Video Coverage

David Thomson on Ludometrics, his own game creation process and avoiding creative ‘writer’s block’

December 6, 2012 — by Clelia Rivera

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Video Coverage

David Thomson on Ludometrics, his own game creation process and avoiding creative ‘writer’s block’

December 6, 2012 — by Clelia Rivera


David Thomson has been involved with the Scottish games industry for the past 13 years in a variety of roles, from being the founder of The Game Kitchen to senior positions with Slam and Denki. He has worked the spectrum of game creation aspects on a wide range of platforms and games. As an entrepreneur, game designer, and writer, he is a pioneer of the mobile games industry and is the founder of Ludometrics.


Gamesauce: What is your earliest memory regarding video games?

David: My earliest memory is playing Pac-Man on a wood-finished Atari 2600! I remember being entranced by the colors and sounds (I think I was about 5 or 6) and wondering how on earth they made it. It definitely made me want to make games and see if I could create something that people would reacted to in the same way I did. Pac-Man is still one of my favorite games to play, even now. Namco has done a great job of keeping the game alive and up-to-date for 30 years, and they’ve not been afraid to experiment with it along the way.

What skills have proven useful to you at Ludometrics?

My background is programming, but typically my job is to do everything that lets the programmers and artists with actual talent focus on what they need to do! I seem to have a knack of picking up the basics of new skills pretty quickly, which in a small team is pretty critical. It also means I have a good feel for what a job entails if it gets to the stage where it’s worth hiring for that role.

Can you tell us about creating Ludometrics? Has its vision changed since its creation?

I started Ludometrics after leaving Denki in April 2010. I didn’t necessarily want to jump in to someone else’s company, so I did some consultancy work for a year or so before realizing that I really missed making things. In that sense, the vision (in as much as there was one) has definitely changed from when I started.

More recently, Casual Connect Seattle has reinforced my thinking on what the exact strategy should be for the company, and you’ll hopefully start to see some of the results of that in the coming months.

What is your favorite game? What traits appeal to you in the game?

As mentioned previously, I’d have to say Pac-Man, possibly because it’s been so influential. What appeals to me is that it’s a very simple game to play and get into, but there’s an underlying depth to it in terms of strategy and dealing with the ghosts. It shows how combinations of simple rules can combine to create great moments. It’s also perfect for short play sessions, which is pretty much all I have time for these days! I imagine I’ll be playing it for another 30 years.

“It shows how combinations of simple rules can combine to create great moments.”

What effects do you feel games have on society? What are the benefits of a good game?

The best games, like the best books, films, albums, whatever, all feel like time well spent. I never get the feeling I’m wasting my time by playing something like Super Mario 3D Land or Triple Town. There’s been a lot of research on “brain-training” games, but I suspect any well-crafted game experience has the same effect on keeping your mind and reactions sharp, whether it’s by design or not.

We’re at the point where people who grew up with games being a form of entertainment form a huge market. The danger is that we just keep feeding people the same games over and over, and we end up boring our audience. We need to figure out how to tell new stories as well as tell old stories in new ways, just like every other medium.

Can you tell us about your process of creation? What is your inspiration?




My time working with Denki was hugely influential in how I try to work now – those guys have great processes and frameworks that help make sure you build quality games efficiently. Working there helped formalize what I’d previously done by instinct—for example, having a useful design vocabulary.

In terms of inspiration, that can come from anywhere – TV, film, books, toys, or other games. As my talk at Casual Connect suggested (“Selfish Creativity”), sometimes it’s as simple as playing a game I enjoy but really wish it had some other aspect – that provides a starting point to make the game I want to play. My assumption at that point is that my tastes are not so unique that other people won’t also want to play that game too.

When you encounter a creative block, what strategies do you employ to get past it?

There are a couple of things I’ve found have worked for me in the past. One is to walk away and do something else. Normally not making a game, but doing something mundane such as admin work. That seems to let the brain figure things out in the background, so suddenly an idea will strike when least expected.

The other strategy is to just do something, anything, to keep things moving. Doing that allows you to not dwell on being ‘stuck’, and of course as soon as something is in there, you normally see ways to improve it quite quickly.

How can a developer use analytical data to benefit a game?




Metrics are no substitute for product vision.

Data helps because players often don’t mean what they say, so it helps you interpret feedback by comparing what people ask for versus what they actually do. It can also help in terms of giving players more of what they like. A few years ago, I heard a story from The Sims team that said the items people bought in game more than anything else were doors and windows, which they never would have guessed in advance. So they did an expansion pack that was full of new windows and doors that sold millions. However, it’s also important to realize that data doesn’t become the only thing you use to create your game – it’s just one of many tools. Metrics are no substitute for product vision.

What is a common mistake developers make when creating a new game?

The most common thing I see, especially with new teams, is not finding the fun early on. They’re too keen to make it look pretty, but that normally just acts as a distraction. It helps that I can’t draw terribly well, so any prototypes I make are made using colored blocks or bits stolen from other games, especially board or card games. But that really helps, because the assumption is that the team can make anything look good, but what’s the point if the underlying game isn’t actually fun?

The other thing, as mentioned above, is that you need a clear vision of what you’re trying to create. The exact route you take to get there can alter, but having a strong idea of what your game is and isn’t is really important to creating something good.




What new ideas can we look forward to from Ludometrics?




We’re working to finish up our first time-management game in conjunction with Big Fish Games, and then we’re just starting on a pretty exciting new project that unfortunately I can’t talk about yet! That will need to be another article, I’m afraid. One thing I would say is that I don’t see us as being limited to any one platform or technology – it’s about picking the right platform to find the right audience for the right game.

 

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