PreMortem.Games

MARCH 20, 2023

We had three very different games that we spent around two weeks on each, developing them up to a point where we could playtest them with other people”, says Mason. A bit surprisingly, the contrast between the atmosphere and the simple art added another layer of uneasiness that fit perfectly, so I was careful to keep that going forward.

Playtesting 104

Playtesting Prototyping Mechanics Games 104

PreMortem.Games

MAY 1, 2023

Everyone must be online from 14h to 18h on Discord because this is ‘when things get done’ and we can all do brainstorms, playtests and all that.” She drew a lot of the first concept art for the main characters. The company started creating multiplayer games because the founding members wanted to playtest games together.

Studios 104

Studios Build Playtesting Concepts 104

PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

I like variety in my work (art, coding, animation, marketing); it keeps things interesting and I also love seeing my own progress over the weeks, months and years.” I also released the demo on Steam early (after invite-only playtesting) so I can gather feedback from real players. What are the biggest advantages of working solo? “I’m

Dev 136

Dev Build Playtesting Demo 136

PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

If you want to know more about the art, craft and science of game development, subscribe here. “This e-mail is to open a discussion – I think we would do well to consider our options before making a call on the various clothing styles and suggestions that recently arrived from the art department.”

Writing 104

Writing Communications Point and Click Prototyping 104

Radiator Blog

DECEMBER 18, 2021

Taufner handled the initial blockout and gameplay, while I did the art pass and tweaks. The collaboration here was ideal because I didn't feel like doing gameplay stuff, and Taufner didn't want to art pass, so we exchanged duties and took turns working on the level. My art pass also needed to punctuate Taufner's progression.

Playtesting 52

Playtesting Art Fighting Texture 52

PreMortem.Games

MAY 24, 2023

The team of White Star Studios closely monitored the results of early playtest sessions. Wu explains the roles of each team member: “Wu Zhihao and Xia Xiazi do gameplay design, Lan Sun art direction and Shuai Kun is the programmer.” But it took some tweaking to get the right balance.

Studios 104

Studios Balance Content Playtesting 104

Sirlin

OCTOBER 13, 2022

These are updated pretty often based on feedback and playtesting from patrons. But now it looks cleaner, has new art, new graphic design, and a lot of gameplay enhancements. There's a lot of patrons to discuss the game with in our patrons-only chat on Discord. Yomi 2 has familiar things from the old game, especially the combo system.

Fighting 52

Fighting Playtesting Fantasy Concepts 52

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

Through playtesting, you can answer the question “do the mechanics suit the theme?”. Once you’ve got mechanics to suit a core theme, you can develop the theme a little more through art, story, and graphic design. Then you can start developing mechanics. The further you go, the grittier rules become.

Mechanics 100

Mechanics Playtesting Concepts Art 100

PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

These women were part of the first She Got Game mentorship program by the Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia, which aims to promote equal opportunities in the global video games scene. During the playtest, six people played at the same time, and I noticed they laughed at certain texts, which was great.

Game Developer 143

Game Developer Game Development Development Games 143

Brand Game Development

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

If you hate the game you’re playtesting, do something different. Don’t just playtest it and refine the mechanics. This is the art for Spectrum in War Co., is the art. This seems obvious, but never lose sight of it. was garbage in its first ten iterations. It stalled out for the next four. Make it feel unique.

Game Design 130

Game Design Game Designer Tile Games 130

Radiator Blog

MARCH 16, 2023

Each level also had unique mechanics and art styles that all tied into a cohesive whole. Meanwhile, VR dev continues, as artists learn Unreal 4's art pipeline and do lookdev to figure out how to update the Psychonauts art style from 2005 to 2015. It was a quirky story-first 3D platformer with jokes that were actually funny.

Art 59

Art Concepts Dev Studios 59

Keith Burgun

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

The star of the show for this game is surely going to be the amazing art, which is by Christina Zhong. If you’re interested, we could use your feedback on the game before it’s too set in stone, so please come by the discord’s #spellstorm channel and ask about a playtest!

