Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #375 - 20 Lessons: Details Matter

Episode Date: October 14, 2016

Mark's eighth podcast in a series of 20 from GDC.

I'm pulling out of the parking lot. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. And I took my daughter to her last day at camp as a counselor. For me, summer's ending. I know for you guys it already ended. But ah, the time difference between recording and hearing it. Okay, so today is another in my 20 years, 20 lessons podcast series.

So we're up to lesson number eight. So today's lesson is the details are where the player falls in love with the game. So we're going to talk all about that and why details are so important. Okay so first I always give an example of what I did in my talk. So for this story I go back to original Ravnica. So in Ravnica, we made a card called Totally Lost, which was a nothing card. I mean, it's a decent card in limited. It's not even a constructed card. But on it, we drew a picture of a little homunculus named Fibblefip. And he was lost.

He was totally lost. and he was lost. He was totally lost. And that little lost homunculus went on to near people in their hearts and people started taking it and started making images with it. This is one of the things in my talk show, I had lots and lots of images,

so I'll walk you through, but this was, there's so many fun pictures of him, it's hard to see. But what happened was, people really embraced Fibblefip. And you started, they started making memes with him, and they started hiding him in other art. And they started just having fun with him, and making comics with him, and greeting cards with him, and all sorts of things.

Just all over the web. Just magic players really just became enamored of him. They had a walk in the plains, had a whole shtick where the comedy was with Fiblethep, and we ended up making a Fiblethep plushie, and then we ended up making a phone case, and I think a keychain. But the idea was, it was this little tiny thing that was almost a throwaway.

It was just like, oh, we need a card that's totally lost. So who's lost? Well, it was Little Homunculus is lost. And when they made the flavor text, they go, we're going to name Little Homunculus. We're going to name him Fiblethip. And Fiblethip, by the way, is F-B-L-T-H-P. There's no vowels. Apparently, Homunculus don't put vowels in their names. But the interesting thing is, we really just did it as this kind of entertaining thing that just made sense in the moment. It was a cute card and everything about it was trying to make an awesome moment. But we weren't, the idea wasn't that we were doing something grandiose. It wasn't if you had said to the person who was writing the card concept for that card or writing the

flavor text and you said to them, one day there's going to be a plushie, there's going to be keychains and all sorts of stuff, no one would have, you know, that wasn't something people did going in. But one of the reasons I said that's important is that the following idea, which is when you are making your game, remember, the last time I was talking about how players are searching for their choices. They want to find things. They're making choices,

but as they're making choices, they're looking for things to bond with. That players want to find an emotional connection. I talked about that in the previous lesson of how you want to make an emotional connection. Okay, once they're emotionally connected, the next step is players are like, okay, I now want to find a way to make this part of me.

To find a way to create expression in which this game is personal. And it's something people do all the time. For example, if you think about TV shows or movies or any kind of pop culture, it's very common for people to sort of find the character that they care about. You know, there's just some character. And one of the things that just human nature is to try to find some aspect that you appreciate that not everybody appreciates, that you appreciate, that personifies it, that makes it something that's more personal for you. And a lot of times what will happen is, like, people will latch on to very tiny things in movies or TV.

You know, minor characters. Because everybody likes the main character. Oh, but I like this little smaller character. And that one of the things that just, like I said, it's pure human nature, is that you want to sort of take an experience and do something about it so the experience becomes more uniquely your experience. The players want to find a piece of it to call their own because in order to really fall in love with something and really become endeared to it, you have to find a way to

sort of make a connection with it, to make a real strong bond with it. You know, like one of the things, for example, about like a first date, when you go on a first date is, you know, there's this moment where the other person will say something and you find some connection of some trivial thing. But the fact that you both have this interesting connection, that's not an obvious connection, it's not something a lot of people do, but the two of you both do, that is kind of unique. Not a lot of people do this, but you two do that. It's a very interesting moment. It's a very bonding moment. And that, you know,

magic gives you a lot of choices. One thing about magic, and magic does well, is we're a collectible game. We give you lots and lots of options and choices on how to do that. You know, you can bond over cards. You can bond over characters. You can bond over creature types. You can bond over images. Like, likewise, for example, in Concepts Archer,

