I think is like,

James Earnest, he used to work at Wizards long ago, a friend of mine, started a company called Cheap Ass Games and one of the things that James is excellent at

is making games where the premise of the game is like, I just got to play that game. You know, like he had a game in which it was a reverse version of Clue

that it wasn't that you were trying to figure out who killed Mr. Body. You're trying to kill Mr. Body and hide the body so people can't find it. Obviously, one of the ways to get people excited could just be you have a premise that people,

that's a cool premise, I want to play that game. So each one of the things, each one and every step along the way that you can have a game that plays into any of the other nine steps. The key is that when you are creating your game, you want to understand how exactly... There'll come a point

where you have to have people play your game. It'll start when you're playtesting, and then eventually you're going to sell your game, and you need to grab people and pull them in. And in order to do that, the way I will stress is, you need a five second, a five second in, you need a 30 second in. What's your five second pitch? How in a really short, in literally just words, in a very short amount of time, I'm not saying you can't have an image, but I mean, your pitch has to be something super, super quick that people in five seconds or less can absorb. And the goal of the five-second pitch is to make people want to know more. Then you get a 30-second pitch is where you get to tell

them a little bit more. And the way to think of it is, if I'm selling an app, my five-second pitch is the picture and the title of the app. And I'm hoping to click on it so I can read a little bit more about it. If I am having a friend, they get to say a few things and go, tell me more, and then they get to tell you a little bit more. If it's on a shelf, it's the front of the box and it's the back of the box. Each one of these, you have a little tiny quick way. And you, here's the way to think about it. If you cannot encapsulate your game down into five seconds or less, if you can't make a pithy, short, little, tiny thing that would get people to

want to know more, I'm telling you right now, your game fundamentally is going to have problems. If there's something about your game that in order to sort of sell your game, you have to understand some element, not all of it. Once again, the five second pitch is not saying everything cool about the game. Magic has all sorts of cool hooks. I'm not going to tell you all of them in five seconds. I just got to tell you one of them in five seconds. And then once you reel them in, then you get to give a little bit more time to sort of get to the essence of what you're doing. But the point is, if your game doesn't have a five-second pitch, if you can't encapsulate what's cool about your game

in five seconds or less, it's not, you don't have a good enough hook that will work. If you then, once you draw them in with a five-second pitch, in 30 seconds, can't make the person interested in playing the game, you're not going to get them in. and that's one of the harsh realities is i've seen so many awesome awesome games and that i know this is ice that all i got to do is build an awesome game and then and then you've made an awesome game and as an artist that's wonderful but as a

businessman if your goal is not just to make a game as a piece of art and know that you've made a game but is to get others to play your. You have to understand that salesmanship is part of game making. And this is why it's number 10. The first nine are all about making the game, but this in some ways is also about making the game. Your game has to, from its core, from its very root, has to do something that allows you the ability to draw people in to make people want to play your game. You have to do something that is, like I said, innovative, novel, flavorful.

You have to do something that makes people sit up and notice. Because there are a lot, my bookshelves are filled with great games that nobody paid attention to. And my goal of this whole series is I don't want you to just make a game

that's an awesome game and then no one plays. I want you to make a game. Part of being a game designer is making a game that people play. And so what that means is, and what today's talk is all about is you have to, from the very beginning, from the core of what you're doing,

you have to understand and build in into your game in an organic way. And I would argue from the very root of what you're doing, you have to understand and build in, into your game in an organic way, and I would argue from the very root of what you're doing, you have to build in the hook into your game. You have to understand what it, now, that doesn't mean sometimes it's saying, do I have something including it?

Sometimes just understanding what it is about your game that's the exciting thing. A lot of the hook isn't necessarily adding a hook, it's understanding your hook. It's making sure that your hook gets played up. And that's the exciting thing. Like, a lot of the hook isn't necessarily adding a hook, it's understanding your hook. It's making sure that your hook gets played up. I mean, and that's an important thing. I'm not even saying you need to add a hook, or your game's boring, add a hook.

