Spiral Knights has some awesome design in it, at all levels. There's evidence in posts all around the forums that a lot of players are very interested in what this design does and how it works, either from a general interest in exploring good games or because they make / plan on making games themselves. Unfortunately for curious minds like me, however, there aren't a whole lot of places so far to get insight on the cogs behind the great machine that is Spiral Knights, and why it was decided that they should turn the way they do.
I think it'd be fascinating and enlightening if, along with each batch of patch notes, there was a little commentary (either in the mail or in the forums) about why an addition or change was made. Note that this is not a "Tell my why you changed unpopular thing X so I can rip you a new one for it" request; I believe wholeheartedly that the developers have the game's best interests in mind and are doing a great job at making it grow. Having that broader context on some of the more puzzling decisions (that zombie strike nerf seemed odd until the greater context of the leap buff happened, for instance) would definitely help us fledgling designers learn your craft, and be very interesting for fans of your work.
Mark Rosewater's articles for Magic: The Gathering are an excellent example of "commentary" as new content comes out. I realize that the medium is a little different (notably in that a physical game finds it much harder to change or retract content once it's released... no "patches for TCGs!), and a whole article with each little change would be a tad ridiculous, but I do feel that having a resource like those articles makes my experience as a player and observer of that game much richer. The link below leads to one of them:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/180
Keep up the good work!
Yes, they should have this. I used to play this game, AQW, and they have design notes like 3 times a week, and it made me really feel special and a part of the game. Because of that, i plan on becoming a coder for AE, maker of AQW.
+1 to design notes