Games, Design and Play: A Detailed Approach to Iterative Game Design

Chapter 13. Moving from Design to Production

The first time through the iterative game design cycle isn’t the end of the game design process—it is just the beginning. How many times a game needs to move through the process differs from game to game and team to team. And knowing when the design phase is finished is not always easy to determine. In this chapter we look at some of the diverse ways game designers move through the iterative process and think about the ways to tell when the design is complete.

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”¹

1 From Beckett’s novel, Worstward Ho, 1983.

These words of wisdom from Samuel Beckett sum up the most important lesson iteration teaches us—creativity is more about failure ...