How to design a game? I-don’t-know. I could end here my article on this topic, and maybe it could be a good idea: a clear, simple, understandable and realistic testimony. But then a lot of space would be wasted, and this would force the editorial staff in an enormous effort to fill the blank spaces. Actually, I could write all using a 97-point font.
Well, given this premise (I-don’t-know, I really don’t know) let’s try to answer with a little theoretical analysis of the problem (but is designing a game a problem, after all?).

First of all, let’s try to understand what “game” means.
The Italian dictionary clearly states: “space suitably made during processing between two mechanical pieces to allow them to work normally”. This is maybe the most deep and full of significance definition of our term, even if the same dictionary adds another, more trivial, definition: “exercise by one or more people, be them adults or children, as amusement or hobby or to refill their physical and intellectual energies”. Two apparently incoherent definitions – and maybe not. As a matter of fact, if we identify the two mechanical pieces with the two brain’s hemispheres, which must be always in a processing stage, we see that the game, a gap or space suitably (suitably!) let in between, allows it to work normally.

	In this page, some masterpieces by Marco Donadoni. The one above is VII LEGIO.

Given this, why we don’t have a single boardgame or a single animation game? Because using the Fundamentals, as Cagliostro and Escoffier instruct, several products can be made according to the doses. And here it comes the Dress which, as Giorgio Armani instead instructs, is parallel to the Fundamentals. I call it Dress, others call it simulation.

Each human activity – the Dress – can be simulated; usually it is more entertaining (and thus more apt to fit in a game) simulating those human activities implying great risks, or great economical expenditures. Every simulation can have either an immediate concrete aim, or a mediate aim.
If the Pentagon wants to see what happens if the Third World War sets off, if the Guinean oceanographic institute wants to know when the next anomalous wave arrives, if the greatest national University wants to know about a new bonds admission on the market... these simulations have an immediate concrete aim. Nobody enjoys himself with complex calculations and probabilities. On the contrary, they often present the task to a computer which gives them back only the answer: how the result was computed does not bother them. On the other hand, if the simulation has no concrete immediate aims, and thus it is a game, what matters is not the final answer: what is important is how the mechanics are used to achieve the aim. Therefore, in the most classical of all battles, CHESS, what is intriguing is how the final checkmate is reached; in the “game of the little oceanographer” what is enjoying is creating each time a different wave; in the “stock market game” what is delighting is to palm off to other players the stocks without any real value. A game designer, sewer of one of those Dresses (or simulations), is not developing a mechanic of concrete immediate research, even if he has a concrete immediate aim anyway: the success of the simulation, the successful use of the simulation, the selling of the simulation.

Let’s stop at this point, otherwise I will get confused – and maybe you too. We said that the game is a free space between ordinary mental activities, which serves to let the brain work. We said also that there are Fundamental elements used by all games. We saw that the game is a simulation of mechanics which allows developing a reality. Finally, we said that the final aim of this activity is the making of a product which hopefully will be sold. In other terms, we could say more briefly that a game is created identifying a reality, representing it using the Fundamentals, and then trying to sell it. In each of these three elements the creative components are important for who wants to be a game designer.

Let’s start from the first element, the reality to be reproduced. We can easily say that we can discard those activities which, subjectively, we don’t like at all (I know a guy who made a game about the faeces laid by horses, a kind of activity which personally does not attract me, but subjectively it seems he liked it). However, it is important to say that, according to the third element, we can discard the activities which most people don’t like (as a matter of fact, probably nobody of you has never seen the “horses’ faeces laying” game box). Some kinds of realities are pleasant, but if people can easily do them themselves, then it is better to not produce them: e.g. games about soccer, which can be very easily (and extremely entertainingly) done with just a courtyard and a ball.
The “simulation” aspect could even be trivial, if the “dress” is particularly original. Example: Treasure Island. The mediocre game author fan of Stevenson examines the elements: the isle becomes the game board, players are pirates and good guys, moving their tokens in search of a hidden treasure. Let’s look at the same scene, but changing the point of view: one player plays the role of the treasure, which does not want to be discovered because it is fond of the good old Blackbeard’s skeleton; another player is the isle, who tries to make the treasure discovered because it would like to attract more classy tourists (pirates spend almost nothing in souvenirs); another player is the insurance who paid the King of Spain and would like to have the money back. Are you smiling at the idea of the pirate tourism? Then the theme is already promising.

