Designer Clairvoyance

 A while back i wrote a little D&D adventure, where a group of traders gets lost in a jungle. I filled that adventure with all sorts of imagery and concepts that i was really interested in and one of those ideas that i really liked was a final dungeon at the end, which i added a few "callouts". I'm gonna call them "callouts" to keep things casual (and so i don't show that i don't know the proper term) and im gonna define them as the game designer telling the player(s) through design that they know their next move and then succeed. One such "callout" was that, during the dungeon, an entity that can't be killed chases after the party and the players have to work around it. I, however, gave them a conspicuous room with one door that locks and unlocks from outside. So they get the dastardly idea to shove the entity inside and lock the door, solving their problem! Too bad i made it so they have to retrieve an item from inside that room later. And then the lever to lock it again breaks so the door can't close. And there's a second room like that, but this time there's nothing inside. So after shunning it at first, they reach the final puzzle of the dungeon so they lock the entity in the second room. And the entity is the solution to the final puzzle of the dungeon. 

Tee hee!

I feel like i barely scratched the surface with those ideas though. I would like to one day make another adventure and this time take this concept to its logical extreme. Make the players feel like they are dancing in the palm of my hand. I try to sprinkle it in all of my designs, actually. If you ever experience something from me, please know that i have attempted at least once to enter your brain. No, i will not leave. No, i do not have money for rent.

The first step is to build character. "Callouts" like those demand a designer to get intimate with people they have never ever met before and know their moves, before they even make them. So the first thing a designer needs is acceptance. Acceptance that this will not work on everyone! This experience is inherently limited to a group of players and the tighter and more specific it becomes, the more impressive and the more alienating to more and more people it becomes as well. That's okay though! When we're shooting for the stars, we don't have to lament the clouds we passed by.

The second step is to communicate with the player(s) through the design as much as possible. Taunt them, encourage them, just make sure to not lie to them. Outright lying is cheating! Whenever a designer interacts with their players, expectations are set and a relationship is being formed. Those expectations and that relationship can be used to pull on the players and guide them, or if you'd like a different metaphor, goad them with our capote towards something. That intimacy can also be wielded to set the game's tone and atmosphere (which is why i think "callouts" are great in horror and mystery games) but also the hype of realizing the designer is one step ahead and the desire to get back ontop can be a great motivator for players (which is why i also think action games can use this!)

The final step is to experience the design, the way a player would. In order to fit the design around a path a player might take, the designer must first walk that path themself. Playtests are a very very VERY obvious and needed and do not skip them or skimp out on them thing to do. But even during the process of designing, a designer should imagine themself as a player, experiencing their design. It's a skill that develops naturally.