I was working on having SpellTower in its entirety rewritten in a different language, and so there were just a lot of weird starts. How did you eventually find a path for online multiplayer in SpellTower? The gameвЂ™s multiplayer reportedly gave you a bit of trouble. Zach Gage uses his art background to inform his game design. And then I picked the bright, popping colors because I wanted to say, вЂњYou know what, though? Even though this is an elegant thing, itвЂ™s also a video game.вЂќ And thatвЂ™s also where the sound design comes from. ThatвЂ™s why I picked that font: because I wanted it to be like a new, modern thing. It doesnвЂ™t have serifs, but itвЂ™s shaped in a not blocky way. So I wanted the design to be elegant, but I also wanted it to be sort of like pop in the way that video games could be pop, and so thatвЂ™s why I used a really old school, elegant font. ThatвЂ™s all of the mechanical part of the design interaction.ДЇor SpellTower, I really wanted to give the sense that it was like a crossword puzzle, but digital. ThereвЂ™s a whole bit in the design thatвЂ™s just, вЂњHow do I make sure that everybodyвЂ™s eyes are looking at the right part?вЂќ And honestly, that part is a lot more complicated than picking the colors and stuff like that.

And then third read is going to be the little bits that are talking about if a tile has length requirements. Then the second read is going to be your statistics and the word youвЂ™ve selected and what the high score is, all of that. With something like SpellTower, the first read is going to be the board, and I want to make sure that people can understand all of that information. And the third read is the information that they only see if they need it, so that might be like small little copy about copyright information. The second read is the information that they actually need, like the time of the concert. The idea is, you have a first read, which is the main thing that you want someone to see, like the name of the band. I follow this thing called вЂњthree reads,вЂќ which if youвЂ™re ever designing a poster, any designer will tell you. And when I get there, I kind of just follow the rules of graphic design that I learned in communication design in college.ДЄ word game, for sure, but also a work of art SpellTower

So the visual design part doesnвЂ™t come in until I actually get to the computer prototype part. A lot of the time, IвЂ™ll do something with cards, or board game pieces, or something like that. A lot of times, my games arenвЂ™t designed on the computer initially. The first part of the game design is вЂњHow do I get a person whoвЂ™s playing this to the place that IвЂ™m enjoying?вЂќ And if I can get them there, then I know that the game kind of has legs and is going to be something thatвЂ™s interesting.ДЄnd so, once IвЂ™ve tried to get them there, thatвЂ™s when the visual end comes in. But then when I show that to other people, they donвЂ™t find their way to the same part of it that IвЂ™m enjoying.

So when I design games, the way they work is I sort of fiddle around with systems until I find something that I like. When I approach game design, thereвЂ™s usually two parts of my approach: The first part is trying to convey the actual, enjoyable game itself. How do you balance the elegant style of SpellTower with the logistical mechanics of creating games? Are these elements ever at conflict with one another or does it sort of happen naturally? While the game does offer timed challenges, players can simply opt for a more zen experience that judges you on your performance when you feel you're finished spelling out words.

Spelltower scoring