we did a card called Savage Punch, which shows Surik, one of the clan leaders, punching a bear. And, oh my goodness, that image, just like it, once again, it's something people made memes out of and people really connected to and like, just bear punching, who punches a bear? It was just kind of this cool moment. And that one of the things is people, when they play magic, are looking for different things. It can be the art, it can be a name, it can be flavor text, it can be mechanics. There's all sorts of things you can look for. And magic has lots and lots of things to look for. It actually does this really, really well. But the key is,

and this is what today's lesson is all about, is why those details are so important. Okay? Because the key to the details is that you don't know when or where players are going to bond with something. What you want to do as a creator is create those opportunities. And what that means is that you really want to... nothing is too insignificant. That there's nothing in this... there's nothing that you can do because people are going to pour over whatever you make and they're going to spend a lot of time and energy looking for things and trying to bond over things. And so, one of the, I mean, the major lesson here is

there is no such thing as an insignificant detail. And I know a lot of people say, like, well, that's just a minor thing. Who cares about it? But that small detail, you know, it might only matter to a tiny percentage of the player base. It might not matter to everybody. But to the people it matters to,

it could matter a lot. In fact, it could be the thing they bond over. Like, one of the things I talk all about in this whole series is, someone plays a game, and then you make a decision all the time of, think of it this way, every time you finish a game, you're like,

am I going to play this game again? Now, the more you play the game, the easier that barrier is. You know, the first time you play, there's a huge barrier to playing the second time. Ah, but the 84th time you play, there's not a giant barrier to the 85th time. And obviously, the more you play, the more habit-forming it becomes, you know. So the more someone plays the game, the more likely they're going to play it again. But a lot of the what takes a game from being a maybe to a definite is this personal connection. I talked

about this in the previous lesson. I will talk about it now. That as a game designer, something you have to think about, and like I said, a lot of what I'm trying to say is just explain human nature. To me, a lot of good game design is understanding how humans function and making sure that in your game design, you are playing into human behavior, not fighting human behavior.

Because fighting behavior, that was my very first lesson. Fighting human behavior does not get you very far. Humans are very stubborn, very, very stubborn in the way they function. Okay, so the big lesson here is that you want people to bond. You want people to sort of make a personal connection. Okay, you don't know exactly how or where they'll bond. In fact, one of the things that's interesting is players will bond over lots of different things in a lot of different ways.

So what you want to do is you want to make sure there's just lots of options, just lots of nooks and crannies for people to fall in love, people to sort of make their own. So what that means is, and it's kind of the point of today is, details are more important than I think people realize. Because it's very easy to go, well, that's just a tiny, a tiny, whatever. Who's even going to notice blah? And the answer is, it's not that everybody's going to notice blah,

but somebody's going to notice it. And it's in those moments. Like, one of the things that's funny is, when you think about TV shows or movies or things that you have really bonded with, you almost remember back. There's just something that happens that really spoke to you. Like, a lot of times, for example,

I find that it's just like a little kind of tiny joke or something that just, it's something, something I always appreciate something where I'm like, oh, this wasn't necessarily meant for everybody. It was meant for some people, but it was meant for me. That joke was meant for me. And so when I'm making a magic card, you know, I want to make sure for example, like one of the things I think about is not every card's for every player, but every card is for some player. And I want to make sure that whoever that card is

for, that I'm maximizing this card being for that person. That I want that person to fall in love with this card. And the same is true for the art, same is true for the names, for the flamethrowers. Every component is true. All this is true. I'm going to talk mechanics for a second because that's what I do. So you really want to think about the nuance of how something plays and how something can work.

And one of the things that we spend a lot of time on, so look, we have a database where we can make comments about things. One of the things that we do quite a bit is we will spend lots of energy on very minor, tiny details. On very tiny details. And why? Because the details matter. I know, I mean, sort of the point of today's lesson is understanding why you have to spend so much work on your details. Why the details matter so much. And the answer really boils down to the idea that somebody's going to look at everything.

