Player Discretion is Advised: Designing for Rule-Changing Play

This paper uses research through game design to explore how we can make video games that invite players to invent their own personal play-practices through making and changing rules. Through a reflective process of designing and playtesting a multiplayer game in which changing rules and parameters is the central mechanic, we have identified how we can create opportunities for players to exert their own creative authority on the structure of their play-practices. As our contribution, we present three design themes which aim to invite player authorship on practices of gameplay: opening up digital rules and parameters, bringing internal rules to the surface, and leaving space for internal goals. We also bring a larger discussion of these design patterns in which we investigate the duality of responsibility and freedom in play when we design for player creativity, and the role of video games as tools to make metagames.