Our Best Game Design Advice with Peter C. Hayward

June 8, 2022·1 hr 11 min·5 clips

Peter Hayward says unguided playtesting is the most miserable part of game design, but it changes your game every single time.

Taste comes first. The advice is direct and pretty reassuring: a designer may know what good games feel like before their own prototypes can get there. That mismatch can be frustrating. The guest compares it to loving museum art while only being able to draw a stick figure. Time helps, but only if there is a process. The work is getting rough ideas closer to the games you already admire. Play more games. Play the ones that sound like your thing, sure, but also the ones you would normally skip. Try mechanisms you think are not for you. A category can look different once you hit a strong example instead of leaning on childhood memories or weaker versions. Take-that games are the example here. The guest says a good one can be fun, even if bad ones made the whole style feel like a hard pass. The barriers are lower now, too. Board Game Arena, Tabletop Simulator, and free print-and-plays make it easier to sample widely without buying every box. Jelly bean games gets a specific mention: the games can be printed for free from the website and are also on Tabletop Simulator. The lesson stays useful. Feed your taste, test your assumptions, and give your craft enough reps to catch up with your judgment. After a quick joke about a British phrase, the host thanks Peter, points listeners toward the Kickstarter campaign, and closes by nudging everyone back to designing, playtesting, and creating.

As heard by us

A calm, useful talk about turning game taste into a repeatable design process.

Peter C. Hayward and Gabe Barrett spend the conversation on a simple idea with a lot of practical weight: taste comes first, and design skill grows later through repetition. The point lands because it does not pretend good design arrives all at once.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you need a nudge to turn game taste into usable design habits.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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