Tynan Sylvester - Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences

In this episode we read Rimworld creator Tynan Sylvester's design textbook. 00:00 intro OVERVIEW 01:34 situating the book in our collection 07:55 signposting cultural politics 10:30 book's structure & approach PHILOSOPHY & PSYCHOLOGY 17:33 engines of experience 20:30 events and anticipation 23:09 emotion and human values 27:50 an interesting take on "flow" INTERESTING AREAS/CHAPTERS 30:30 challenge & mastery 34:12 flexible meanings of "narrative" 40:34 decisions types & intensities 47:05 strategy design & balance 50:18 predicting your opponent ("yomi") 55:38 game theory & griefing 01:01:40 some other chapters/topics PRODUCTION / PROCESSES 01:03:20 the market and the specificity of game appeal 01:02:45 processes and planning 01:07:40 knowledge, research, and evaluating ideas 01:09:00 the dependency stack 01:13:00 collaboration, sensitivity and the Rimworld controversy 01:31:05 what we're reading next time The theme song was produced by show host Joe Baxter-Webb. The Ludonarrative Dissonance jingle was "Carvings" by Blood of Geruda, licensed from Epidemic Sound. RELATED TOPICS: Misattribution of Arousal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misattribution_of_arousal Game Theory & (ir)rationality: https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2025/02/15/what-is-wrong-with-game-theory/ Swagless Games: https://www.polygon.com/code-vein-2-swagless-game/ Jeff Vogel GDC talk about serving a market gap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stxVBJem3Rs&t=1746s Tynan Sylvester GDC talk on the idea reservoir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdqhHKjepiE&t=3113s Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.