“What is Game Design?” with Paul Barnett  The following are
excerpts from a conversation with Paul Barnett, Senior Creative
Director at BioWare/Mythic.  Paul currently oversees a number of
projects in the BioWare family, including Warhammer: Wrath of
Heroes and BioWare Social.   EL: To start with, what is game
design?  PB: Oh, dear, crikey. If I knew that, then I’d be rich.
I’m with Stephen King. It’s probably telepathy. I thought that
was the greatest answer to what is story writing is telepathy.
Game design is probably telepathy.  People have ideas in the
modern era they’re basically two groups. Lots of people trying
desperately to get a straightforward idea made over a long
period of time, for something like Star Wars TOR. Simple idea.
Massively multiplayer Star Wars meets Knights of the Old
Republic. But it requires hundreds of people, years, millions of
dollars and it’s supremely difficult.  The other extreme is
bedroom coding, where you just get one, two, three people maybe.
You have a vision and genera