10 Lessons from Duet

Recently someone asked me what the key lessons I learned from Duet were. I had never tried writing a definitive list before. Now seemed like as good a time as ever. So here are the key lessons from Duet:

• Narrative can create mystery and fuel curiosity. Hook your player with story and mythology.
• Cut all overlapping features — reduce to the minimum viable gameplay.
• An interpretable narrative will resonate with more players because the less you explicitly say the more room you leave to imagination and nothing can compare to the power of imagination. That’s why movies never live up to the expectations of books.
• Gameplay should be understandable from 5 feet away, i.e. I can discover and understand the game by looking over someone’s shoulder on a train.
• Gameplay can be very difficult — as long as it’s fair, i.e. it can be frustrating but it shouldn’t be depressing or disheartening.
• There should be something beautiful about the game that people want to share because this leads to word-of-mouth marketing. Beauty can be visual or audible, i.e. the music is the art of duet.
• Shorter levels are more digestible. The more digestible, the more players will play. Therefore, paradoxically, shorter levels can lead to longer play sessions.
• If you’re thinking of adding extra content to a premium game and the content is big enough to justify a sequel — go with the sequel rather than additional micro-transaction content.
• If you can’t win your own game while drunk — it’s probably too hard.
• Pour your whole self into your product and it will speak a unique and resonant truth.

Article published on: 17 Jun, 2019