Playtesting 52

Playtesting Writing Graphics Fighting 52

Brand Game Development

MARCH 29, 2021

Now look, some parts of game design – like playtesting or accessibility testing – can be tedious. It’s a more durable goal for the future, better for your self-worth, and gives you maneuverability to make the best art you can possibly make! Of course, burnout doesn’t just happen all at once.

Game Design 130

Game Design Game Designer Games Playtesting 130

Brand Game Development

MAY 1, 2017

You can give it gorgeous art. If something slips through your playtesting, it might very well be caught in the review stage. You can’t expect people to spend money on your game if they don’t have a reason to believe it’s going to be good. There’s a lot of ways to suggest that your game is going to be good.

Games 130

Games Playtesting Prototyping Dev 130

Brand Game Development

MARCH 16, 2020

You do the game development and playtesting. You go find the art. Publishers handle the marketing, the selling, and often they cover the art, too. Of course, the cost of having a company swing the full weight of their art, marketing, and selling staff behind your idea comes with a hefty cost. You are quality assurance.

Games 130

Games Quality Assurance Art Game Developer 130

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 23, 2017

Sarah: It was also in 2013 that we met Ben and were playtesters for his game Tower , which he launched on Kickstarter early in 2014. Along with handling all the business, Ben has playtested and helped develop our designs. I can’t really see so well, so art and graphic layout don’t bother me. Will is the lead designer.

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Playtesting Games Game Design 130

iXie gaming

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

This will help you shape the gameplay art style, mechanics, and general experience. Test Your Game and Deploy Performing thorough playtesting is crucial in NFT game development. So, once you’ve understood the basics of NFTs and blockchain, it’s time to plan the game. It helps you refine the gameplay experience.

Game Developer 52

Game Developer Game Development Development Asset 52

iXie gaming

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

Teams collaborate to code and create the multiplayer game’s art assets, levels, and audio. During this phase, frequent iteration and playtesting are crucial in finetuning the multiplayer experience. 

Game Developer 52

Game Developer Game Development Development Quality Assurance 52

Mircosoft Game Dev

JULY 2, 2018

After three days of intensive game development and two weeks of playtesting and rating (over 3,500 ratings!), This cute and well-designed pixel art puzzle game snatched the 1 st position in the Gameplay and Graphics and Sound categories, and 2 nd position in the Theme interpretation category ( Overall rating: 4.088). Fire and Fondness.

Playtesting 52

Playtesting Animation Animation Writing 52

Rindoku

OCTOBER 7, 2016

Ovidiu Mantoc – Level Design, 3D Art. Gabriel Tanko – Concept and 2D Art. Cosmin Coroiu – 3D Art. Dragos Geomolean – Additional 3D Art. Fix the problems we identified during the playtest. I’m pretty sure we’ll be doing some more playtests in the near future. Carmen Palade – Animation. How many levels?

Point and Click 52

Point and Click Dev Demo Playtesting 52

Radiator Blog

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

I think I scoped it just right, and I wisely invested in some very targeted brushwork that I wantonly copy-and-pasted for some decent art coverage. Thanks to Fairweather for organizing, Yoder for playtesting, and lastly thanks to everyone in the Quake Mapping discord. You can play this map, along with 17 (!)

Co-op 52

Co-op Fighting Texture Puzzle 52

PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Since I was a child, I always found myself surrounded by art, because most of my family were artists (ballet dancers, painters, musicians). One day I discovered video games could be much more than just ‘entertainment products’, and fell in love with the idea of mixing all the things I loved about art in a new medium.

Dev 158

Dev Playtesting Art Games 158

Game Dev Unchained

JULY 5, 2023

Throughout the years, the team diversified their skillset, handling everything from art to sounds, most of which were purchased online for licensing. Their journey is a poignant reminder that game development can be both an art form and a journey of continuous learning and growth.

Indy 105

Indy Game Developer Game Development Development 105

Grid Sage Games

DECEMBER 22, 2023

I’d share another of those cool item art collages, but I’ve already done that several times this year--scroll down SITREP #51 Another Big Bang to see one. Just this week I streamed the first playtest of that feature, and was pleasantly surprised. Shown another way: Net total item count in Cogmind, 2015-2023 and beyond.