There's nothing you're going to do. There's no component or piece to what you're doing that is insignificant because no one's going to look at it. Everyone's going to look at it. I'm sorry, somebody's going to look at it. Not everybody. Not everybody will look at everything, but somebody will look at everything. And so one of the things they want to keep in mind is when I'm thinking about something, I want to go, I mean, you start macro and then you go micro. And what you want to think about is, okay, how is this card going to be played? How is someone going to put their, how are they going to

build a deck around it? What are they doing with it? You know what I'm saying? The big question is, I have to think about the whole experience. I can just think about um i mean that's one of the big things about trying to sort of do design and this is why playtesting is so important this is why having teams to bounce ideas off is so important is what you want to do is you want to make sure that you've thought through everything and that um i think i think sometimes people feel like well as long as they get the major things right the minor things are less important the major things are the important thing um and kind of kind of the issue is that the major things do matter i'm not saying to spend time the major things but don't underestimate the importance of the tiny

things because the tiny things like one of the things that's very interesting is everybody who works on magic, not everybody works on every part of the game. You know, I, for example, I'm on the design team. So I care a great deal about what goes in the rules text. I care about the mana cost. I care about the mana cost. I care about the card type and the subtype. I care about power and toughness.

I care about all the elements that are mechanically relevant. Now, I do care about the other things. I do want the overall feel of the card to be right. I do want the concept of the card to be right. Those are the things I do think about and I will add to. Not my job to finalize them, but something I think about. And that one of the things

that is pressing is making sure that at each time, as I'm examining each thing, like one of the things that's very neat is there is no point of a magic card that somebody doesn't think really, really hard about is this the best choice for that thing?

You know, that I'm going to spend a lot of time agonizing over exactly how a mechanic works. And somebody else is going to agonize over the numbers. And somebody else is going to agonize over, is this the right creature type? And someone else is going to agonize over the card concept. Someone else is going to agonize over the art. Like, where do we crop the art? What's the right thing?

And the artist is going to, you know, each piece is being done by artists, and they're going to spend all their energy trying to make that the best piece of art possible. You know? And that one of the things that really, really sort of, I think, comes together is, and magic has the luxury of time.

Because we are a big brand, and we make a lot of money, one of the things that gets us is time, that we have the luxury of time, meaning that a card isn't just made and done with in two days. It goes through months and months. Many hands get on it. And another thing that happens is we will have arguments

about the smallest of minutia. I have, like, for example minutia. I am like, like for example, I think I've told this story, but it's a good example where I used to write flavor texts and I did a piece of flavor text in Mirage on Dwarven Minor.

And I had a big fight with the editor about, she wanted to change one word. One word. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. It breaks the flow of the rhythm of the line. And I went toe-to-toe on that word's the right word.

We'll have major arguments about what exactly is the right creature type. Is it the right creature type? Does it also want this creature type over this? And when we're doing mechanics sometimes, like trinket text is what we call something that's on a card that doesn't mechanically come up too much but it adds kind of some flavor value to it um and we spend a lot of time on trinket tech trying to like is this the right trinket text does it feel you know can we make something that every once in a while will matter when it

matters it's flavorful um there's a lot of stuff like that we spend time on and the end result of that, the reason that is so important, the reason that, I mean a lot of what I'm saying today is sort of a lesson of today is that you can't, if you want to put out a game and you want your game to be successful, that it goes beyond just the general premise. I know it's very easy to go, well, if the general idea is fun and the broad strokes are good, then we're good. And the answer is no, you're not. And the reason is those broad strokes

will get people to sample. So here's the way I like to think of your game, which is let me walk through the stages of player bonding. Okay, so number one is first exposure, first impression. Oh, I see this, I hear or see this game for the first time. I have the first impression of the game. Now for that, I need to go, oh, that sounds interesting. I need enough, something about it. You know, I talked about the hook when I did the 10 things every game needs, hook helplessness. I just need something about the game that says,

oh, now maybe it's just, it's a good game and there's good word of mouth about it. Maybe it's got a good premise. Maybe it's using some IP that people love, but something about it, the first impression, okay? So I hear about it, I go, oh, I'm interested in trying this. That's the first thing. Next is the first, is interacting with the game

for the first time, not hearing about it, but actually starting to play it. What I call sort of the initial learning period. Like, okay, and the initial learning period comes in one of two ways. Either it's self-taught, like I'm reading instructions, or it is taught by someone else. Someone walks you through it. The third example is a computer could walk you through it if the game is a computer game.