What I'm saying is, understand what's compelling about your game, and make sure the compelling part of your game is front and center, and something that you can then point to. You know, that you can put on the box. That you could talk about in a little blurb of your app. front and center, and something that you can then point to, you know, that you can put on the box, that you could talk about in a little blurb of your app, that you, when someone's trying to do word of mouth,

they can bring that, you know. When I'm saying have a hook, I'm not saying be gimmicky. I'm not saying after the game is all done, find some way to make it stand out. No, what I'm saying is understand from the beginning when you're starting your game, what about your game is the thing that's going to make people notice and make sure that you are designing your game

and developing your game and building your game maximizing that thing. And that makes sure that what you're... So for example, what I want to do is when you see a game, when someone sees your game, you want them to sit up and take notice. You want them do is, when you see a game, you know, when someone sees your game,

you want them to sit up and take notice. You want them to go, oh, wow. So here's my example, is Matt Amin, the guy who made the oatmeal, made a game called Exploding Kittens. So first thing, the five seconds of that game,

it's a game called Exploding Kittens. And so you're like, what, Exploding Kittens? And so you're like, Exploding Kittens? What? Exploding Kittens? And right away, that's an awesome look. It makes you want

to play more. It makes you want to understand the game. And then the 32nd is, Matt and his, he designed it with a couple other people, but his fellow co-designers

made a cool game that has this nice simple thing, which is, you're going to draw cards, don't draw the exploding kitten. Don't do that. And you have a bunch of tools to stop that from happening, that's how the games

all work, but it's a nice bit compelling. Actually, the 30 second part of the game is, every turn draw a card, you know, if you draw an exploding kitten, you have to defuse it or you lose the game. Don't draw the thing. And you have a bunch of ways to keep from drawing it, but it's a nice simple compelling game. It has a nice 5 second hook, it has an

awesome 30 second hook. Like I said with Magic, Magic is like, okay, it's a trading card game. And people go, what trading card game? And you can just hand them the cards and the 30 seconds to just be looking at the art or looking at just understanding the colors of Magic.

Magic has lots and lots of hooks. Magic is a hook of plenty. But you want to make sure when you're making your game that you build this in. So anyway, I'm arriving at work. So let me just wrap this up by saying each of the... The reason I started...

I obviously did the original speech. I wrote the article, which began the original podcast. The reason I've done this series is that each one of these things, you can go pretty deep. I wanted to explain that it's not like these ten things are all minor things. There are major things that are deep enough

that each one I could do a whole podcast on. And so I've had a great time sort of walking through and saying, hey, you need to have this and this and this and this, and this is why, and this is what it's going to do, and this is how you do it. I mean, today, I ended today on the hook. Like, if you have to understand why the hook is important

and how you have to integrate the hook and what you need to do to make sure your game has a hook, that's what today was about. But what the whole series was about was just giving people the tools that... One of the things way back 20 years ago, before I started working at Wizards, I was an amateur game designer. And what I realized was, there was nothing, there's so little written about game design.

I mean, there's a lot more now than there was back then. And one of the things I always wanted, I said, you know, if I ever, ever become a game designer, I'd like to give back. I want to help people learn how to make games. And so this whole podcast series has been just a want to help people learn how to make games. And so this whole podcast series has been just a tool to help people to sort of say, hey, you interested in making games? It's an awesome thing. It's an awesome thing to do.

And you know what? There's a lot of craftsmanship to game making. There's a lot of art to it, but there's also a lot of things you need to do. Things that need to be there. And that if you're going to be good at something, you have to understand the craft of how it's done. If you want to write a

story, you better understand 3X structure. You want to paint a picture, you need to understand perspective, and I'm not an artist, I don't know all the things you need to know, but there's lots of things you need to know to take art classes to understand how to draw a picture. Game design is the same way, so I hope these ten podcasts have been an introductory.

I mean, there's lots more out there. There's lots of other places to read and other people to listen to. But I hope this has been a chance to sort of, I hope, excite you guys. I mean, I hope you, the people who are listening to this, are saying, you know what? I want to make a game.

This sounds cool. Thank you. These are cool things. I'm going to use these lessons and go make a game. And so I want to end this series by saying, please, the best thanks I have for making this series is that people make awesome games and

be a small inspiration of helping people do that. So anyway, I want to thank everybody for listening for all 10 podcasts. And, um, anyway, I'm in my parking space. So we all know what that means. It means the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic and game design, it's time

for me to make magic and do some game design. See you guys next time.