decided it was not going to work, which shows you how well the game designer can play
his own game.
Were you surprised byAsteroids’success?
I was not surprised by its success. It sounded like a fun game when I played it in my
mind. Even after the first few weeks, people would come by and ask when they could
play. That was a sign your game was fun!
Even when we field tested the game for the very first time, I saw a player start a
game and die three times within 20 seconds. He proceeded to put another quarter in.
This tells me the player felt it was his fault he died and he was convinced he could do
better. This is one of the primary goals a game designer tries to achieve and it was clear
to meAsteroidshad “it.”
Back there you mentioned that you played the game out “in your mind.” Do
you find that to be an effective technique for predicting whether a game will be
fun or not?
It is a skill which I find works
well for me. I also play devil’s
advocate with my ideas. I ask
myself, “What can go wrong?”
or “Will players be confused
by what I am presenting?” I
find that some designers often
are so married to their ideas
that they will not accept the
concept that maybe it just
won’t work. I cannot tell you
the number of great ideas I
have had that I “played out” in
my mind that turned out to be
bad ideas.
I am one of the few
designers I have ever met that has actually killed many of his own games. I think this is
a good trait. Why waste another year to two if the gameplay does not play like you
expected?
Did you work on the sequel,Asteroids Deluxe?
I did not doAsteroids Deluxe.It was done by Dave Shepperd. I was promoted around that
time into a supervisor role. I believe I was also leading the four-playerFootballproject.
So I was busy. I have no problem doing sequels if that is the best course of action. I had
some new ideas, so I wanted to doMillipede.Gauntlet IIwas a logical choice since Bob
Flanagan, my co-programmer, and I knew the code and this was the best game concept
we came up with.
92 Chapter 6: Interview: Ed Logg
Asteroids