Think Forward.

How being a parent, a game designer, and a Dungeon Master in DnD all stem from the same skill: worldbuilding. [re-written] 9948

GiANTS game design, 10 mon.
The role of a parent is to be the architect of the world within which their kids grow in, and inevitably grow out of. At least, that's what the experience of fatherhood has been for me, so far. For some, there is an obvious comparison to be made here with the role of a Dungeon Master (DM) in Dungeons and Dragons (DnD). This is a slippery slope that can quickly lead one to certain delusions, so let's nip that in the bud right now: a DM is not a parental figure to their players, a parent shouldn't attempt to control the fate of their children, and a game designer shouldn't be so obsessed as to turn their kids' life into a game. Let's keep those three things compartmentalized while we identify the root from which these roles all stem. The shared element between a game designer, a DM, and a parent is the skill of worldbuilding. But first, for those unfamiliar with the role of a DM or how DnD works, here is a gross over-simplification: DnD is a tabletop role-playing game where players control characters within a world entirely designed by the DM. The DM enforces the laws and nature of the world, as well as narrates consequences of the players' actions, and might control the actions of Non-Player Characters (NPCs), but poses no action in the story. The Players' characters (PCs) have complete agency over their own actions but cannot change the fundamental laws of the universe. So let's take the scenic route first, and explore worldbuilding as a DM. The flexibility and/or rigidity of a DM's rules in a campaign represent the very fabric of reality within the campaign, shaping the environment for the players. I've read fascinating background stories that DMs keep hidden indefinitely from their players, but are intrinsic parts of the campaign that allow the DM to sculpt a solid fabric of reality for their players to adventure in. For example, in one fascinating story that was shared on Reddit, the entire universe is the fabrication of a dying child's mind while in a coma, in which the main villain, an NPC controlled by the DM, is the incarnation of the child's understanding of death. The villain senses that the universe is begging to collapse and his mission is to prepare the universe for the end. The player characters are each manifestations of the child's mind struggling to prevail against death itself. While the players may never learn this backstory, it serves as a foundation for the DM to consistently enforce or bend the world's rules and limitations. Worldbuilding requires an unwavering belief in the reality you're creating, even if that world is fabricated. If a DM bends the rules - say, resurrecting a player's dead character - it has to mesh well with the rest of the universe they've built, otherwise the whole woven tapestry falls apart. Similarly, parents and game designers can and should apply worldbuilding principles to shape experiences, whether for children or players. As a parent, your worldview influences the environment you create for your kids. I am a person who grew up in an insidiously oppressive environment. I'll spare you the sob story, but I carried this baggage with me for most of my adult life, and eventually I realized that I had two choices: pass on my bleak reality to my kids -or- choose to view the world differently and pass that on instead. One thing that became very clear in that moment though was that ultimately, the worldview I adopt will shape the world my kids inhabit. To make this change, I had to mentally construct a new way of viewing reality - a better one - and believe in it fully. All so that I can authentically and sincerely pass on something truly good and healthy to my children. Anything less would just be a well-crafted lie delivered by a well-trained actor playing the role of a good parent. In other words, "fake it 'till you make it". One of the house rules I constantly repeat to my kids is: "we say what we do and then we do what we say." This is so simple, but it's rooted in neuro-science, human psychology, trust-building, and self-regulation, all of it based on my experience and research on the matter. They don't need to know the complexities of it, just that it works. They must be given just enough information that they can identify a clear and subjectively desirable objective, as well just enough tools to manage themselves towards their objective while navigating their obstacles. Just like you don't play a deckbuilding card game with full unlimited access to all the cards. You gradually unlock more options as you play. And you gradually unlock a deeper understanding of the overall game the more times you play the game, based on your interest in that game. This is true about life as well. For fun, here are some more of those bite-sized rules that I've created for my kids: - "Bad guys make trouble and good guys stop trouble." - Addendum to the previous one, revealed much later: "REALLY good guys make good things happen and REALLY bad guys stop good things from happening." - "The truth brings us together, and lies make us alone. Stay with me in the truth and we'll figure it out together." - "Failure leads to learning, which leads to more ways to have fun." - "Your feelings are like kids in the backseat of your car: listen to them, but don't let them drive." These rules are foundational to the world I'm building for them, but they're completely different from the ones I grew up with. I aim to provide a better reality - one with hope, agency, and a clear path to success. It's fascinating to realize that these rules are indeed almost arbitrary; I've chosen them as part of a world I've constructed, and it all comes down to my faith in my own system. Unlike the harsh environment I knew, my kids will grow up in a world where mistakes are just stepping stones to success. This new reality shapes their future, and allows my old one to fade into memory. I hear you, those with teenagers who don't give a rat's ass about anything and who actively reject everything around them like it's an Olympic sport. I'll admit my kids are still quite young, less than 10 years both of them. But you see, this is what's fun for me; it's a calculated gamble. I'm not here to enforce consequences - reality, the one I've shaped for them, will do that. They can lie, cheat, steal, party, and experiment, or just be lazy all they want, and if my reality is consistent and balanced enough, it will handle the consequences. If my rules are solid and coherent enough, they'll understand what went wrong and how to fix it. My role is simply to be present, help them pick up the pieces, and guide them back on track. Hell, if I'm lucky, maybe they'll even be able to identify nefarious activity from afar, and give it wide berth. Regardless of how they end up handling it, my goal is to watch them build their world on top of mine, as I slowly watch my own world crumble gracefully into memory and sink into the bedrock under generations to come.
GiANTS Game Philosophy GiANTS Game Philosophy

