Panel Discussion - my views (Score 1)

I attended the discussion and found it very enjoyable. Mr. Yee did a good job moderating - although the questions to the panel seemed to be a bit generic and occasionally confusing to the participants. Despite the well deserved attention to Miyamoto, I felt the best responses came from Garfield. In particular, he explored his work in more "traditional" board/card games and how they translate to the video world. I enjoyed his use of math / modeling for designing games - some people may be intimidated by that connection but I thought he made a good point of having a solid understanding of rules as the base of the game design. Church gave off the vibe of a very talented artist designer. The show had a nice display of his past projects. Although he has obviously graduated to senior management, he seems like he could still relate to the actual code producers. He definitely gave the impression of a "big picture" person and a useful resource for bouncing off game ideas. The most interesting discussion was on the role of luck. Garfield clearly emphasized its importance - and this was echoed by Church. I didn't get the feeling that luck played much of a part in the world of Miyamoto games - you either make the jump or fail. Anyway, clearly an interesting issue for any designer on how to balance skill vs. chance.