Wizards of the Coast have been running an ongoing card design contest – the winner will get to become a design intern – the low man on the totem pole of a Magic the Gathering card team. I’m actually jealous – working on a Magic design is one of my dream gigs.

Anyway, the Head Designer of Magic put up a very interesting article with some design musings that have emerged from the early going in the contest, and while most of us are not designing collectable card games, most of his advice makes plain sense, and yet is ignored by our field all too often. An example:

Mistake #1 – Making The Audience Do Something They Don’t Want To Do

As the saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” In game design, think of the horse as the player and drinking as having fun. You, the designer, can make the player do anything you want, but you can’t make them enjoy it. A good designer makes the game fun because he lets the players essentially do what they want to do.

Read the whole article. And then go consider how much your game breaks these relatively straightforward and obvious rules. And then go give yourself a proper spanking.