GiANTS Game Philosophy

I've been creating games for my kids for over 7 years, and turning boring workouts into games for clients for 15+ years. On this platform I'll share my observations on the nature of all types of games, to document the mentality behind making genuinely interesting and fun games, all in an attempt to make it more accessible for anyone to make games, for kids or in general.


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THE ENCHIRIDION - I 3641

Bluwr X Commons: Epictetus, 2 y.
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1.1 min read.
There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power. Within our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and, in one word, whatever affairs are our own. Beyond our power are body, property, reputation, office, and, in one word, whatever are not properly our own affairs. Now the things within our power are by nature free, unrestricted, unhindered; but those beyond our power are weak, dependent, restricted, alien. Remember, then, that if you attribute freedom to things by nature dependent and take what belongs to others for your own, you will be hindered, you will lament, you will be disturbed, you will find fault both with gods and men. But if you take for your own only that which is your own and view what belongs to others just as it really is, then no one will ever compel you, no one will restrict you; you will find fault with no one, you will accuse no one, you will do nothing against your will; no one will hurt you, you will not have an enemy, nor will you suffer any harm. Aiming, therefore, at such great things, remember that you must not allow yourself any inclination, however slight, toward the attainment of the others; but that you must entirely quit some of them, and for the present postpone the rest. But if you would have these, and possess power and wealth likewise, you may miss the latter in seeking the former; and you will certainly fail of that by which alone happiness and freedom are procured. Seek at once, therefore, to be able to say to every unpleasing semblance, “You are but a semblance and by no means the real thing.” And then examine it by those rules which you have; and first and chiefly by this: whether it concerns the things which are within our own power or those which are not; and if it concerns anything beyond our power, be prepared to say that it is nothing to you.

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER - PREFACE 3808

Bluwr X Commons: Mark Twain, 2 y.
- Short Stories -
0.6 min read.
Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual—he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture. The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children and slaves in the West at the period of this story—that is to say, thirty or forty years ago. Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in. THE AUTHOR. HARTFORD, 1876.

