Another Johnversation

“The process of iteration is a way of exploring possibilities that, maybe, I wouldn’t get to.”

Welcome back to another Johnversation, wherein I sit down with graphic artist and game designer (and my partner) John Harper! This season, we're digging into aesthetic and mechanical iteration: John takes us through his process for creating art, playtesting his games, and co-running a food lab in our home kitchen. Here’s a teaser:

I love talking with John about creative practice and process, and I'm sure you'll love hearing his insights (and his tips and tricks for making amazing steak). Read along with the episode transcript here. Enjoy!

xx, aa

[ Teaser video transcript; dialogue playing over music bed ]

john harper: Hopefully, through that process of play, iterate; play, iterate; play, iterate, the game starts to take shape.

allison arth: Now on the Little Oracles podcast, a Creative Chat with graphic artist and game designer John Harper.

aa: It seems to me that iteration, and experimentation, and learning, and then revising shows up in your process in a lot of ways, and it’s kind of agnostic of product.

jh: The process of iteration is a way of exploring possibilities that, maybe, I wouldn’t get to. I can get stuck in just trying to refine the thing that I had already thought of, and I’ve found this separate, iterative track to, kind of, be a way of breaking out of that, and just — not arbitrarily, but without a lot of preciousness — just try something very, very different. You know, something that wasn’t part of my plan initially. It’s kind of a collage process, sort of.

aa: You know, you’re talking about game-making, and mechanical iteration, too, which is this concept of playtesting: could you go into how that works in the development of a game, iteratively?

jh: One of the biggest parts, to me, is, really, the playtesting process as part of the design process. Starting that playtest process really, really early, and just seeing, right away, like: is this sparking with people? Are they excited to go into this world?

aa: You and I have what is, effectively, a food laboratory in our home kitchen. I don’t know, what is it with you that makes you want to apply that iterative impulse that you have in your creative life — like, why do you wanna do it with food? [laughs]

jh: [laughs] Yeah! I think it’s fun to do; it’s, like, an engaging process. It’s curiosity and playing to find out. [laughs]

aa: [laughs} Yeah, yeah! You’re right.

jh: Like, I find a lot of enjoyment in critical thinking and exploration of a thing; it makes me enjoy it more when I dive more into it, and think about the process, and the technique, and the materials, and the history, and all the variations, and, just— it just adds so much interest.

aa: Find Little Oracles wherever you get podcasts.