Day 35: Monday 27 February
The question de jour
Where’s the tension?
Sometimes the thing you set out to do, is not the thing anyone wants. There’s a misalignment between the problem you perceive and the problem your client perceives. That creates a tension for you (or me in this case). So the answer is to either better identify the problem or pain-point of your intended client or reveal that problem to your intended client – this creating tension. Therein lies the tension for me. That I’m yet to either align or reveal problems!
If it’s not solving someone’s problem then it’s about enrolement
Maybe my challenge is to enrol the profession in the problems they face. This creating tension. The point being that they must have already started on the journey. It’s very difficult to enrol someone in something they haven’t yet considered and embraced, at least a little.
Pull apart and rebuild in my image
“Some times you need to break the things to make a beautiful new thing.”
Tea Uglow
There’s been a number of times I’ve pulled apart and put unmeasured back together. It’s mostly been minor rebuilds, but the question is what does big and audacious look like. If I pull things apart what do I keep and what do I discard? More importantly what are the bits I am missing. Previously I’ve mostly kept the same parts, reordered or discarded them. I’m yet to dig into what parts I might be missing.
The reality I need to acknowledge is that everything I’ve built has been built based upon someone else’s armature. The framework is someone else’s. What does it look like to fully own this work. Embrace my unique talents and perspective of the world. What does that look like? What if build it not as someone else would but the way I would.
I reminded a client today (& by default, myself) that all this work is iterative. To work deliberately and intentionally, knowing it might not be right first time, but to keep going. Taking the time to intentionally learn from the previous effort.
The core gameplay loop
Elan Lee (co-creator of Exploding Kittens, etc) observed
“I don’t want the game to be in the spotlight. I want the players to be in the spotlight.”
There’s a lesson in there. His focus is on the players entertaining each other rather than relying on the game to be the sole entertainment.
Furthermore, the game must have a core gameplay loop (CGL), the one that engages and keeps people in the game. IThere’s something in it that I need to percolate on.t’s like the design concept. Confuse the loop, or make it too long, and people will lose interest.
The thing I keep coming back to is what can be learnt from beyond our own bubbles and this seems a pertinent one. Even if it doesn’t lead anywhere it encourages a questioning and new perspective, which tests the current thinking and requires considered rethinking.
The question remains, what if I was to rethink unmeasured?