But either you're teaching yourself or someone's walking you through it. The third example is a computer could walk you through it if the game is a computer game. But either you're teaching yourself or someone's walking you through it. A human walking you through it and a computer walking you through it, a little bit different in how it interacts with you, but similar in that someone's teaching you. Okay, so first impression, then you have the learning of the game. I'm learning how it works.

First impression is fast. First impression is like, I got a few seconds. Does that sound interesting? When I'm learning a game, I am allowed to... What I like to say is, I need to make sure that the person gets the basic concept in a few minutes. They don't have to get all the

details, but like, okay, roughly what is this game about? You need to be able to sum up the game in a couple minutes. Once again, that's not all the rules. It's just like, eh, roughly what is this game about? You need to be able to sum up the game in a couple minutes. And once again, that's not all the rules. It's just like, eh, what's the basic premise? What am I trying to do? And then, depending on the kind of game, like, the more casual the game player,

the less amount of time you have to teach. The more in franchise, the more like hardcore the game player, the more time you have to teach them. So if someone's like, well, I don't really play games, well, you better be simple for them. You better get them to understand quickly. If it's kind of like, oh, it's a gamer's game, okay, they'll spend some time trying to learn it,

and that's okay. But the idea is, there's a point where you're learning the game, and it's not that you're getting every aspect of the game, but I'm getting the essentials so that I know enough to start playing. Next is the first play, the first time you play the game. And that's like, okay, I'm now, I'm experiencing, I'm actually in the middle of playing the game.

And then, the final thing is the coming back to the game after playing a second time. And at some level, every time you play it, there is an exit point. Although at some level, every time you play it, there is an exit point. Although, once again, like I said, the more times you play

it, that exit point decreases. It doesn't go away, but it decreases. So one of the things to keep in mind is different parts of your game are covering different aspects. So when I talk about your initial pitch,

okay, that's your hook. That's your premise. That's something you have to have an essence to your game that's going to hook people. That's not what I'm talking about today. Number two is the learning of the game. And that has to do with your rules and has to do with sort of making sure it's clear

what you're doing, that there's resonance. And, you know, that's other stuff I'm talking about. Next is the first playing of the game. Now we start getting to the area where the details matter. Because the idea is, at each of these points

you can check out. I hear about the premise of the game, and I go, eh, not for me. I sit down to learn the game, and I go, eh, not for me. I play the game, and I go, eh, not for me. I sit down to learn the game, I go, eh, not for me. I play the game, I go, eh, not for me. I play the game other times, and I go, eh, not for me. Any point I can duck out. So where the details start to matter is, the idea is, notice that each time there's more investment. That when I'm hearing the premise, not a lot of, yes, I'm interested, no, I'm not. If I say, yes, I'm interested, that means, well, hearing the premise, not a lot of, it's a yes, I'm interested, no, I'm not. If I say yes, I'm interested,

that means, well, down the road, I might pursue it. But I'm just sort of showing interest or not. Takes very little time, not too much commitment. Next commitment is like, I got to learn a game.

And at that point, I'm like, okay, I now get the essence of the game. Do I want to play? If I want to play, I got to stick around for the game and the game might be X amount of time.

So there's some investment there. So once again, now you're spending minutes on it and figuring out whether it's worth spending more time. Next, you play the game. Now, that game varies. It could be five minutes, it could be ten minutes, it could be an hour, depending on the game. And then it's sort of like, oh, do I want to come back to that? I've seen this. So one of the things that happens is,

we're talking about the bonding. The bonding is not going to happen, I mean, the premise might, there's a little bonding that happens in the first part, which is, hey, it's an IP I like, or hey, it's the kind of game I like, or hey, the buzz is so strong I'm interested. There's a little bit there. And learning the rules is a little bit, maybe there's something innovative about the rules, or ooh, that sounds kind of cool. You can do some things that can bond people there. But really where you're bonding people is when they actually play the game.

That's when they think. Cards are in their hands, or whatever. The pieces are in their hands, and they're actually playing the game. They're interacting with the game. It's no longer about the game. It's the game. And that's where details become really important.

