MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
The Great Designer Search Study Group
This is a study group for the Great Designer Search! We will make quizlets, kahoots, etc.
This is just to improve our works and reinforce knowledge that will be tested in the upcoming whenever 4th thing
This is just to improve our works and reinforce knowledge that will be tested in the upcoming whenever 4th thing
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
I know this is very premature, considering that the last search was this year, but I think we should all jump on it and take advantage of this time to try to be able to make it/help others make it
I'd recommend editing the details of the thread and replacing it as a study group. That is, if you want to keep this up.
Otherwise, you may be confusing people.
You said that the great designer search was in 2022.
The Mechanical identities of each color:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2017-2017-06-05
Color pie philosophy by color:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/great-white-way-revisited-2015-07-13
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/true-blue-revisited-2015-07-20
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/black-revisited-2015-07-27
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/seeing-red-revisited-2015-08-03
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/its-not-easy-being-green-revisited-2015-08-10
Color Pie Philosophy - Each Color's Conflicts
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/pie-fights-2016-11-14
1.) Being able to design a set, and design FOR a set, is critical. TGDS 1's entire series of challenges was basically a step-by-step guide to design; TGDS 2 had the designers create a world and build mechanics for it (that's where Evolve and Prowess originally came from by the way); TGDS 3 had a challenge where you designed for a specific set in MTG's history (And you had to do you research for that one. For example, they almost kicked a contestant for using lifelink in a set that existed before lifelink was in the rules).
2.) Hole-Filling and Top-Down skills are also critical. Hole-Filling is the practice of taking art for a scrapped card and making a card out or it, while Top-Down Design is the practice of taking a name or concept and making a card out of it. These challenges are easy to understand, but hard to actually COMPLETE: I don't mean this as an insult, but people are often less creative than they expect to be when it comes to this kind of thing, and they often fail to design a FAIR card when they succeed in creativity.
3.) You need a good (or at least basic) understanding of MTG color-theory. Mark Rosewater himself is usually the strongest judge on this one ("The color pie is the core of magic" comes up frequently in his interviews), so I'd suggest reading through his articles on the subject. Furthermore, a basic knowledge of MTG's multiverse, flavor-tactics, and tribal identities won't hurt. On that note...
4.) Tribal mechanics, color specific mechanics, and flavor-based mechanics: know them, and remember how they interweave. Pinging is obviously a very red/black thing, but that doesn't mean you can give PYROMANCY to a red/black ZOMBIE.
5.) Think outside the box, but don't break it's walls. Remember that Magic is, at it's core, a game. A game with limitations, rules, meta, and /players/. Never do something to "prove it can be done". Designers who set out with the message "I'm going to be the first designer to do ____" are almost always dropped; not because creativity is bad, but if you're taking game design as a way to PROVE YOUR SKILL rather than to ENTERTAIN YOUR PLAYERS, you will fail.
And that's all I've got on the matter!
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/great-designer-search-3-meet-top-8-2018-03-09
This is the introduction to the second part of GDS3. It links at the bottom to each of the top 8 contestants' entries, which I wpuld highly recommend reading through simply to understand the process by which designers think about MTG if for nothing else.