Putting It Together

This chapter puts forward the view that game design is not an arcane art, but rather a craft, just like any other, that can be learned with application.

Games are not works of art created by a mysterious , hit-or- miss process. Instead, they are a discrete set of rules and a presentation layer for those rules. We believe that by examining and documenting the fundamental similarities and differences between games of all types ”computer and board, mental and physical ”we can identify a valuable set of common elements that can be used to understand and, consequently, improve how great games are constructed .

As we said before, no one person is likely to have all these skills. We are talking about a hypothetical ideal game designer ”the Superman of game design. It's no coincidence , however, that the best professional game designers possess a high degree of competence in many of these skills. They weren't born with them; they educated themselves and worked to develop them. We encourage you to do the same.