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.
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. Alien Artifacts. Exiles Prototypes.
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Grid Sage Games
SEPTEMBER 15, 2022
Despite its relatively small item pool and low emphasis on random variants, Brogue has an even greater emphasis on terrain factors that really help support the dynamic gameplay in a way that keeps repeated runs interesting. Brogue’s trippy colors come from impactful terrain features like water, lava, and gases.
Game Dev Unchained
SEPTEMBER 18, 2023
As we navigate this evolving terrain, perhaps the future of education is not about replacing traditional methods but integrating games as a complementary tool. In a world where ‘curiosity is king,’ game-based learning offers a compelling avenue for fostering a lifelong love for knowledge and exploration. .”
Grid Sage Games
JULY 17, 2022
Rampant terrain destruction is awesome, by the way ;). and not be compatible with many of the encounters anyway, since knowing which direction the player will enter from is often an important part of their design. I wrote about this factor in my recent article on game design philosophy.
Radiator Blog
DECEMBER 12, 2022
You can place this game in a tradition of walkie-talkie games like Firewatch or Wheels of Aurelia. Here my walking mechanic borrows some sensibility from Death Stranding, where terrain can seriously slow down the player's speed, so a skilled player should micro-optimize their route a little and avoid water / hills / obstacles.
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 ). Architecture. But we can sorta do something about that if we want to!
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