My keynote on theme-vs- mechanics went well. I’m getting positive feedback so far although I am curious where people may have felt my arguments were not as strong. I’ve posted the slides in the sidebar, but here is a direct link. Also, the talk was written up a couple places online, with the Destructoid piece almost being a transcript:
DESIGNER NOTES
Soren Johnson's Game Design Journal
Thanks for posting those, and I think the talk does a good job of highlighting the distinction between themes and mechanics, and how they interact with each other.
After reading the Destructoid writeup, I think it would be interesting to incorporate some of the audience questions into the main talk. In particular, I liked the comment that “compel” can mean more than just “entertain,” as well as the notion that one-off projects like Train aren’t representative of a sustainable design model.
I also think there’s a missed opportunity to show how some mechanics and themes can support and reinforce each other, kind of the opposite of the Spore thing. However, that’s an advanced topic and probably worthy of a separate presentation.
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