Game Dev Unchained

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

The world of gaming is always on the brink of something new, something vast, something that promises to change how we play and interact in virtual spaces. I sat down with John Krajewski , the man behind the unique and forward-thinking game, Eco. One crucial area where games are making waves is in the field of education.

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Indy AAA Platformer Educational 105

Designer Notes

AUGUST 31, 2021

The following is an excerpt from the Designer Notes for Old World. The game, a historical 4X set in classical antiquity, released on July 1, 2021, and is available for purchase here. The first Civilization game was like a game design thunderbolt, sent from the heavens and marking everything it touched.

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Tile Terrain Game Design Game Designer 40

Grid Sage Games

MARCH 10, 2022

A decade of development into a huge project is almost unavoidably going to accumulate some amount of cruft. Due to these shared characteristics, while cutting across slot types, it makes sense to work on their design as a group--they’re balanced against one another as much as they are against other parts. Alien Artifacts.

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Balance Mechanics Beta Prototyping 52

Grid Sage Games

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Despite beginning development in the 90s and continuing off and on for the next couple decades, unlike some of its contemporaries ADOM did not add truly randomized items beyond the usual enchantments or ego-style modifications in the form of prefixes and suffixes. Cogmind’s Strictly Static Items.

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Data Terrain Balance Mechanics 52

Deconstructor of Fun

MAY 15, 2022

Lost Ark outshines other MMO games because each element mentioned above is polished to the next level. Balancing relies heavily on gear, maps are crowded with question marks, Boss fights feature repetitive mechanisms. Though, all of these foibles could be found in other games as well. Let’s use the Witch class as an example.

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Cutscenes Art Content Mechanics 52

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

More than once over the years we’ve had discussions in the roguelike development community regarding the idea of “backtracking,” and with good reason: whether or not to allow it has quite a lot of implications! In a game setting, though, this can be quite an annoyance from a design perspective (harder to balance!)

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Point and Click Mechanics Open World Feature 52

Game Design Advice

JUNE 5, 2016

Deep games require knowledge, explanation, creativity, and cleverness. Such a model could also inform our discussions about game design, suggesting directions for design exploration and expanding our palette of analytical tools and techniques. Stay tuned for further developments. What depth isn’t.

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