Ever felt like your gameplay design is nothing more than random features stitched together, hoping they'll somehow create a meaningful experience?

You've probably spent countless hours watching tutorials, reading blog posts, and analyzing successful games. You might even have a folder full of unfinished prototypes gathering digital dust on your hard drive.

And despite all that effort, something still feels... off. Your games never quite capture the magic you envision, do they?

Here's the painful truth that no one in the industry wants to talk about: most of what you've been taught about game design is fundamentally wrong.

Those "experts" on YouTube and Reddit are feeding you surface-level advice that keeps you stuck in mediocrity. But what if I told you that your struggles aren't because you lack talent or creativity?

In this post, I'll reveal the 6 critical mistakes secretly sabotaging your progress - mistakes that keep talented designers like you trapped in an endless cycle of trial and error, never reaching their true potential.

Mistake #1: Skipping Game Direction And Falling Into The Trial-And-Error Trap

Let's start with something that plagues pretty much every aspiring game designer at the beginning of their journey. It's so common that you probably don't even realize you're doing it right now.

You know that feeling when you have a great game idea?

Your mind starts racing with possibilities. You can already picture players having fun with your creation, and you can't wait to see it come to life.

It's an amazing sensation, isn't it? That surge of creative energy makes you feel unstoppable. Like you could conquer any technical challenge standing between you and your vision.

And that's exactly where the trap lies.

Because in that moment of excitement, your natural instinct kicks in. The one that makes you want to start building something - anything - right away.

You feel this urge to open a game engine like Unity or Unreal and start messing around with features and mechanics.

I know that feeling. You have a fantastic idea, and you're burning with excitement to bring it to life. After all, that's what everyone tells you to do, right?

"Just start making games!".

But hold on there for a second.

Let me tell you what actually happens when you do this: you end up in an endless cycle of trying random stuff, hoping something will work.

Sure, you're "making" something, but designing is a totally different thing.

And you know what's the worst part? This approach slowly kills your motivation. Each time you add something new, it feels disconnected from everything else.

Your game becomes this Frankenstein of features that don't really work together.

"Maybe if I add this cool mechanic I saw in that other game…".

Stop.

This is precisely how you end up with a portfolio full of unfinished projects. Each one abandoned when you realized it wasn't going anywhere, but you couldn't figure out why.

Why? Because you have no clear purpose in guiding your decisions.

Here's something important to remember: crafting gameplay isn't about writing code.

That's programming territory, and it's not what makes you a game designer.

What you need to do is design a structure that creates a specific mental process in your player's mind. Every game system, every rule, every interaction should be purposefully crafted to guide players toward particular thoughts and decisions.

Without this understanding, you'll keep falling into the same dangerous pattern:

1. Getting excited about an idea
2. Jumping into development
3. Feeling lost and confused when things don't click
4. And eventually, giving up.

Then the cycle repeats with your next "great idea".

Trust me, I've seen this happen with my own eyes, unfortunately.

Talented, passionate people who could've made amazing games but got stuck in this loop of trial and error, watching their enthusiasm drain away project after project.

Until they quit declaring that "Designing games don't make me feel happy anymore".

Here's the kicker - you can't do any of that if you don't know what experience you want to create in the first place.

Think about it. How can you design gameplay that delivers specific emotions and sensations if you haven't clearly defined what those emotions and sensations are?

You're essentially trying to build a house without a blueprint. Brick after brick with absolutely no idea of the big picture.

That's why you need to take a step back. Before you even think about gameplay mechanics, you need to lay out your Game Direction in detail.

• What's the experiential journey you want players to go through?
• What emotions should they feel?
• What mental processes do you want to trigger while playing?

Without this foundation, you're just shooting in the dark.

Your design process becomes nothing more than educated guesswork, and trust me, that's not how great games are made.

The hard truth is that all those hours you spend tweaking random features and mechanics get wasted if they're not guided by a clear purpose.

You might think you're making progress, but you're actually just running in circles.

Your Game Direction is your compass. It's what transforms random trial-and-error into purposeful design decisions.

It's what separates Deep Game Designers from shallow ones.

Skip this crucial step, and you're setting yourself up for frustration, wasted time, and a game that lacks coherence and impact.

