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Hey Ben!
Thanks for your question! By the way, there are no weird questions, just weird answers (kidding). 🙂
I feel that you can get really deep in the weeds with theory. It’s good to know about a lot of the concepts related to game design, but I prefer going more by feeling myself. If people are enjoying a game, that’s more important to me than whether it follows a certain rule.
Game design is a creative venture. It should also be fun. If you’re able to apply game design theory while making a fun game, then great! But the biggest thing is taking action and DOING! If you are just sitting around reading and learning and becoming a game design academic without actually making a game, you’re not a game designer yet. The real learning comes from making a game, taking the feedback, and making improvements to make your game the best it can be.
A lot can be learned through experience. I will often apply what I’ve learned by making one game when working on another. I can now more quickly determine that something is not likely to work and bypass trying a lot of things that probably wouldn’t be good solutions.
So, in short, book learning can be helpful, but learning and experiencing by making games is where I want to spend most of my time (and it’s a whole lot more fun, too!).
I hope this is helpful!
