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Hey Robert!
Oooh, interesting question. Thanks for asking this.
I feel there are a lot of differences between teaching someone how to play a game and how to make a game. Essentially, one is how to do something that is already created, and the other is to create that experience.
I’m thinking of other examples like how to drive a car vs how to build one. You don’t need to know anything about how to make a car in order to drive one (although this can help you fix it if it breaks down – Like making a house rule to fix a game you see as broken).
But it is critical to know how to play games if you’re going to make one. I always encourage people to play lots of games so that they understand what works and what doesn’t and to get a better understanding of game mechanics, game flow, etc.
Designing and playing a game are very different, as are teaching each of these.
I guess the main similarities would be understanding the gameplay and mechanics of games.
I suppose one could also teach game design in part by examples (I do like to use these myself). Diving into how a mechanic works, why a designer made the choices they did, etc.
I don’t know if I answered this the way you had hoped but it was interesting to think about this one. I hope you get something out of this!