Now the key is, and this is what's important, people don't need to bond over lots of details. People, if you get one detail in the first time playing the game, if you get one detail that speaks to somebody, you go, oh, wow, that's all you need. That one detail will make them play again. That is how crucial having a bonding detail is. That all it takes for someone when they play their first game is just have something that speaks to them that usually, and not always

I guess, but usually is enough to make them go to the second game. Now, my point is, it's not, what I'm asking is not easy. Having someone bond with the game is not something that necessarily happens. And not all players bond with the game the first time through. But here's the point of today is, once you get them to bond,

so I talk about stickiness of the game. What stickiness means is how much the game makes you want to stick with the game. How much does it go, oh, that's interesting, I want to know more. And the stickiest games are the games in which you just look at it and go, oh, that's interesting, I want to know more. And the stickiest games are the games in which, you know, you just look at it and go, oh, that's interesting. Like, Magic's a very sticky game. Here's why. The premise of the game is pretty cool. You have cards, and you're a magic user, and you're having a magical duel, and the cards are creatures and artifacts.

Okay, the premise sounds cool. Like, oh, I'm interested. Then, when you actually get people to learn, the first thing you get to do is you can get up with cards in their hands. They're like, ooh, this is pretty, and there's pictures, and there's flavor, and that really pulls you in.

And then, when you actually play the game, the gameplay is really solid. It's fun gameplay. When you're like, oh, I hit you with a lightning bolt, and oh, you lost three, or, okay, I'm using an old example, but whatever, I hit you with direct damage, and you lose something.

That is very compelling. Or I can't have a creature, attack with a creature. It grabs you very quickly. And the idea is that what you want to do is you want to make your game sticky. And what sticky means is that you get people to, it has a lot of components that make people want to see the next component. That they go, oh, this is interesting, I want to want to learn more now bonding is a step beyond stickiness stickiness is just

i like that detail hmm i'm interested show me the next detail um bonding is oh i emotionally connect with that component something about that component and me, I go, ooh, there's something there. And how people emotionally bond, what they emotionally bond, huge variance. My point today is, it is that bond that like, once you have a bond with the game, that really pulls you in. And once you have multiple bonds with the game, you're hooked. You're there. In fact, one bond can hook you, but multiple bonds will keep you really hooked. And that one of the things that you want to do when you're making your game is you want to create opportunities to really pull people in, to get that bonding.

Really what you want to do is make lots of bonding. The more bonding you have, the more connection, the closer and closer the person will feel to the game. The more bonding you have, the more connection, the closer and closer the person will feel to the game. And remember that the key is that you want people to think of your games not in terms of the game, but in terms of themselves. That is important. For example, I use magic as my go-to example. Somebody could think, wow, that magic, that's an awesome game.

That's a fun game. That's good. Someone else could think, wow, magic, the color blue, that's me. Now, the first one, I do think the person's going to play the game. I do think there's a lot of hope for Reapit playing. But the second person, they're connected in a more emotional way. That they see themselves. And that people inherently, and it's not a bad way, it's just how humans function. That you see the world through your eyes.

You experience the world through your experiences. And that the world, I mean, there is an objective world, but people's perspective of it is how they see it. And so when people are coming to a game, it's that perspective. It's when there's this emotional tie to it, when it means something emotionally to them, when the game takes on a meaning beyond being a game. Like a game is a game. A game you could take, a game you could leave. But an experience, a thing that's part of you. Like, one of the things that's very interesting is that there's a difference between

someone who plays Magic the Gathering and a Magic the Gathering player. Like, I'm a gamer. I play games. I'm a Magic the Gathering player. You know, that myself identify, like if you really can get your game to click in, people identify as someone, part of their identity

is your game. Your game is part of their identity. When you get there, you're golden, right? When they identify because part of your game is such a rich experience that they sort of identify through it, that is, that's the best the game can be.

That's the best the game can do. And so the idea is when you're crafting your game, you need to maximize the ability for your player to be able to have that emotional bonding through your game. And really the way that is done is making a lot, it's through a lot of small choices. The big choices can help. I'm not actually saying the big choices can't help.

But where the small choices matter more in some way. I mean, big choices do matter. The big choices pull them in. Magical duel is pretty cool. That's a big thing. But the thing that really sort of makes the long-term cement bondings is the players going in your game and finding things that speak to them.

