After brief chit chat between participants and a round of drinks, Ernest Adams started his presentation "Bad game designer, no Twinkie!".  What followed was a personal, although very compelling, list of areas where game design often serves to defeat common sense and the player, rather than let the player defeat the bad guy.

For example, top of the list of bad design decisions that Ernest highlighted were those where game elements defy common sense.  The player has a rocket launcher capable of blasting apart giant space robots but a simple wooden door requires a key to pass through.  Ernest pointed out that it was design elements like this that really serve to put off non-gamers, and we couldn't agree more.  After all, how many times have you had a significant other or non-gamer say "shoot it! Kill it!" leaving you to patiently explain why it isn't possible, to which they roll their eyes and leave you to it.

The rest of Ernest's presentation highlighted a long and often funny list of design issues that both good and bad games have failed to tackle.  Some on the list were controversial, like having no freedom to save where you want.  Other issues raised were less controversial, such as having stupid opponents, poor acting and click-the-pixel puzzles.  Ernest provided a quite complete list of designer foibles and presented it in a most amusing fashion making this chapter meet a real treat and one well worth attending.

After his superb presentation Ernest took a series of questions and was kind enough to stay around for a while to chat to the audience.  And so, in no particular order, our thanks go to Criterion for sponsoring the bar, to Codemafia for sponsoring the venue, and to Ernest for kindly coming up to Birmingham to deliver his thought provoking talk.

Take a look a Ernest Adams' informative and interesting site, 'The Designers Notebook', when you get the chance.  Well worth a few hours of anyone's time, designer or not.

www.designersnotebook.com