Define your Game Direction first. Everything else comes after that. Your future self will thank you for it.

Mistake #2: Relying On What Players See Instead Of What They Think

Let me tell you something that no one is talking about in Gameplay Design.

There's a fundamental flaw in how most aspiring game designers approach their craft. They look at games through a player's lens, and that's exactly what's holding them back.

I call this "Player Myopia", and it affects countless aspiring game designers (and even a lot of so-called "experts" out there).

They can't help but see games superficially, just like players do. They focus on what's immediately visible: character actions, visual and audio feedback, interface elements, etc.

"But isn't that what games are all about?"

No, and this misconception is crushing your potential as a game designer.

Think about it for a moment. When players interact with a game, they're naturally drawn to their character's immediate actions. They see the cool moves, the direct responses to their inputs, and the obvious cause-and-effect relationships.

Everything else becomes background noise to them.

And that's perfectly fine - for players. But as a game designer (a Deep Game Designer, actually), if you think this way, you're missing the entire point of gameplay design.

"What do you mean? I play tons of games; I know how they work!"

Do you really?

Because right now, you're probably designing games based on what you see as a player, not on what happens in the player's mind. And that's where the real game exists.

Every time you start designing a new feature thinking, "This would be cool to play with", you're falling deeper into the trap.

You're building disconnected pieces that might seem interesting in isolation but don't create a coherent experience.

And the worst part? You don't even realize why your games aren't coming together.

The truth is, gameplay isn't about what appears on the screen.

It's about the mental processes you trigger in your player's mind. It's about shaping their decision-making, guiding their strategic thinking, and crafting those moments of meaningful realization that make games truly great experiences.

This is something players themselves can't tell you about.

Even when asked directly about their decisions, they'll only give you surface-level explanations. They might recognize what they did but can't break down the underlying mental structure that led them there.

And if you adopt their perspective (and you have it encoded in your brain, too, since you're a gamer), you'll be stuck at the same superficial level, unable to understand the deep psychological architecture that actually drives engagement and strategic thinking.

"But I've studied game design tutorials and analyzed successful games…"

I understand why you'd think that's enough. After all, that's what most online resources tell you to do.

But here's what they don't tell you - analyzing games as a player only teaches you to recognize patterns, not understand why they work.

You end up with a collection of features you think are "fun" without grasping the real gameplay structure behind them that is meaningfully interacting with the player's mind.

That's why so many aspiring designers end up creating games that feel like pale imitations of existing ones. They copy what they can see but miss the invisible architecture that makes great games.

It's like trying to recreate a complex structure like a coral reef by only looking at its surface.

You might perfectly replicate the shapes and colors of the coral, but without understanding the complex ecosystem beneath - the currents, the chemistry, the intricate relationships between species - you'll never create a living, thriving reef.

You'll end up with a lifeless structure that looks right but lacks deeper systems that make it work effectively.

That's why so many of your projects probably feel static and artificial. You're crafting detailed surfaces without building the vital system underneath. Instead of creating living, deep, and dynamic experiences, you're making elaborate decorations.

If you don't make this mental shift, you'll keep creating gameplay structures that feel shallow and disconnected. Your prototypes will remain just that - prototypes.

Each new project will feel like starting from scratch because you're not building actual gameplay design knowledge. Instead, you're accumulating a library of shallow observations that don't translate into real design skills.

Your design process will remain surface-level, never reaching the depth needed to craft truly meaningful and engaging experiences.

You'll keep wondering why playtesters seem excited at first but rapidly disengage. Why your games spark curiosity at first glance but fail to maintain any meaningful engagement beyond the surface level.

I'll tell you again. The game isn't on the screen. It's in the player's mind. And until you start designing for that, you're not really designing at all.

Remember: being a passionate gamer doesn't automatically make you a good game designer.

In fact, it might be your biggest obstacle if you can't break free from Player Myopia and start thinking like a real designer.

The longer you stay trapped in the player's perspective, the harder it becomes to develop the analytical skills that separate Deep Game Designers from those who just make "cool features" that never quite come together.

Mistake #3: Stuffing Gameplay With "Cool" And "Fun" Features Without Purpose

Let's talk about the most damaging mistake I see aspiring game designers make - and why some "veterans" are making it infinitely worse with their terrible advice.

