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From designing escape rooms and self-publishing a board game to developing mobile games in London, Jesse Kroon '14 has made significant strides in the field of game design. As he prepares to transition into the role of Senior Game Designer at Scopely, where he will work on the popular mobile board game , Jesse offers a lens into his journey and passion for crafting meaningful experiences. This interview delves into his experiences, challenges, and the future of game design, offering accessible and enlightening insights for both enthusiasts and newcomers.

Inspiration and Early Influences

I decided to become a game designer after completing my Masters at the ÀÖÓãºǫ́, having written my dissertation on game narrative structure. Through that experience, I realised that I didn't want to just reflect on games or study the impact of new ideas within the industry. Instead, I wanted to be a creator. I wanted to actually participate in the artform I loved and push it to new heights. 

Without a doubt, UCU was an important step in my journey. In those three years, I developed key skills that I employ in my day to day: deep critical thinking, clear communication of complex ideas, and interdisciplinary curiosity. These skills set me apart as a creative in my field. 

I realised that I didn't want to just reflect on games or study the impact of new ideas within the industry. Instead, I wanted to be the creator.

Pushing Boundaries and Redefining Game Mechanics

When I was working on my board game, , I made a lot of discoveries about the impact of design, but one idea in particular really stands out. First, some context:

In Arbor, players strategically grow forests in competition with one another. At the end of their turn, the player can draw Star Cards that grant them game-changing abilities. The Star Cards are associated with 5 elements, and each element is aligned with certain mechanics. For example; Fire cards cause destruction, Shadow cards steal resources, and Light cards allow you to grow your Forest. 

In typical card games, cards are drawn face down so other players cannot see what card was drawn. In other games, cards are displayed face up, so that all players have access to perfect information. Both approaches have their own ramifications and present interesting gameplay. Presented with these traditional options, I decided to follow a different path.

I designed the Star Cards to display their effect on their front side, but for them to display their Star element on their back side. This meant that players would know the type of mechanic of the card they were drawing, but not its specific effect. The effects of these cards varied in terms of power, so it was still a mystery what you were getting. In addition, your opponent knew what kind of cards you had, but not exactly what you were capable of.

The resulting dynamic was a deep mind game where players were able to play with this partially-perfect knowledge of their opponent's abilities. Bluffing and double bluffing became part of the game. As an extension of these dynamics, the player's ability to express mastery in the game was enhanced. Super fun stuff.

More than any other aspect of the game's design, the Star Card mechanic is the most questioned by new players. Players are unfamiliar with the partially-perfect mind game that Star Cards bring about and find it strange at first. Nevertheless, it seamlessly becomes a core part of their experience within a single match. Observing this over the course of countless playtests helped me understand the subtle impact of seemingly simple design choices. 

Integrating Storytelling with Game Mechanics

As is always the case in games, the design approach to narrative is defined by the kind of game you are making. The goal of a game designer is to craft a specific experience for the player, so all the mechanics within that experience must serve that central goal. 

A card game about sushi is very different from an action-adventure game played on a Playstation 5, and the depth and breadth of the narrative in each of those games will differ wildly. In all cases, the right kind of narrative needs to be utilised, otherwise it will create undue friction in the player's experience. You can feel it when a game is laying it on a bit too thick.

Narrative in games is far more than just dialogue driven story. In my opinion, narrative is best understood as a confluence of theme, feeling, representation, and storytelling. It's the dimension of the game that gives it context and color. When viewed this way, narrative is actually a game mechanic like any other. 

So when I am working with narrative elements, the question is always what kind of narrative do we need? How do we apply narrative so as to have it function harmoniously with the other pillars of the game? And perhaps most importantly, how are players reacting to our approach? 

Emerging Trends and Innovations in Modern Game Design

One of the more interesting developments in the industry is the rise of User Generated Content (UGC) platforms. Platforms like Roblox and Fortnite Creative are giving players the power to create, share, and even monetise their own gaming experiences. Versatile game engines, simple toolsets, and large art asset libraries are really democratising the game development space. And like many forms of new media, this innovation is also raising questions about ownership and fair division of profits between creators and platform holders. 

Generative AI is like a sub-par mirror, only showing us what it thinks we want to see... for now.

Of course, I would be remiss to not address the thing-that-looks-like-an-elephant in the room: AI. Generative AI has taken all segments of the tech sector by storm, not least of which the games industry. In the context of narrative, there are both exciting and worrying potentialities. 

On the exciting end, there are studios creating NPCs (non-player characters) who can react dynamically to player actions and inputs rather than the predetermined tree-like structures of more traditional narrative design. The potential here is to build worlds that feel more real than ever before. On the worrying side, there is the very real issue that massive for-profit studios interested only in their bottom line will seen GenAI art, dialogue, and potentially even design, as an excuse to cut their work forces. 

Personally, my work with AI in the context of design has not yielded anything groundbreaking, as of yet. These models are very good at very quickly producing very basic ideas. They are great for brainstorming, but they lack actual creativity. That is due to how they function: they're just reproducing existing things in predictable forms. GenAI is like a sub-par mirror, only showing us what it thinks we want to see... for now.

Still, I choose to work with this new technology to speed up my creative process. Better to know your enemy than hide from it, I say.