On the wall are Penn’s ten game design rules, and it’s these that form the structure of the brainstorming process. There’s no sense that the team is just picking genres and trying to come up with new spins on old ideas. Instead, there’s a sort of organic, industrial design approach – they start by considering actions and interfaces – what’s fun to use, what isn’t? Today, they’re playing with iPhone, just fiddling about with different uses of the touchscreen, finding out what feels satisfying. “We always start with the idea of toys,” says Ralfe. “They’re the quickest way into finding fun. Rules aren’t fun, so we never begin with them.” There’s also a fluidity to the design process – Battle Atekko starting out as a racing game, but the fighting element looked like becoming the really fun bit, so they switched to a combat game. Fun is key. (via The Denki Difference | Technology | guardian.co.uk)