You've probably heard this gem before: "Just find the fun!".

What a load of crap. I'm sorry, but this makes me get out of myself each and every time I hear it.

And you know what makes it even more dangerous? It's coming from veteran game designers who actually work in the industry. Their authority makes beginners swallow this nonsense without questioning it.

"But if successful veterans say it, shouldn't we listen?"

Here's the uncomfortable truth: these veterans have internalized their design processes over years of experience.

They work on "intuition" (whatever that means) and have forgotten how they learned in the first place. They can't teach you because they don't even remember how they got there.

Don't get me wrong.

They're not stupid - they're just human. What they're experiencing is called Hindsight Bias: once you know something deeply, your brain literally rewrites your memories to make it seem like you always knew it.

It makes it nearly impossible to remember what it felt like to not know something. I'm not making this up - go ahead and Google it if you don't believe me.

It's a well-documented psychological phenomenon that affects everyone, even the most brilliant people in any field.

Also, this is why a good game design teacher needs to work differently than a veteran practitioner.

They need to constantly dig deeper into the "why "behind every principle, maintaining a clear understanding of the fundamentals that veterans take for granted.

It's not about being good at making games but more about being deeply aware of every single step in the thinking process.

So when they tell you to "find the fun", they're not giving you actionable advice. They're just describing their automated thinking process, which is useless for someone like you who's learning.

"But shouldn't we trust their experience?"

Their experience? Yes.

Their teaching ability? Absolutely not.

This "find the fun" mindset is destroying your growth as a game designer in ways you probably don't even realize. Let me show you how.

First, it makes team collaboration a complete nightmare.

When "it's fun" is your only criterion, you end up with endless subjective arguments. Everyone has their opinion about what's "fun", and guess what? None of these opinions is better than the others.

You're stuck in an endless loop of meaningless discussions that lead nowhere.

Second, it cripples your ability to make informed design decisions.

Without clear criteria, every choice becomes a shot in the dark. Should you add this mechanic? Modify that system? Remove this feature?

When "fun" is your compass, you have no real way to evaluate these decisions.

You end up relying on gut feelings and random feedback, leading to a chaotic design process where nothing can be properly assessed or improved.

This leads to the third, even more devastating problem: it completely derails your design process.

Without clear criteria and direction, you end up adding feature after feature just because they seem "cool" at the moment. Your game becomes a bloated mess of random elements that don't work together.

"But shouldn't we aim for fun in our games?"

Let me stop you right there.

This idea that games must be" fun" is another misconception we need to kill.

Games need to deliver specific experiences to their target players - that's it. Some players might find those experiences enjoyable; others might find them challenging, uncomfortable, or thought-provoking.

"Fun" doesn't mean anything concrete you can design for. It's just a vague, 100% subjective feeling that changes from person to person.

The consequences?

• Your development time triples because you're constantly adding and tweaking features without any clear purpose.
• Your game loses its identity because it's trying to be everything at once.
• Your team morale (along with yours) plummets as everyone argues about subjective "fun" factors.
• Your portfolio projects never get finished because you're always chasing the next "cool" feature.

This ties directly back to mistake #1 (ignoring Game Direction).

Every single feature in your game should serve your core vision and message. Every. Single. One. When you add stuff just because it's "fun" or "cool", you're actively sabotaging your game's identity and impact.

"But what about creativity and experimentation?"

There's a massive difference between purposeful experimentation and randomly throwing features in and hoping something decent will come out.

One builds your skills; the other wastes your time.

Stop listening to this "find the fun" nonsense, even "especially!" when it comes from industry veterans.

Instead, ask yourself these questions for every feature:

• How does this serve my game's core purpose?
• What specific value does it add to the player's experience?
• How does it reinforce my game's message?
• Can I clearly explain why this feature belongs in my game?

If you can't answer these questions, that "cool" feature must go. Period.

Remember: your game isn't a random collection of "fun" mechanics. It's a carefully crafted experience where every element works together toward a clear experiential goal.

Start treating it that way, regardless of what some veteran's "intuition" tells you.

Don't let authority blind you to bad advice, even when it comes from successful designers.

These veterans are great at making games - that's their job, after all. However, teaching is a completely different skill set, and when they try to explain their processes, they often fall back on vague concepts like "finding the fun" because they've internalized their actual methods so deeply.

