James Ernest on design

I generally don't like to just quote-and-link, but I can't help it sometimes.

Cheapass' James Ernest has an article in Make magazine on game design. Some of it is pretty basic and introductory stuff, but this quote stands out as particularly insightful.

I like to say that there are two kinds of novice game designers: those who make houses out of doors, and those who make roads out of walls. The "house made of doors" game has no clear goal but offers many ways to get there. The "road made of walls" has a clear objective, the end of the road, with obstacles along the way. But a good game combines these two - a road made of doors, with a clear goal and multiple ways to achieve it.

Definitely a different way of thinking about design.