Beta 105

Beta Alpha Mechanics Build 105

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

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 9, 2019

Many creators choose to focus on making a brilliant game, well play-tested, with great art, and good Kickstarter potential. We finally got to a point in 2014 when he said, “I think we’ve done enough, we can start playtesting it.” When you’re making your first board game, retail distribution is probably not top of mind.

Retail 130

Retail Games Writing Indy 130

Sirlin

JUNE 13, 2015

Patrons helped playtest and also just point out errors or give suggestions how to improve things. At the $10 subscription level, patrons get my "Raw Game Design" podcast where I discuss actual design problems in the middle of solving for my games, as well as some sneak peeks at art.

Fighting 52

Fighting Fantasy Art Build 52

Mnenad

JULY 8, 2018

The competence to find a coherent form for the content is 100% up to the designers and the art director, who finally has control over whether a design is used in the final game or not.  Playtesting - “One of the best experiences I made with this prototype” fellow student testing GenoTerra.

Prototyping 52

Prototyping Terrain Open World Rigging 52

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

Sample ASCII art from among the 100 new items. They will likely get some tweaks after playtesting, and purely from a theoretical design standpoint I think it may be necessary to at least require that charged items remain attached to retain their charge. Some individual items take days or even weeks to build. They’re that crazy.

Balance 52

Balance Mechanics Beta Alpha 52

Game Global

JULY 12, 2021

What does the Art Team need to know about this quest or level? Playtesting, bug fixing, incorporating or giving feedback, and keeping an ever-watchful eye out for ludo-narrative dissonance. Which other teams’ work will this feature affect? What does the casting agency or sound engineer need to know about this recording session?

Cutscenes 52

Cutscenes Writing Scripting Localization 52

Astral Clock Tower Studios

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

Concept Art. Now that our concept art team has nearly completed the designs for all existing assets and items in the Kristala build that needed to be replaced with fresh assets, they're now able to move on to creating brand new items that don't yet have 3D counterparts. You can see the three options Nicholas shared with our team below.

Dev 52

Dev Animation Animation Concepts 52

Sirlin

JULY 22, 2015

We could certainly add more to our controls scheme if we need to, but so far it's gone over fantastically in playtesting exactly how it is.) The higher tier patrons are already playing my customizable card game Codex (tabletop version) and a 1-character prototype build of the Fantasy Strike fighting game showing the gameplay without real art.

Fighting 52

Fighting Fantasy Games Build 52

Brand Game Development

JANUARY 2, 2018

Every iteration of each game has to be created somehow and there are A LOT of iterations – usually a new one after each playtest, especially in the beginning. Whenever I demo or playtest, I make sure to get the email address of the person, so I can inform them when the Kickstarter starts. Carla: I also do a lot of interviews!

Playtesting 130

Playtesting Games Advertising Prototyping 130

PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

Working closely with the community in various playtests over the years and even right now in the lead up to launch gives you a very solid idea of where your game is failing to communicate important concepts. ” “We knew that players’ comprehension of the game was always going to be the biggest challenge”, he continues. “Our

Studios 143

Studios Concepts Playtesting Development 143

Radiator Blog

FEBRUARY 4, 2024

Thanks to playtesters JoyModulo and Spootnik for playtesting and feedback, and thanks to Fairweather for organizing and additional QA. With her masterful use of patterns and implication, I think Emily Dickinson would've been an excellent level designer with strong insights about competitive map balance. Blood Gulch!

Fighting 93

Fighting Texture Playtesting Balance 93

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 26, 2017

However, when people think of storytelling in games, they think of theme, story, art, components, and even box design. Art and storytelling Physical experience and storytelling Parting advice. Art and storytelling Physical experience and storytelling Parting advice. Playtesting storytelling. Art and storytelling.

Art 130

Art Mechanics Games Game Developer 130

Grumpy Gamer

JANUARY 18, 2018

There is a lot of Thimbleweed Park fan art (and even people selling it), and I don't have a problem as long as 1) You can't use our trademarks, 2) it's not confused with official/licensed merchandise, 3) you're not making too much. Do you cut off the whole series of the puzzles (meaning wasting time/art/effort)?

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Point and Click Playtesting AI 52