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Michael Mindes
United States
Tucson
Arizona
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... DUH ...
Games need to be fun. However, fun means different things to different people. What I will present in this blog post, is the method we use at Tasty Minstrel Games to make sure that our games are fun for a certain set of people, namely our fans.
Right now, we use a very basic filter system.
Filter #1 - Seth Jaffee
Seth Jaffee, the man in charge of game discovery, design, and development at Tasty Minstrel Games is the first filter that we have. He has to not only like a game, but also has to have the desire to work on a game to improve it through development effort.
Seth leans toward really liking Euro games with heavy analytical requirements. He is better at game that are more tactical and require optimization of a limited resource of some variety.
Filter #2 - Michael Mindes
Michael Mindes (me), AKA, the man holding the funds. Since every game that is published by Tasty Minstrel Games is funded out of my pocket personally (as 100% owner) I obviously need to like the game. At this point in time, I also want all games to go through our development process, so Seth has to be willing to work on it.
I lean more toward games which have a large number of meaningful decision per unit of time devoted and personally shy away from the heavier analytical games. I don't like playing a spreadsheet, since I am constantly thinking about how to optimize systems for Tasty Minstrel Games. Additionally, a great integrated theme will make a game significantly more enjoyable and fun for me.
I also like war games very much, but I know that such games are unlikely to make it through the Seth filter, and war games is not a niche that TMG is looking to be in either. So, for the purpose of finding TMG games, I have a slightly different filter than what I would personally enjoy myself.
Filter #3 - Other People
Seth operates this system while developing the game by playing with a sizable cross-section of gamers. If these people reject the game, then we will typically shelve a project with a potential to revisit.
We did this to a game that both Seth and I really liked but was getting a mediocre to bad response from the "Other People" filter. So we shelved it after putting in significant development work. This was almost 2 years ago, and the designer has been working on it since, and it sounds like it has greatly improved over that time.
There Are People Like You Out There
Remember, if you like something, then there are at least several thousand people that will also like it. As you develop good discerning taste, then the amount of people that agree with you increases.
If you can get two discerning people with great taste to be a 2-stage filter, then a game is likely to be fun for a much greater number of people. This is a union of sets and not an intersection for you math wizards.
People do not have to agree with both me and Seth on what makes a great game. They just have to agree with either of us.
Conclusion
It is obvious that a hit game with have to be fun to pay. The question of what makes a game fun will be different for many people.
If you have a discerning taste for games (evidenced by a love for games but disliking most that you play), then that will be a good filter. However, if you can add a second person with a discerning taste in a different game types, then you will have a spectacular filter.
Just remember that as you continue to publish more and more games, you should continue to work and improve the system.
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