[johnnyanmac]

Interesting how you advice is to not to emulate classic games while the author came to the opposite conclusion:

>Chasing novelty for the sake of novelty is silly. Gameplay mechanics often don't work out the way you plan in your mind. I find that bottom-up design is much more effective.

But I guess that's the thing about game design. There is no one true blue answer, and it ultimately comes down to how you approach problems in general. I'm guessing some are just really good at deeply analyzing a game and polishing up their own variation of that game, while others are better off learning concepts and then drawing their own experiences together rather than following a tight template.

(Note: this ofc can vary even in the same person, from genre to genre. I'm sure some fighting game experts can design their own fighting game down to the number of frames per attack per character. but also can't figure out a basic game loop for an FPS.)