It's not their fault; it's just that making games and teaching how to make them are two very different things.

Mistake #4: Letting Genre Lead Your Gameplay Design Process

Let me guess - when you start designing a game, one of your first thoughts is, "I want to make a Metroidvania" or "I'll create a Roguelike with a twist".

Don't worry. I get it. Genre feels like a comfortable starting point because it gives you a pre-made framework to build upon.

Just pick some genre standards, maybe mix in elements from another genre, and you're good to go… right?

Wrong. Dead wrong. And I'll tell you why this approach severely limits your potential as a game designer.

First, let's address the elephant in the room: genre isn't even a game design term.

It's a marketing label created by players and businesses to roughly categorize games for discussion and sales purposes.

Think about it - how many times have you seen heated arguments about whether a game is a "true RPG" or not? That's because genres are fluid, constantly evolving, and honestly terrible at capturing the complexity of modern games.

The whole concept of strictly defining genres is fundamentally flawed.

Games are incredibly complex systems with countless interacting elements. Trying to force them into neat little boxes is not just pointless - it's actively harmful to your development as a designer.

"But isn't genre useful for understanding game mechanics and patterns?"

I hear this argument all the time, and it makes me want to bang my head against the wall.

Yes, genres can be helpful for discussing games casually or browsing Steam. But the moment you let genre guide your design process, you're already setting yourself up for failure.

Here's where it gets really problematic: when you start with genre, you're essentially putting yourself in a box that other people built.

Instead, ask yourself fundamental questions like:

• What experience do I want to create?
• What emotions do I want to evoke?
• What kind of thinking process do I want the player to have?

By starting with genre, you're already constraining yourself with pre-existing content patterns.

You're not designing - you're just remixing.

And let me tell you something that might hurt: this is exactly what those "game design experts" won't tell you.

They love to promote this genre-first approach because it's easy to explain and sounds reasonable on the surface. But it's a trap that leads to derivative, soulless games.

When you start with genre, you're reduced to playing a game of trial and error.

You take some mechanics from Column A, mix them with elements from Column B, and hope something interesting emerges. But without a clear vision driving your choices, you're just blindly experimenting with random combinations.

That's not game design - that's just copying with extra steps.

Think about games that truly revolutionized the industry. Did Dark Souls succeed because it perfectly followed action RPG conventions? Did Portal make history by rigidly adhering to FPS guidelines?

Of course not. These games broke new ground precisely because their designers focused on creating specific experiences rather than fitting them into predetermined boxes.

The cruel irony is that starting with genre actually makes your job harder, not easier.

You're constantly fighting against established conventions, trying to figure out which rules you can break without "betraying" the genre.

It's like trying to renovate a house while being forced to keep every wall exactly where it is - you might make some improvements, but you'll never create something truly interesting.

Instead, start with the experience you want to create.

This is a meaningful constraint that pushes your creativity in the right direction, unlike genre, which only limits your options without adding value.

Define your Game Direction first, then let the specific mechanics and content flow naturally from that vision.

This might feel scary at first.

Without genre conventions as a crutch, you'll have to think deeper about every design decision. Good. That's precisely what you should be doing as a Deep Game Designer.

That's how you develop real analytical skills instead of just becoming good at mixing and matching pre-existing elements.

Every truly innovative game broke genre conventions because its designers focused on creating a specific experience rather than fitting into a predetermined box.

Don't let outdated thinking and misguided advice hold you back from reaching your full potential as a game designer.

Mistake #5: Using Prototyping To Figure Out What To Design

Look, I need to tell you something important about your prototyping process. Something that's probably going to make you uncomfortable, but you need to hear it.

Every time you open Unity or Unreal, thinking, "I'll figure out the gameplay as I build it", you're laying the groundwork for another unfinished project.

And the worst part? You don't even realize you're doing it.

This is probably one of the most widespread mistakes I see among aspiring game designers.

They completely misunderstand what prototyping is for. They treat it as some magical discovery tool that will somehow reveal the perfect gameplay design if they just keep adding random features long enough.

Think about it for a moment.

How can you validate something you haven't even properly designed yet? That's like writing a novel by typing random scenes and hoping a coherent story emerges somewhere along the way.

