Being a gamer means always being busy. Games have constantly occupied my mind since I can recall. During school, I would sit in class thinking about Guybrush Threepwood, or figuring out a puzzle from Betrayal at Krondor. Time oozed by as I waited for the bell to reunite me and my characters so we could keep adventuring. Two decades later, nothing has changed. My marriage has survived WOW expansions, FIFA tournaments, and as of late, the release of Diablo 3. My amazing wife has never scolded me for it. “It makes you happy” she says. I am blessed. And I probably have some sort of disorder, but still she is right: I am happy.
When we started making games, I feared I might have made a mistake making my life’s passion my job. I tried not to delude myself into thinking that liking games and making games were the same thing. They are very different.
Before my first day on the job, I sat down for a while and tried to find the one game that had the greatest impact on me. The one that would flash before my eyes as I died in my hotel room during my 79th Blizzcon. It was, to my surprise, Might and Magic III. I admit it surprised me, because off the top of my head I would have said any of the old Lucas Arts or Sierra Games, Mario 64 or even Starcraft. But no game made me feel as nostalgic as Might and Magic. I wish I could go back to those months when I played it over and over. I was having so much fun I carried those white 3 1/2 disks around with me, and installed them everywhere. I didn’t care if I had different progress in the school’s computers. I wanted to play the game over and over again. The reason for all that reminiscing was to find something to aim for. Not in the type of game per se. But in the feeling the game gave me when I played it. I wanted to give players that experience. I wanted people to know that a certain game could make your day extra special. And that hopefully 10 years down the road, they would recall that feeling and would wish they could relieve it. So yeah, it was very ambitious. Probably impossible. But it kept me focused. Nostalgia driven design, memorable experiences, fun first. Whatever you wanna call it. It was our compass while we screwed things up, remade and learnt over and over again.
Once you play your own game for the 1000th time, a lot of things will be impossible to determine. So you must base decisions with a certain direction in mind. “Will this make me remember this game?” It is a question that I started asking myself repeatedly as we looked at new features. Will it deliver that feeling?
So when my partners ask me if I think the game is fun, I tell them I can no longer answer that question. Later, I ask the Might and Magic obsessed kid, and he answers: I would play it. For now, that is enough for me.