Brand Game Development

SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

Some objectives I’ve used for testing Highways & Byways are “make sure Byway Cards communicate the location of roads clearly” and “gather data on the balance of Event Cards.” Choose something to pay extra close attention to, such as balance, communication, or accessibility.

Balance 130

Balance Point and Click Dev Communications 130

Radiator Blog

MARCH 16, 2023

It shows the everyday work of medium-scale commercial game dev in unprecedented detail: the creative high of successful collaboration as well as the ugly prototypes, grueling bug fixes, and painful miscommunication. Each level also had unique mechanics and art styles that all tied into a cohesive whole.

Art 59

Art Concepts Dev Studios 59

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 8, 2017

I wait until I have all the art assets I need. With enough games, outliers tend to balance each other out. This is a checklist I like to check off before I start final testing: Get the physical prototype ready. All art is done. I’ve ordered an updated version of the prototype.

Point and Click 130

Point and Click Dev Games Prototyping 130

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 23, 2017

You help balance out each others’ weaknesses. I can’t really see so well, so art and graphic layout don’t bother me. Sarah: I’m the one who makes the early prototypes and I’m in charge of the playtesting. This also applies to not spending a lot of time on the art or graphic design.

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Playtesting Games Game Design 130

Deconstructor of Fun

DECEMBER 13, 2022

Charles Lee (Art Lead) , veteran art director and concept artist with past experience at Blizzard , Sony Pictures Animation , and who until very recently worked in the Visual Development of Netflix hit Arcane (damn!). This is a well-balanced team in terms of disciplines, covering software, design, and art.

Studios 52

Studios Mobile Mobile Console 52

PreMortem.Games

MARCH 1, 2024

As we were prototyping there was still a feeling the game needed more action. A large majority of the art was created from scratch, but Hartley admits having used a few asset packs to help speed up development. “I For me personally it spread me too thin across Art, SFX, Designs, Visual Scripting, Writing and Marketing Material.

Studios 104

Studios Prototyping Visual Scripting Art 104

Grid Sage Games

MARCH 10, 2022

Some roguelikes don’t strive for balance, but maintaining balance has always been important to me for Cogmind, since it fits better with my vision for this type of game, heavy on tough, complex, and consequential decision-making at multiple strategic and tactical levels. Exiles Prototypes. ASCII art for Exiles prototypes.

Balance 52

Balance Mechanics Beta Prototyping 52

PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

RimWorld is balanced around sitting on a single map, with everything easily accessible. In the end we’d rather tone down some of our more ambitious features to get acceptable performance, and deliver a bug-free and polished release to our players.” “Ricky has his own unique art style that he brought into the process.”

Dev 115

Dev Development Prototyping Feature 115

Keith Burgun

JANUARY 4, 2023

Indeed, Spellstorm originally started as a sequel to Dragon Bridge, a larger and more fleshed out version (with better art). We’ve only playtested it about 5-6 times – each time it was a blast , despite the balance being all wonked up – so I don’t want to get too deep into the details right now. The Problems.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Game Design Game Designer Playtesting 52

PreMortem.Games

JUNE 20, 2023

It takes a lot of energy and when you’re deep into the creative process, programming and making art, it’s inhumanly hard to find the time and motivation to promote your game. Besides these well documented ones, the biggest problem I experienced first hand was balancing the game’s difficulty.

Dev 104

Dev Art Prototyping Development 104

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 11, 2017

Sean: Guidelines for writing good rules really boils down to learning the art of instruction and communication. I’d say the main tool set for understanding and wielding that art form is empathy. This is to make sure the game is – on some fundamental level – balanced. Public blind play tests.

Mechanics 130

Mechanics Concepts Writing Games 130

Mircosoft Game Dev

APRIL 27, 2018

The aim of CSG in Godot is for it to be used in level prototyping. Unreal has always offered similar boolean CSG, while Unity has recently acquired ProBuilder (which is a different type of tool, but still aimed at prototyping level geometry). For developers, creating 3D art is a time consuming process. This will be added soon.

Polygon 52

Polygon Mesh Prototyping Art 52

Brand Game Development

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

From scribbling your ideas onto the proverbial napkin, to actually crafting prototypes, play-testing, redoing it all, and finally getting your game to reviewers, there is no shortage of details and learning curves. – COSTS (in order: manufacturing, art and design, marketing, misc.). It’s a tough balancing act!

Game Developer 130

Game Developer Game Development Development Games 130

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 27, 2017

When I first complete my rapid prototype, I call this Phase 1. This is where I start to dive into balancing mechanical choices with regards to elements of the game, like spaces on the board for worker placement or card abilities in a card game. The only difference is I blind play-test while waiting on art.

Mechanics 130

Mechanics Games Balance Development 130

Radiator Blog

JULY 6, 2021

My first prototype were sim-heavy, based on basic cellular automata , a technique popularized by Conway's Game of Life (1970) where cells (or anything, really) live or die based on crowding, However this felt too fiddly, with small shapes that changed too quickly. There's something interesting between these two notions of simulation.

Simulation 52

Simulation Art AI Internet 52

Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 21, 2021

Castle Clash by IGG, War Dragons by Pocket Gems and Art of Conquest by Lilith all came down between 15 to 35 percent compared to 2019. The only true bright spot was Art of War , which despite prototype level production quality has scaled up to over 5M in net revenue a month with no stop in sight! Then Yu-Gi-Oh came along.

Mobile 52

Mobile Mobile Cross platform Puzzle 52

Radiator Blog

DECEMBER 12, 2022

CONTENT WARNING: This post contains discussion of gay sex acts and some screenshots with obscured pixel art nudity. Back in 2019 I made an unfinished prototype for a Gay Western game jam to contemplate the anniversary of influential gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain (2005). Balancing the weight of each system was difficult.

Pixel 52

Pixel Film Art NPC 52

Deconstructor of Fun

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

So this is this tough balance between being really super fast and building something really small and iterative and getting data soon and deciding what to do. They get to a prototype level. You're dictating that everything below them is going to be mediocre at best in your company. But even then, it's really interesting.

Games 52

Games Point and Click Engine Engineering 52

Deconstructor of Fun

MARCH 22, 2021

Similar to Today’s: Current level setup (clear objectives in X moves or less) Mode: Balance Description: Collect 2 colors of gems roughly at the same pace. The execution of the art directly affects the success of the design. Developers must find the harmonious balance between ‘too easy’ and ‘pure frustration’.

Puzzle 69

Puzzle Mobile Mobile Mechanics 69

Radiator Blog

JUNE 30, 2022

I first prototyped it back in 2019, but I didn't really know how to finish it. Originally this was prototyped as "Saugzwang" and I made it for the 7 Day Broughlike Jam back in 2019. For balance purposes, I limit the number of voyeurs in the maze, otherwise it can enter a deadlock where there's only voyeurs but no one for them to watch.

Code 52

Code Educational Education Prototyping 52