Now, it doesn't have to be the details. It's not that you can't bond through other things. You can, but the details are where you personify it and make it uniquely your own. I mean, a lot of people can bond through certain aspects, and that's fine, and I do believe people bond through the color wheel. I do believe people bond through some of the game itself. But I think that one of the things that sort of speaks to people is that they find a little niche.

They find something that's really theirs. And with Magic, you will see that in that one of the things that people do is they figure out what is their part of the game, what's their take on the game. Is it there's a certain kind of thing they like, there's a subset of cards they enjoy, they play a certain color, you know, they love elves, they love black, they love a certain archetype, a certain style of play. You know, there's something about it that they can, you know, they like a certain archetype, a certain style of play. There's something about it that they can, they like a certain format.

They like a certain way to play. They like, you know, they look at the game and they figure out, okay, how do I identify myself within the game? And that is where, that's where we really start connecting. And so the key is that the reason those details are so crucial is once somebody picks something. For example, let's say someone says, okay, I love elves. Elves are awesome.

What that means is all the details about elves are going to be crucial to their bonding. Not everybody cares about elves. There's some people that could, whatever, leave elves, take elves, whatever. They don't care. But somebody else, oh, elves is the thing. Angels is the thing. Dragons is the thing. Goblins is the thing.

Maybe it's a particular artist. Maybe they like a certain artist. Maybe they like a certain set. Maybe they like a certain mechanic. But there's something that sort of, there's that connection to. And then they start to go, oh, this is me.

This is what I am. I've seen that with cards. I've seen that with characters, that there's just some going, hey, here's who I am. Here's how I relate to this game. And what that means is that all those little details, all the time that we sweat and port over over somebody is going to soak that up and really enjoy it um and for example like one of the things is we will make little tiny choices and then i i have a lot of people writing into me obviously with my blog and stuff and my email and one of the things i get all the time that's very um feels good is someone saying this little thing you did, oh, I love that thing. And I get that a lot. I get, you, and it's funny, sometimes a little thing,

it's most people like the same little thing. Sometimes it's a unique thing. Like I joke a lot that sometimes I'll get people writing in and like, you know, dear Mauro, do you know it has been six years since you made a goat? Could you please make another goat? Goats are why magic is awesome. And to that person, they've just found something they can identify with. And so, I'm almost to work. Really what I'm trying to hammer home today is that

it is very easy to look at your game and say, I'm doing 8,000 things. This one tiny thing, whatever, whatever. I can just let that go. I don't have to spend a lot of time on it. And what I'm saying is, no, you do. You do. What makes the games that really the successes work is they sweat into the details. The details matter.

That somebody put time and energy going, okay, okay. What if this thing was the thing that made the, okay, what if this thing was the thing that made the person, like, what if this is the thing that matters? And that's my point today. Every little detail will matter with somebody. Somebody's going to bond over that detail. So you have to pay attention. You have to put in the time and energy to sweat the small stuff. You have to figure out, don't just assume it doesn't matter because it's small. Don't, you know, there is no thing that's truly insignificant in your game.

Everything matters. You have to think about it. How does it play? How does it look? How does it feel? How does it sound? All of that matters. And that one of the reasons I really think

that Magic has been very successful is we sweat the details. We, you you know there is deep background and all the characters and all the the worlds and environments and mechanically there's all these synergies we build in you know and that we do a lot of work so that you can have a lot of fun exploring and and discovering things and everything... One thing that's interesting is, and this is from the mechanical side, it's not that I know every interaction, but what I do is I maximize things

so that they can create a lot of interesting interactions. It's not that I know you're going to take this card I just printed and put it with a card made 15 years ago. I don't go through every single card we've ever made. But what I do do is I make cards going, oh, well, this card will go well with this kind of card. And Magic has this kind of card. So people can go through all of them and find the ones they enjoy most. But it is, it is, it is sweating the small stuff that, that pays dividends because when somebody comes across something

and the thing that's funny is there's a sense that when you look at something that's tiny, you're like, well, no one else noticed this detail. I'm the one that looked at this detail. Nobody else did. And when they recognize that you, the game maker, also cared about the detail, that's the same as the first date. The first date moment where you're sitting across the table from your blind date know your blind date or first date or whatever and you're like i like thing x and they go i like thing x and thing x is not a popular thing thing x is something that's

kind of obscure there's this there's this bonding moment and there's the same thing when you're in the game and you're a player and you're caring about this tiny moment and it's like oh they also cared about this tiny moment that's a real connect oh, they also cared about this tiny moment. That's a real connective tissue. That is like, oh, this game and I, ooh, maybe there's a future in it. And that quality is very important. And so I can't stress enough that...

