Chris Crawford on Game Design

People, Not Things!

This realization dawned upon me while at Atari Research. The narrowness of the range of games exercised me; it didn't take much deep thinking to comprehend that the underlying problem was the absence of human factors. That realization has informed all of my subsequent game designs. Its role is obvious in such designs as Siboot, but it played a role in every game I designed. For example, I believe that the real emotional kick in Balance of Power came from the feeling during the crisis that you were confronting a real person with a puzzling but consistent psychology. You were sure that, if only you could get underneath his skin, you'd have the upper hand and win every game. Yes, all those economic and military factors played ...