Moon Studios boss Thomas Mahler recently decided to share his wisdom with colleagues:
During the development of No Rest for the Wicked, I often heard well-intentioned advice like this:
- "Don't add housing construction—it will ruin the game."
- "Don't add crafting—it will ruin the game."
- "Don't add co-op—it will ruin the game."
- "Don't add PvP—it will ruin the game."
And that's just a small part—I don't even remember the rest. My main advice to designers: trust your intuition. Listen carefully to feedback, really listen, but if every cell in your body tells you that you are on the right track, you probably are. Design based on fear creates safe but quickly forgotten games. Adding mechanics for the sake of quantity is a mistake. But if the idea fits your vision and you sincerely believe that you can implement it well, don't let outside doubts stop you
According to the developer of Ori and No Rest for the Wicked, one of the main problems of the industry is that everyone is "too afraid to take risks" and "does what has already been done before":
There will always be critics. But just because they don't understand something—or wouldn't risk trying it themselves—doesn't mean you shouldn't.