Illustration via 99designs

“It can be way worse to win the wrong game than to lose one that you actually enjoy playing.”

— Justin Gary

Justin Gary (@Justin_Gary) is an award-winning designer, author, speaker, and entrepreneur. He is CEO of Stone Blade Entertainment and creator of the innovative and award-winning Ascension deck-building game series. Prior to designing games, Justin was the youngest ever Magic: The Gathering US National Champion. He has studied creativity and applied the principles of design to create dozens of products over his 20 years in the industry for brands that include Marvel, World of Warcraft, and the Wharton School of Business. Today, he designs, consults, and teaches creativity around the world as a digital nomad.

Justin is also the author of Think Like a Game Designer: The Step-By-Step Guide to Unlocking Your Creative Potential and host of the Think Like a Game Designer podcast.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

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Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onSpotify[image error]Listen onOvercast#687: Justin Gary — Taking the Path Less Traveled, The Phenomenon of “Magic: The Gathering,” How Analytical People Can Become “Creative” People, Finding the Third Right Answer, and How to Escape Your Need for Control

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Want to hear another episode with someone who makes games for a living? Listen to my conversation with Doom co-creator John Romero in which we discussed developing 13 games in one year, hyperthymesia, early innovations in 3D gaming, designing games with movable and removable parts in mind, the ups and downs of starting a new gaming company, and much more.

#681: Doom Legend John Romero — The Path to Prolific Innovation and Making 130+ Games, How to Find the Soul of the Work, Audacious Ambition, and Building in Monk Mode

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Stone Blade’s Instagram | Stone Blade’s Discord

Think Like a Game Designer: The Step-By-Step Guide to Unlocking Your Creative Potential by Justin Gary | Amazon Think Like a Game Designer Podcast Stone Blade EntertainmentAscension | AmazonSolForge Fusion | AmazonThe World’s Premier Trading Card Game | Magic: The GatheringThe World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game | Dungeons & DragonsLincoln-Douglas (LD) Debate Format | Debate DrillsThe Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 | Lincoln Home National Historic SiteRevenge of the Nerds Magic Is Played with Cards. It’s Wildly Popular. It’s Tough to Explain | Sports Illustrated VaultJustin Gary UR Aggro — 1st US Nationals 1997 Deck | MTG GoldfishJustin Gary | MTG WikiMonopoly | AmazonThe Dojo | MTG WikiDungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History by Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Sam Witwer | AmazonRichard Garfield | Think Like a Game Designer #11Richard Garfield | Think Like a Game Designer #31Top 50 Most Powerful Magic: The Gathering Cards | NerdMuch?Play Tic-Tac-ToeRock-Paper-Scissors: You vs. the Computer | The New York TimesKeep or Mull? The History Of The Mulligan In Magic: The Gathering | AetherHubNYU School of Law20 Things a Good NYC Subway Commuter Should Know | Time OutUpper Deck Company | WikipediaZuckerberg to Leave Harvard Indefinitely | The Harvard CrimsonFear-Setting: The Most Valuable Exercise I Do Every Month | Tim FerrissA Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative by Roger von Oech | AmazonThe Surprising Magic of Setting a Deadline | Hacking Your ADHDCreative Whack Pack Deck by Roger von Oech | AmazonGary Arant | Think Like a Game Designer #47George Does the Opposite | SeinfeldAre There Any Benefits or Drawbacks to Releasing a Book in Hardcover Only? | QuoraHow to Become a Game Designer | Justin GaryCore Design Loop Step 1: Inspiration | Justin GaryCore Design Loop Step 2: Set Parameters | Justin GaryCore Design Loop Step 3: Brainstorming | Justin GaryCore Design Loop Step 4: Prototyping | Justin GaryCore Design Loop Step 5: Test | Justin GaryCore Design Loop Step 6: Iteration | Justin GaryA Fictional World Built for These Chaotic Times | The Legend of CØCKPUNCHHalo WaypointWorld of WarcraftGrand Theft Auto VWarhammer Age of Sigmar | Games WorkshopThis American LifeSerialThe Joe Rogan Experience | SpotifyA Simpler Way to Organize Your Work | WorkflowyYour Connected Workspace for Wiki, Docs, and Projects | NotionA Beginner’s Guide: How to Rent Your Ideas to Fortune 500 Companies with Stephen Key | Tim FerrissKISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid): A Design Principle | IxDFDominion Big Box 2nd Edition | AmazonDraft No. 4: On the Writing Process by John McPhee | AmazonAscension Prototype Designs | Justin GaryThe Sunk Cost Fallacy | The Decision LabYu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game | WikipediaUpper Deck World of Warcraft Miniatures Core Set | AmazonThe 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss | Amazon80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle) | InvestopediaRichard Koch on Mastering the 80/20 Principle, Achieving Unreasonable Success, and the Art of Gambling | The Tim Ferriss Show #466How to Negotiate as a Freelancer | Harvard Business ReviewTeaching by the Case Method | Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning, Harvard Business SchoolSailing on a Rising Tide of Juice; The Almost Accidental Success of Nantucket Nectars | The New York TimesHotel BironTime to Penis / TTP | Know Your MemeCØCKPUNCH CoffeeJustin Gary AMA | Bakugan TCG SubredditGame Manufacturers Association (GAMA) ExpoArt Supplies, Crafts, and Framing | MichaelsPlay Reimagined | Toy FairGen ConBad Beets Official How to Play Video | Stone BladeArnold Sports FestivalIronMind Captains of Crush (COC) Hand Gripper | AmazonHow Viagra Was Discovered by Accident | BBCGame Testing Questions | Justin GaryNeil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing | The MarginalianGen Con: The History of the World’s Oldest Tabletop Gaming Convention | BooksBrushes&BalrogsBurning ManAscension Tactics: The Deckbuilding Miniatures Game by Stone Blade Entertainment | KickstarterBakugan | Spin MasterPAX (Events) | WikipediaSolForge Digital Trading Card Game by Stone Blade Entertainment | KickstarterThe Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy by Chris Bailey | AmazonThe Rule of Three | Chris BaileyLevel Up Journal | Stone Blade EntertainmentYour Digital HQ | SlackManage Your Team’s Work, Projects, & Tasks Online | AsanaA New Way of Working | MondayThailand Travel Guide | National GeographicSHOW NOTES[07:43] An origin story steeped in Magic.[11:23] A debatable past.[16:38] The life of a full-time Magic competitor.[18:24] A philosophy major.[19:45] Monopoly lessons learned from a family of lawyers.[23:28] Innovations that made Magic an instant success.[26:40] Magic game balance considerations.[30:06] Justin exits his Magic career with an altered mindset.[36:43] Too cool for law school.[41:34] Risk is relative.[43:39] From playing games to designing games.[46:10] A Whack on the Side of the Head.[49:53] Surfacing our assumptions.[54:47] The core design loop and effective brainstorming.[1:00:20] Brainstorming tools.[1:02:01] Prototyping.[1:06:26] The value of ugly first drafts.[1:09:37] From company man to entrepreneur.[1:15:45] Fear-setting and contingency planning.[1:18:13] The early stages of startup life.[1:24:05] TTP.[1:25:21] Taking the company to the next level.[1:31:43] Gaming GAMA and other trade shows.[1:37:02] Eliciting feedback at the playtesting stage.[1:42:32] Ascension debuts at Gen Con.[1:47:04] The finances of game production.[1:51:27] The pros and cons of selling a game to another company.[1:53:54] Favorite failures.[1:59:17] Maintaining relationships through failures.[2:00:45] Lessons learned through trial and error.[2:03:39] Putting the rule of three to work.[2:05:21] Why Justin’s team communicates via Discord.[2:07:49] How a trip to Thailand helped Justin escape his need for control.[2:11:25] Justin’s billboard.[2:12:49] Parting thoughts.MORE JUSTIN GARY QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“Cultivate comfort with uncertainty and impermanence.”
— Justin Gary