I keep saying that a lot today. I can't stress enough. And I will stress it. Apparently I can't stress enough because I keep saying I can't stress enough, and I will stress it. Apparently, I can't stress enough because I keep saying I can't stress enough. I really, if there's any takeaway from today, of today's lesson, is once you're done with your game and you think you've done everything you can do, I say go back and look not at the big picture stuff.

I mean, you need to spend a lot of time on the big picture stuff, but you need to do probably several passes where all you do is look at the small stuff. All you do is look at the little tiny details. Like one of the things, for example, that I will do when I write my articles every week is I will write the articles and then I make sure when I go back through, when I'm rereading, that I'm paying attention to the small things. You know, that I'm looking at the little tiny nuance of things because the turn of phrase or a particular little throwaway joke,

once again, that's the kind of thing that will bond people. When I name my headers, for example, I often will name my headers jokes that, I don't expect everybody to get the joke. It's not super important that you get every joke of every header I make. Not a big deal. But it's important that you get some of them. And when you get them, they should mean something.

So, like, one of the things I do all the time is I love to quote movies. And it's like, hey, maybe you don't know that movie. But if you do, you know, people always write in, oh, is that, was that Buckaroo Banzai? Was that whatever I quoted? You know, is that the thing? And then the person who connects to it goes, ooh, I really like

that thing. And that little detail, like, that little, what you could think of as being a throwaway detail, that thing that, how could that possibly matter, that one little header, all of a sudden I made a connection with somebody. All of a sudden, that person got to go, ooh, I too love this thing. The fact that, you know, Maro and I both like this thing, oh, wow, that is a bonding moment. And once again, I could spend less time and energy on that.

I could just name my header from my column and just not care about the finer details of it. But I do. And that pays dividends. And so every part of your game, once you finish your game, go back through your game multiple times, not once, and pick one tiny aspect and look at that aspect. And then say to yourself, have I maximized this aspect? Is this aspect as good as it can be? Let's assume somebody's looking at this. Have I made this as cool as it can be? And even though everybody won't

look at everything, somebody will look. I don't mean the one person will look at everything. I mean everything will be looked at by somebody. And when you can bond with people, when you can find a way in those small details to make that connection, to have that, ooh, me too moment, that is really, really powerful. And my argument today is it is those tiny moments, those tiny bonding emotional moments that are what make people fall in love with your game. That is where people sort of get pulled in emotionally and get connected.

And when I talk today about all the things of moving from one to the next, it's that emotional connection that makes someone go, well, that's interesting, I'm going to try that. Ooh, okay, these rules are interesting, I'm going to play that. Ooh, this game was fun, I'm going to play that again. This game was fun again. I'm going to keep playing it. I'm going to make this part of an identity

of who I am. I'm not, this is not just a game. It is part of my identity. That is the goal you want to get to. That is the goal you, that if your game goes beyond just being a game and becomes an extension of the person, then you have a player for life.

Or at least for a long, long time. And that, my friends, is why details are so important. So remember, the details are where the player

fall in love with your game. Okay, guys, thank you very much. I'm now in my parking space. We all know what that means. It means it's the end of my drive to work. In my parking space,

we all know what that means. It means it's the end of my drive to work. Instead of making magic, it's time for me... I'm sorry. I already messed up my ending today. Instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. This podcast went so well.

That's the hardest part, by the way, is when I do... If I mess up when I pull out of the driveway, I can just redo it. But when I mess up at the end of a really good podcast... Today's was really good. I enjoyed it. I just have to mess it up. So I apologize. But anyway, it's time for me to stop talking magic and start making magic. I'll see you guys next time. I enjoyed it. I just have to, like, mess it up. So, I apologize. But anyway,

it's time for me to stop talking magic and start making magic. I'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.