You're trapping yourself in an endless cycle of aimless iterations.

Here's what those YouTube tutorials and Reddit posts won't tell you: prototyping is a validation tool, not a discovery tool.

Its purpose is to verify that your carefully designed gameplay structure delivers the target game experience you defined in your Game Direction.

Yes, you might discover interesting emergent effects during testing - that's called serendipity, and it's great! But those should be happy accidents you capitalize on, not your entire design strategy.

You can't build a career on hoping for happy accidents.

When you skip the crucial step of defining your gameplay structure first, you're not being "agile" or "iterative" - you're just lost.

You're hoping that random experimentation will eventually lead to something meaningful instead of deliberately crafting an experience.

This is exactly what leads back to Mistake #1 (that, if you haven't gotten it yet, it's the most fundamental one), creating this vicious cycle that keeps crushing your potential.

"But won't planning everything slow me down?"

Actually, the opposite is true.

And let me be clear - I'm not saying you need to design your entire game upfront. That would be insane.

What you need is to design a specific piece of your gameplay structure first, then use prototyping to verify that piece works as intended.

Having a clear gameplay structure before prototyping dramatically shortens your iteration cycles. It gives you a concrete target to aim for, specific hypotheses to test, and clear criteria for success.

But wait, let me break this down further. When you start with a well-defined gameplay structure:

• Your prototyping sessions become focused and purposeful
• You can easily identify what's working and what isn't
• You spend less time pursuing dead-end ideas
• Your iterations become more efficient because you know exactly what you're testing
• You can actually measure progress instead of just hoping something clicks

But when you use prototyping as a discovery tool:

• You waste countless hours implementing features you'll throw away
• Your game becomes a hodgepodge of disconnected mechanics
• You can't tell if you're making progress or just spinning your wheels
• Your development time triples or quadruples
• Your motivation slowly drains away as you realize you're not getting anywhere.

This isn't some theoretical concept floating around in game design books.

It happens all the time in the industry. Talented, passionate people who could've created amazing games, but instead got trapped in an endless cycle of directionless prototyping.

They convinced themselves they were "iterating," but they were really just postponing the crucial work of actual design.

The most painful part?

They usually don't realize what's wrong until they've wasted months or even years of development time. By then, their passion has often burned out, and they're left wondering why they can't seem to finish anything.

"But that's how everyone does it, right?"

Wrong. That's how shallow designers work. And if you keep following their lead, you'll keep getting shallow results.

Don't let prototyping become your excuse for avoiding real design work. It's a powerful tool, but like any tool, it needs to be used correctly. Define your gameplay structure first, then use prototyping to validate and refine your intentional design choices.

Every hour spent defining your gameplay structure saves you weeks of aimless development later.

This isn't just advice - it's the difference between becoming a Deep Game Designer and remaining stuck in the endless loop of trial and error that's holding back so many aspiring talents like you.

The choice - and the responsibility - is yours. Are you ready to start designing games instead of just building them?

Mistake #6: Focusing On Content And Ignoring The Player's Mind

Here's the truth that might shake your world.

The most critical mistake you're making isn't about mechanics, systems, or content. It's about where you're placing your design attention. And I bet nobody ever told you this before.

You see, there's a dangerous mindset spreading in the game design community when it comes to gameplay crafting.

"Focus on making fun mechanics", they say. "Create engaging content", they preach. But they're leading you down a path of mediocrity, and I can't stand watching talented designers like you waste their potential.

Do you really think that adding more content to your game will magically make it better? Or maybe you believe that if you nail down those mechanics perfectly, players will automatically have a great time?

Let me be crystal clear.

This is the most counterintuitive mistake you'll face, but fixing it is what separates shallow designers from deep ones who truly understand the craft. When your games feel empty despite being packed with content, this is exactly why.

The harsh reality is that by focusing on content, you're losing the true compass of your design process.

The game doesn't happen in your design document, in your Unity/Unreal editor, or even in front of the players' eyes - it always happens in the player's mind. Yet, you've been conditioned to think that gameplay should exist for its own sake, that "fun" is the ultimate goal.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

"But how can gameplay not be about the content? Isn't that what games are made of?"