THE MEDITATIONS - Book I.[1/3] 3921

Bluwr X Commons: Marcus Aurelius, 2 y.
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3.7 min read.
1. I learned from my grandfather, Verus, to use good manners, and to put restraint on anger. 2. In the famous memory of my father I had a pattern of modesty and manliness. 3. Of my mother I learned to be pious and generous; to keep myself not only from evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts; and to live with a simplicity which is far from customary among the rich. 4. I owe it to my great-grandfather that I did not attend public lectures and discussions, but had good and able teachers at home; and I owe him also the knowledge that for things of this nature a man should count no expense too great. 5. My tutor taught me not to favour either green or blue at the chariot races, nor, in the contests of gladiators, to be a supporter either of light or heavy armed. He taught me also to endure labour; not to need many things; to serve myself without troubling others; not to intermeddle in the affairs of others, and not easily to listen to slanders against them. 6. Of Diognetus I had the lesson not to busy myself about vain things; not to credit the great professions of such as pretend to work wonders, or of sorcerers about their charms, and their expelling of Demons and the like; not to keep quails (for fighting or divination), nor to run after such things; to suffer freedom of speech in others, and to apply myself heartily to philosophy. Him also I must thank for my hearing first Bacchius, then Tandasis and Marcianus; that I wrote dialogues in my youth, and took a liking to the philosopher’s pallet and skins, and to the other things which, by the Grecian discipline, belong to that profession. 7. To Rusticus I owe my first apprehensions that my nature needed reform and cure; and that I did not fall into the ambition of the common Sophists, either by composing speculative writings or by declaiming harangues of exhortation in public; further, that I never strove to be admired by ostentation of great patience in an ascetic life, or by display of activity and application; that I gave over the study of rhetoric, poetry, and the graces of language; and that I did not pace my house in my senatorial robes, or practise any similar affectation. I observed also the simplicity of style in his letters, particularly in that which he wrote to my mother from Sinuessa. I learned from him to be easily appeased, and to be readily reconciled with those who had displeased me or given cause of offence, so soon as they inclined to make their peace; to read with care; not to rest satisfied with a slight and superficial knowledge; nor quickly to assent to great talkers. I have him to thank that I met with the discourses of Epictetus, which he furnished me from his own library. 8. From Apollonius I learned true liberty, and tenacity of purpose; to regard nothing else, even in the smallest degree, but reason always; and always to remain unaltered in the agonies of pain, in the losses of children, or in long diseases. He afforded me a living example of how the same man can, upon occasion, be most yielding and most inflexible. He was patient in exposition; and, as might well be seen, esteemed his fine skill and ability in teaching others the principles of philosophy as the least of his endowments. It was from him that I learned how to receive from friends what are thought favours without seeming humbled by the giver or insensible to the gift. 9. Sextus was my pattern of a benign temper, and his family the model of a household governed by true paternal affection, and a steadfast purpose of living according to nature. Here I could learn to be grave without affectation, to observe sagaciously the several dispositions and inclinations of my friends, to tolerate the ignorant and those who follow current opinions without examination. His conversation showed how a man may accommodate himself to all men and to all companies; for though companionship with him was sweeter and more pleasing than any sort of flattery, yet he was at the same time highly respected and reverenced. No man was ever more happy than he in comprehending, finding out, and arranging in exact order the great maxims necessary for the conduct of life. His example taught me to suppress even the least appearance of anger or any other passion; but still, with all this perfect tranquillity, to possess the tenderest and most affectionate heart; to be apt to approve others yet without noise; to have much learning and little ostentation. 10. I learned from Alexander the Grammarian to avoid censuring others, to refrain from flouting them for a barbarism, solecism, or any false pronunciation. Rather was I dexterously to pronounce the words rightly in my answer, confining approval or objection to the matter itself, and avoiding discussion of the expression, or to use some other form of courteous suggestion. 11. Fronto made me sensible how much of envy, deceit and hypocrisy surrounds princes; and that generally those whom we account nobly born have somehow less natural affection. 12. I learned from Alexander the Platonist not often nor without great necessity to say, or write to any man in a letter, that I am not at leisure; nor thus, under pretext of urgent affairs, to make a practice of excusing myself from the duties which, according to our various ties, we owe to those with whom we live. 13. Of Catulus I learned not to condemn any friend’s expostulation even though it were unjust, but to try to recall him to his former disposition; to stint no praise in speaking of my masters, as is recounted of Domitius and Athenodorus; and to love my children with true affection. 14. Of Severus, my brother, I learned to love my kinsmen, to love truth, to love justice. Through him I came to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion, and Brutus. He gave me my first conception of a Commonwealth founded upon equitable laws and administered with equality of right; and of a Monarchy whose chief concern is the freedom of its subjects. Of him I learned likewise a constant and harmonious devotion to Philosophy; to be ready to do good, to be generous with all my heart. He taught me to be of good hope and trustful of the affection of my friends. I observed in him candour in declaring what he condemned in the conduct of others; and so frank and open was his behaviour, that his friends might easily see without the trouble of conjecture what he liked or disliked.