The Rules We Break: Lessons in Play, Thinking, and Design

208 Pages·2022·19.124 MB·English

by  Eric Zimmerman

Lessons in Play,
Thinking,
and Design
Introduction:
Play with This Book
8
A few ways to think about
Play
Playing with Something
20
Against the Rules
21
Free Movement
22
Something to Do
23
Being Someone Else
24
Collaborative Conflict
25
A Social Contract
26
Second-Order Surprises
27
Games of Desire
28
Unwritten Rules
29
InsightfulTransgressions
30
Exercises
-
when you have 20 30 minutes
to play
Social Play
Five Fingers
32
Zen Counting
36
Wolves and Sheep
39
Physical Play
Eclipse
43
Rock Paper Scissors+
46
Ninja
51
Play with Meaning
The Language Game
55
Surrealist Games
59
1
A few ways to think about
Systems
Connecting Interconnections
63
Dynamic Behaviors
69
Artificial Languages
70
Actions and Outcomes
71
The Paradox of Uncertainty
72
Systemic Storytelling
73
Stylized Simulations
74
Goals within Goals
75
Willing Submission
76
Against Gamification
77
The Structure of Problems
73
Exercises
when you have a couple of hours
to tinker with a system
System Dynamics
Modding Tic-Tac-Toe
BO
.
Die vs Die
84
Get Out
90
Balancing Systems
Utopia 2099
93
Trouble in Dodge City
104
BOLF no
Narrative Systems
Deck of Stories
117
Zombie Town
121
A few ways to think about
Design
More Than One Answer
132
A Process of Solving Problems
133
Shared Authorship
134
s Embrace Playtesting
i3
13G Creativity=Literacy+Freedom
A Culture of Critique
137
Educating an Audience
138
Communicating Is Designing
139
Disobey the Rules
HO
Learn to Listen
HI
Passing It On
142
Exercises
when you have a day or more
to design a game
Design Projects
Found Objects Game
144
Modding a Broken Game
149
Design from Constraints
ise
Design Ideation
Passion Deck Brainstorming
163
- -
Invent Your Own Brainstorm
168
Elevator Pitches
173
Design Collaboration Game Sheets
184
A Good Collaborator Afterword
177 206
Keyword Vision Statement Acknowledgments
iso 207

. .
Don’t read this book Play with it
This is not a book of information to learn or facts to
absorb. It is a handbook for action. A guide for curating
playful situations. A cookbook of recipes for new ways
of thinking
.
The J?ules We Break is based on the principle
of learning by doing. If you create experiences, manage
organizations, collaborate with people, or in any way
take part in the production of culture, you are designing.
In my experience, design is about doing and living
and being. It is less about knowledge and data and more
about experimentation and practice. This book is a
design manual filled with things to do.
I call these things to do "exercises/ Just like physical
exercises, they are ways of using your body and mind,
to train them and make them stronger and more flexible.
Each exercise challenges you to interact with other
people, solve problems, and think about how things are
put together. Some of them are full body physical games.
-
Others take place on a tabletop. Most of the exercises
require limited materials and setup. And all of them can
be done without computers. You can try out the exercises
with just a handful of people, but many of them can
work for dozens or even hundreds at once. They are not
only designed for educational situations, like classrooms
and workshops, but also for a lunch break at work or
just playing around with friends.
The exercises in this book come out of my
experiences as a game player and designer, and
from more than three decades of teaching design.
They have been played by artists, educators, students,
technologists, businesspeople, researchers, and
designers of all kinds from kids in after school programs
- -
to creative leads at the biggest game companies in
the world. They are valuable for anyone who wants to