Amit Patel on making things

For decades, Amit Patel’s interactive explainers have been reference points for programmers, game developers, and curious people on the internet. Red Blob Games is one of my personal favorites. As part of the Making things project (intro here), I asked Amit how someone starts and sustains that kind of work: how he chooses projects, makes them great, and sets them free. We got to dive deep over a long email chain. (This transcript has been edited for clarity.)Bobbie Chen (BC): When anything is possible, how do you decide what to create?Amit Patel (AP): Honestly, the biggest factor is whatever I'm interested in at the time. But the style of project depends on my goal.In the trading card game Magic: The Gathering, there’s a "deck building" part where you expand your capabilities. Then there's a "battle" part of the game where you put those capabilities to good use. I try to model my projects the same way. Some projects are "deck building", to learn new things. Some projects are "battle",…