One of my favourite pieces of writing about games, not that anybody asked, is from Sid Meier.
It’s the fourth, I think, of his 10 rules for game design.
And then, suddenly:
Kingmakers
Double it or cut it in half.
This is what really good film cuts are made for.
We have moved from the theoretical to the densely practical.
Or cut it in half.
This moment calls for big things, not small things.
Maybe they still do it!
Is it one of the best trailers of all time?
Is this game instantly propelled into Game of the Year territory?
Millions of views and counting.
The people have spoken.
They have watched and rewatched.
They want Kingmakers pyjamas to sleep in at night.
They are stripping the walls.
They want Kingmakers wallpaper!
And it’s so simple.
A little light strategy - placing towers and walls?
But we’re building to something.
Dragons are nothing compared to this.
That roaring on the soundtrack.
Here comes a pickup truck.
A pickup truck riding through the middle of Henry V Part One or whatever.
Cue much collective losing of it.
Cue a sudden burst of oxytocin or whatever it is as we all fall in love at once.
And he’s getting out of the Mazda.
And he has a shotgun.
He has an attack helicopter.
Many thoughts here, but let’s give a shot to untangle them.
Yes, why hasn’t someone done this before.
But that’s what you always think when you witness genius.
But there’s also that delirious Katamari power-curve at work, keeping everything honest.
Carnage that starts pickup-sized and just gets bigger and bigger, driven by the gleeful power of anachronism.
But there’s more.
There is at the heart of this a beautiful deployment of Meier’s forth rule.
Someone has been here and they have thoroughly doubled it.
And then thinking where that would take you and whether you’ve got the option to handle it.
I have a lot more thoughts, but I’m sure they’re obvious.
I love details, and I love that games do this.
Don’t admire this game.
Lose yourself in it.
Break it and laugh wildly as it responds to what you’ve just done.
But instead, let’s think one last time about Sid Meier, the man who made those rules.
He’s someone worth listening to.
“Double it or cut it in half,” it goes.
“You are more wrong than you think.”
More wrong than you think.
That sounds like criticism.
But listen closely: it’s actually an invitation.
