In this two-part talk, Seth Coster (Butterscotch Shenanigans) explains how to extract the “Game” from an idea by breaking the concept down into Loops. We look at some popular games as examples and show the common thread they all have, ranging from Flappy Bird to World of Warcraft.

Part 2 of the talk moves on to the commercial side of game development, examining a Thought Device (imagining games as rockets) through which developers can get a better understanding of whether their games are ready for commercial release, or why some of their games succeeded but others didn’t. Viewers of this talk will move forward with two new powerful lenses through which to analyze their own games and improve their craft.

Many thanks to Riot Games for hosting, Seth Coster for giving a fantastic talk, and Adam Shaw for producing the video.