Every game designer has an idea that feels brilliant in the moment. It sticks in your head, keeps whispering that it must be the foundation of something great. But the hard truth is: not every idea deserves a full game treatment. Some don’t fit, some collapse under their own weight, and some simply don’t click no matter how many times you turn them over.
“Kill your darlings” is advice borrowed from writing, and it applies perfectly to game design. The discipline isn’t about how many concepts you can dream up—it’s about knowing when to let go of the ones that don’t work. Ideas are cheap. Execution is precious.
Take my own “January Rendezvous” concept. Alien space locusts swarm the solar system, devour everything, then move on, leaving humanity to crawl back from asteroid colonies and underground vaults to reclaim Earth’s ashes. Sounds cool, right? Except—it just doesn’t work. I’ve circled back to it over and over, but the pieces never fall into place. So I shelved it.
That’s the lesson: letting go frees you to chase the next idea, the one that will sing. Don’t be afraid to bury your darlings. They make space for better games.
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