“It can be way worse to win the wrong game than to lose one that you actually enjoy playing.”
— Justin Gary

“Deadlines are magic. It doesn’t matter if you have no idea what you’re doing, you have a deadline.”
— Justin Gary

“Most of the times we take risks, we’re not jumping off cliffs or into burning buildings. It’s just your career takes a different path or you’re behind in school or whatever. It’s a very low cost.”
— Justin Gary

“There’s nothing that differentiates a creative person from a not-creative person other than process.”
— Justin Gary

“It’s actually net negative for you to invest in making something ‘pretty’ early on in the process.”
— Justin Gary

“If you really, really think about the worst case scenarios, 99 times out of 100, they’re totally recoverable within a year. It’s often way less.”
— Justin Gary

“Imagine you’re building a house, and before you’ve even laid the foundation, you’re worrying about the paint color on the walls and where the furniture goes. You’re not going to get very far. You’re wasting a lot of time. Make sure you’ve got a solid foundation first. Worry about the paint color later. I think a lot of designers start by worrying about the paint color being wrong and they’re never going to finish a house that way.”
— Justin Gary

“Nobody knows what they’re doing. I cannot know what I’m doing at least as well as anybody else. This idea that the difference between a leader and somebody else is not that they know something or that they have some special access. It’s that [they’re] just willing to make some assertions and own the consequences. That’s it. That’s the difference.”
— Justin Gary

PEOPLE MENTIONEDRichard GarfieldReid HoffmanMark ZuckerbergRoger von OechDerek SiversRichard BransonElan LeeStephen KeyJeremy CranfordBabe RuthMichael JordanTiger WoodsEd ZschauRob DoughertyEric SabeeTodd McFarlaneArnold SchwarzeneggerNeil GaimanTaylor SwiftChris Bailey

The post Justin Gary — Taking the Path Less Traveled, The Phenomenon of “Magic: The Gathering,” How Analytical People Can Become “Creative” People, Finding the Third Right Answer, and How to Escape Your Need for Control (#687) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.