Start Designing, Start Building

I’ve been rereading The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell, and Chapter 1 felt like a breath of fresh air ✨📗 

⭐ The chapter opens with a simple challenge: if you want to be a game designer, start designing. Not later. Not once you’ve learned everything. Right now.

It reminded me of how people often hesitate around AI. Not because the tools aren’t available, but because the space feels too big, too complex, or reserved for “technical experts.” But as with game design, the real work starts when you dive in; experimenting, failing, building, listening.

✍ Here are a few parallels that stuck with me:

1. Failure is the entry point, not the end

Game designers don’t avoid failure, they build with it. In AI, especially when generating visuals, training models, or crafting prompts, the first iterations will often be wrong. But those “misses” teach you what your tools are actually capable of. Just like in game design, if you’re not failing, you’re not exploring.

2. AI work is multidisciplinary by nature

Schell lists everything from psychology and anthropology to cinematography and economics as valuable to game designers. The same applies to AI. Prompting well requires writing and visual sensibility. Tuning a model means understanding math, logic, and bias. Building responsible systems takes insight into people, not just code.

3. Listening is a core design skill - in games and in AI

Major emphasis on deep listening: to your team, your audience, your project, your client, and yourself. 

With AI, that means listening to:

 - Your users - What are they actually trying to accomplish?

 - Your outputs - What’s the AI really doing, and why?

 - Your collaborators - AI work is rarely solo.

 - Yourself - Are you building something meaningful, or just shiny?

4. Skill matters, but love of the work matters more

Schell introduces two “gifts”: the minor one (natural skill) and the major one (love of the craft). The second is what leads to true growth. 

‼️ Final thought:

You don’t need to master every AI tool. You don’t need a degree in machine learning. But if you’re genuinely curious, if you like building, experimenting, and paying close attention - you’ll go further than most.

Game design taught me that. AI keeps proving it. 💫