Another error that should be avoided with care is the excessive readiness to cooperate with our opponents, a true nuisance in games by the time Animalists, Green parties and New Age all became trendy. Statistically, there is almost no successful game with the “let’s help us all together” label (like LORD OF THE RINGS or the recent SHADOWS OVER CAMELOT), while there is an impressive percentage of games on the shelves full of murderers, generals, scheming guys and wild house builders. I am no psychologist, but it seems to me that playing is also a way to discharge the instincts and drives which all of us are forced to control every day. And one of the most intriguing slogans for a game is always that it is a “family ruiner”. Thus, when it is allowed and logical according to the Dress, let’s be plentiful with the naughtiness.

Now let us examine the second element, the Fundamentals, which under many respects would seem intangible: various spherical and electronic dice never had a lot of success. The track is what it is, a perfect symbol of the track of life, of the time going forward. Not to mention cards (have you ever thought about the perfection of a game element which is at the same time both a tool to obtain a prize as well as the prize itself?). Questions are inalienable, for example in some on-air games, where listeners take part in the show like the leading actors in the studio or connected via phone. Nevertheless, even here the creative capability may emerge. MAGIC: THE GATHERING has been a good example on how using cards in a different way from the traditional one. Role playing games, which created the mental track, are actually a brilliant refinement on the classic games like Snakes and Ladders. Numbered counter of action priority on some wargames are an enlightened variation on the Bingo. Moreover, even without modifying the substance, each element has a weight and a usage quantity which can be varied to give an identity to a game.

Let’s make another little example, just to say something. We have a die. We can throw it on our turn, and the winner is who obtains the highest score. Or, each of us may get a die (for hygienic reasons which will be clear briefly). Each player takes the die in his mouth, chews it a bit, and then holds it between his teeth so that pulling his lips all players can see the others’ scores, but not his own. Then, judging on the facial expression of other players, each player, using his fingers, “bets” on his score or on the total score... you got the idea. It’s an undeniably original use of a Fundamental (and perhaps a good way to get rid of an unfriendly player with a slap on the shoulder). In addition, let us consider always attentively the various tools which may be attached to the Fundamentals. Personally, I tried to design a “Tube Game”: what can be done with the toilet paper cardboard tubes, after we have three dice into them?
Don’t smile on this little device: it is better than glasses, because from the top hole one player – and only one – can see how the little cubes are arranged inside. The device has the perfect dimensions to let three dice of normal diameter lay exactly on the table. It gives a great gratification when it is lifted to show to the other players the result we already know. And it is extremely cheap, both at prototype level and at production stage.
The game device does not need to be indispensable, but it has to be pleasing: to the touch, to the sight, to the use. In return, it must always be legitimated by the Dress. Sometimes, it is the device itself that determines the publication of a game. Some games are even famous for their useless but beautiful devices.
MASTER MIND was conceptually already known by almost everyone, but the colourful pegs gave its commercial success. ATMOSFEAR could be played with the unexpected events on the cards, but the videotape with zombies and vampires increasingly scaled made it a hit worldwide (the same applies to the more recent SQUAD SEVEN).

And what about the third element? How can I sell my game? And how can I become rich designing games? Well, as someone else says, I really don’t know...

If you can read Italian, two sites are of major interest for a (wanna-be) game designer: www.eventiludici.it, where you can find anything ranging from the virtual registry office of the game designers and play-testers, to a list of players playing some specific game (and where, and when: for more info, info@eventiludici.it), and www.inventoridigiochi.it, a website hosting a community of players and game designers sharing experiences, proficiencies, resources.
It is maybe still too early to talk about an Italian school of games... but at least, we have a kindergarten.
For you English speaking people, one of the most interesting sites is the Board Game Designers Forum: http://www.bgdf.com/.