Designer Notes

MARCH 31, 2023

Welcome to My Elephant in the Room: An Old World Design Postmortem. Here are the games that I’ve worked on. Spoiler alert: Civilization 3 and 4 are going to come up a lot in the presentation… I also do a podcast where I interview game designers about why they make games, so check it out if you have time for 4-hour interviews.

Tile 98

Tile Point and Click AI Mechanics 98

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

Even more than being a tactical roguelike, Cogmind is a strategic game about engaging in a dynamic form of this process, repeatedly replacing and upgrading components as you go. And based on the current situation, or plans for what’s to come, you can even pivot your whole build at one point or another. It’s a cube.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Build Point and Click Tile 52

Keith Burgun

JUNE 20, 2022

I mean, part of why I can’t believe that is that for almost a full year after the launch, I was furiously updating the game: two new factions, a new game mode (arguably two), a map editor, tons and tons of balance changes, polishing, bugfixes, you name it. Not to mention porting the game to iOS, Android, Switch, and XBox.

Indy 52

Indy Point and Click Game Design Game Designer 52

Sirlin

JULY 25, 2019

Sometimes it’s pushing forward design in a new way, or usability, or technology, or even in introducing features or ways of doing things from one genre and applying them to another when it hasn’t been done before. In Fantasy Strike, you just click on anyone in your in-game friends list to challenge them. No, not to my knowledge.

Fantasy 52

Fantasy Feature Fighting Point and Click 52

Designer Notes

AUGUST 10, 2021

Few people called for the return of stacks-of-doom, but critics pointed out that carpets-of-doom were just as bad. Early on, the simplest way to prototype the game was to maintain a strict 1UPT rule (as stacking has the major downside of making the UI much more complicated). I was very pleased with myself!

Tile 40

Tile Point and Click AI Mechanics 40

Rindoku

OCTOBER 7, 2016

People liked the game but there was also useful feedback (and observation) of where we can improve. Still too much clicking required. The game still requires constant clicking, even more than Diablo, and this is something we’ll have to solve. This dapper fellow thinks there’s too much clicking. Yeah… no luck.

Point and Click 52

Point and Click Dev Demo Playtesting 52

Brand Game Development

JUNE 19, 2017

It’s no secret that one of the most critical parts of making a board game that will sell is making it gorgeous. Box art alone has the ability to multiply sales of an otherwise unassuming board game. Finding an artist is something that many first-time board game designers find very difficult to do.

Art 130

Art Games Point and Click Media 130

Deconstructor of Fun

APRIL 25, 2022

There are also hidden easter eggs with interesting lines and detailed facial expressions if players click on or drag them around. Special effect from clicking on and dragging the Hot Cocoa Cookie. Despite the core gameplay being an integration of two classic types of mobile games, it does not feel out of place for the players.

Baking 52

Baking Simulation Build Animation 52

Deconstructor of Fun

MARCH 4, 2019

With progressively deep content wrapped into a single slot machine, casual art style, a more substantial meta, strong social features, hyperactive live operations and great UX/production value, Israeli developer Moon Active has pretty much flipped the traditional Slots games design model on its head.

UX 52

UX Mechanics Build Point and Click 52

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

In a game setting, though, this can be quite an annoyance from a design perspective (harder to balance!) and is likely to either become a player crutch or lead to tedious optimal play (a topic I covered in my game design philosophy article ). but it gets the point across (open image for full size).

Point and Click 52

Point and Click Mechanics Open World Feature 52

Deconstructor of Fun

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

I think a lot of the time when you end up fundraising, you typically fundraise off the back of an initial product idea or initial, hey, there's an opportunity to make a combine a match-3 and the RPG and the MMO category into that, you know, wild new type of game that. It's a hybrid game. but you can't really get to the point.

Games 52

Games Point and Click Engine Engineering 52

Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 21, 2021

By all accounts this genre is matured to a point where it could use a massive innovation to both the progression mechanics and social gameplay. After all, these games have a fun combat core brutalized by ever increasing timers which just simply don’t work in the modern mobile market.

Mobile 52

Mobile Mobile Cross platform Puzzle 52