some guy who poured a lot of hate and rage into XCOM: Enemy Unknown wrote:

Game design:

Have some fucking idea of what came before and what did and didn't work for the genre you are in. Every single game designer in the world should be able to speak to the specific case of why X-COM was a masterpiece and why Terror From the Deep sucked dick. Every single one - regardless if you are making iOS slop or console games or a game that is actually called XCOM.

Play every meaningful PC game from 1980 to 1996. The limitations in computing power and storage meant that creativity, design and an innate sense of fun had to grab a player's attention. A lot of developers and designers seem to think that having played every SNES game is the same thing. It is absolutely not, and the reason is because the NES, SNES and Genesis were all designed to try to make Donkey Kong Country. You can count the interesting games on those consoles that weren't sports or side-scrollers on one hand. The PC is the only platform that matters.