The uncomfortable truth that none talks about is this: you've been taught to see mechanics, characters, enemies, environments, and gameplay in general as the end goal of your design process.

But that's exactly the opposite.

These elements are just the beginning, the foundational pieces you'll use to craft something far more important.

Treating them as the final destination instead of the starting point is why so many aspiring game designers get stuck creating shallow experiences.

Your ultimate focus should always be the mental processes of the player as they interact with your gameplay structure. The strategic thinking you require from them. The emotional journey you guide them through. The moments of realization you craft.

This is where the real gameplay design happens.

When players face a combat encounter in your game, what truly matters isn't the enemy's attack pattern or the available weapons.

What matters is the strategic thinking process you're triggering in their minds with them.

• Are they analyzing risk versus rewards?
• Are they weighing different tactical approaches?
• Are they learning to read patterns and adapt their strategy?

This might feel uncomfortable because it forces you to think beyond the tangible elements you can directly control.

But that's exactly why most aspiring game designers remain stuck in mediocrity - they're following outdated advice that keeps them focused on the surface level of gameplay design.

The key is to flip your design process on its head completely.

Instead of starting with mechanics and hoping they'll somehow create meaningful, deep strategic thinking, you need to first define the exact type of mental engagement you want from your players.

What kind of decisions should they wrestle with? What patterns should they learn to recognize? What strategic trade-offs should occupy their minds?

Only then, once you have a crystal clear picture of the thinking process you want to trigger, can you start crafting the gameplay structure that naturally pushes players toward that kind of reasoning.

Most aspiring game designers get this process backward.

They build features first and then desperately try to figure out what kind of thinking they might provoke. This inevitably traps them in an endless cycle of trial and error, tweaking mechanics, hoping to stumble upon something that "feels right".

The consequences of this mistake are more severe than you probably think.

Your games become shallow experiences filled with mechanics that don't serve a greater purpose. You waste countless hours polishing features that don't contribute to the player's mental journey.

Worse yet, you develop a superficial understanding of gameplay design that companies will never see you as the talent you could be.

They're looking for designers who can think deeply about player experiences, not just someone who can pile up features.

Each time you add a feature without considering its impact on the player's strategic thinking, you're essentially building a house of cards. It might look impressive at first glance, but it lacks the foundation to stand the test of time.

The content is there, yes, but it must serve the player experience you're targeting.

Every mechanic, every system, every piece of content should be carefully crafted to support the mental journey you want your players to experience. This is the deeper level of gameplay design that takes apart memorable games from forgettable ones.

And yet, despite how crucial this deeper understanding is, most aspiring designers never reach it.

They stay trapped in the shallow waters of game design, not because they lack talent or passion, but because they've never been shown the true depth of this craft. They keep following the same surface-level practices because that's all they see around them.

Look, I know it's painful to realize how much time you've wasted.

• You've followed tutorials thinking they would make you a designer.
• Relied on genres as your design compass.
• And blindly trusted that execution was all that mattered.

You've been led down this path by an industry that keeps feeding you superficial knowledge, and I get it - I've been there too.

The constant stream of quick tips and shallow tutorials makes it easy to stay comfortable in that surface-level understanding.

Between desperately searching for "fun" through endless iterations, cramming features into oversized projects, and focusing on content instead of players thinking, you've fallen into every step that keeps aspiring game designers from growing.

But here's the thing - you're not alone in this.

The game industry has conditioned us to think this way, making it all too easy to stay trapped in these patterns. After all, that's what everyone else seems to be doing, right?

The trial-end-error approach has become so normalized that questioning it feels almost wrong - like you're the one missing something obvious that everyone else understands.

But now you know better, and that means the responsibility to change falls squarely on your shoulders.

Every day you continue treating game design as a mere content creation exercise, you're not just letting yourself down - you're actively suppressing your true potential as a designer.

Your friends and family believe in your dream of becoming a game designer, and they deserve to see you really commit to mastering this craft, not just scratching its surface.

It's time to stop hiding behind shallow mechanics and features.

It's time to dig deeper, to truly understand how you can shape player experiences and strategic thinking.

That's the kind of designer companies are desperately searching for, and that's the kind of designer I know you can become.

The choice is yours now: will you keep floating on the surface, or are you ready to dive into the depths of what gameplay design really means?