David Sirlin
Game designer; lead designer of Street Fighter HD Remix, founder of Sirlin Games (Yomi, Puzzle Strike) and author of Playing to Win.
David Sirlin did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsGames with pure solutions may seem skill-based, but over time will necessarily degenerate to becoming pure memorization.
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Our reading
Mixed solution games remain strategically interesting for much longer than pure solution games.
Their wordsMeanwhile, mixed solution games remain strategically interesting far, far longer.
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Their wordsIn order to make a game with a mixed solution, incorporate some sort of unknown elements, hidden information, or randomness.
- 4 weeks earlier
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Their wordsThe first step in becoming a top player is the realization that playing to win means doing whatever most increases your chances of winning.
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Their wordsThis kind of massive customization is almost inherently unbalanceable.
↗Balancing Multiplayer Games, Part 3: Fairnesssirlin.net 1st of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
A solid game is one that holds up to experts playing it as hard as they can against each other.
Their wordsA solid game holds up to experts playing it as hard as they can against each other.
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Their wordsFor some reason, players in every game seem unable to grasp the concept that a top tier character who is made slightly worse can still be a top tier character.
↗Balancing Multiplayer Games, Part 3: Fairnesssirlin.net 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsHe said that if you have a move that you're not really sure how to balance, make it too powerful. If you make it too weak, then you run the risk of no one using it at all.
↗Balancing Multiplayer Games, Part 3: Fairnesssirlin.net 3rd of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
Tournament organizers should only ban things that are enforceable, discrete, and warranted.
Their wordsWhen tournament organizers determine what (if anything) is banned, they should choose only bans that are enforceable, discrete, and warranted.
- 2 days earlier
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Their wordsSubtractive design is the process of removing imperfections and extraneous parts in order to strengthen the core elements.
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Their wordsI propose that the essence of customizable card games is the gameplay, and that collectability is purely a barrier between players and the game.
- 1 day earlier
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Their wordsIf a game has slippery slope, it means that falling behind causes you to fall even further behind.
↗Slippery Slope and Perpetual Comebacksirlin.net 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsIf a game has a powerful slippery slope effect, that means that when one player gets a small early lead, they are more likely to get an even bigger lead, which in turn makes them more likely still to get yet an even bigger lead, and so on. In a game like this, the real victor of the game is decided early on and the rest of the game is futile to play out (or to watch).
↗Slippery Slope and Perpetual Comebacksirlin.net 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
Perpetual comeback is a quality in which being behind in a game actually provides an advantage.
Their wordsPerpetual comeback, then, is a quality in which being behind actually gives you an advantage.
↗Slippery Slope and Perpetual Comebacksirlin.net 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 2 days earlier
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Their wordsThis is an old argument where one side talks about the convenience of saving anytime and the other talks about the need to make games challenging, but this is a false dichotomy.
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Our reading
Technical limitations in older consoles likely led to the separation of save points and checkpoints.
Their wordsI think the answer is for technical reasons rather than design reasons. God of War was designed for the PlayStation 2 and Resident Evil 4 originally appeared on the GameCube (and later on PlayStation 2 and Wii). These consoles take a few seconds to write a save to the memory card, so doing this every time the designers wanted a checkpoint would probably have been too annoying to the player.
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Our reading
A save system should allow players to stop playing at any time and resume with minimal replaying.
Their wordsA save system should allow the player to stop playing at any time, allow the player to pick up where they left off with as close to zero replaying as possible, and save as automatically and seamlessly as possible, so the player will not forget to do it.
- 1 day earlier
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Their wordsThe general trend I see in successful games is that they tend to show a great deal of their coolness (but not all of it) in the first few minutes to half hour of gameplay.
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Their wordsBurying the best content at the end is generally not a good idea, but it's a question of degree.
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Their wordsGet rid of the intro movie with the publisher's logo, the intro movie with the developer's logo, the legal screens (put them as an option on the main menu), and any other non-content cruft you can find.