Ask a Game Dev

AUGUST 1, 2023

What you're describing is the dissonance between having a normal human (with all of the common context that carries with it, like "people often die when they are shot at all") as the final boss and the expectation of a final boss fight being a prolonged, memorable, and epic battle that tests the things you've learned so far.

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PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

A community manager and new game designer. A game filled with cute armoured babies on a brave mission to save their daycare from a goblin invasion. Now, she’s navigating the world of game development, where each day brings new challenges and exciting discoveries. One of those games was Street Fighter.

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PreMortem.Games

JULY 12, 2023

is one of the most striking indie games coming out this summer. With graphics that wouldn’t look out of place in a Dreamworks animated movie and sword fighting action that would make Zorro blush. It became increasingly clear that anything they tried to make that wasn’t a slapstick fencing game simply bogged the experience down.

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Brand Game Development

JUNE 24, 2019

The latest game from Pangea Games is launching on Kickstarter. Tasty Humans is a 30-60 minute, tile-laying, pattern-building game for 1-4 players. As you and your fellow monsters toss around the village king, you attract a steady buffet of adventurers who try – poorly – to put up a fight!

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iHobo

MARCH 1, 2023

Except when it comes to games, it's just not true: not every game is about winning. But if that's so, if 'winning isn't everything' in games, why does it get so much attention? On the one hand, it's an absolutely vital part of the story of games that the experience of victory is tremendously enjoyable.

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DameDev.tv

OCTOBER 21, 2022

Join Industry veterans Rick Davidson & Tim Ruswick* in a conversation about games that play themselves! Find out what that actually means, watch them play Despot’s Game and learn new game dev tips as they answer questions from the community. 0:28 - 1:22) Games that play themselves are literally just that.

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Keith Burgun

NOVEMBER 25, 2023

I say more about each game on the podcast, so make sure to check that out. Sadly, also a way overly complicated combat system and overall it has “modern videogame over-smoothed-ness” IN STARS AND TIME – Very cool game that I recommend you go check out. Here are some quick bullet points, though!

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Designer Notes

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

I gave a talk on games and meaning at GDC 2023, which is now available on YouTube: However, I fully scripted the talk ahead of time, so I decided it would be worth taking the time to post the slides online, in three parts to have mercy on your browser. So, here are the standings before the final game between Barbados and Grenada.

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Game Dev Unchained

MAY 9, 2023

The Transformative Landscape of Game Development: A Deep Dive with Willem Delventhal As a digital ecosystem thrives and transforms at a rapid pace, a recent conversation with game designer and educator Willem Delventhal offered insights into the evolving realm of game development.

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Keith Burgun

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Over the past year and a half I’ve been diving hard into a huge number of different RPGs: Nearly all the 1-player Final Fantasies, Dragon Quest, Trails in the Sky, the Tales games, Scarlet Nexus, a really cool Japanese GBA game called Magical Vacation, and a lot more. The working title of the game is Free Tiya Bannet!

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iXie gaming

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

Games are more than just a diversion. However, developing games has become very time-consuming and expensive. This is why game art studios have emerged over the past decade. Instead of working on the next big blockbuster title alone, game art studios help companies create their titles with minimal financial investment.

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PreMortem.Games

JULY 17, 2023

The brutal and bloody combat game from Slovenian developer Triternion has already been very successful for the last 4 years on PC. This is a completely different beast from a shooter.” “ Mordhau at its core has always been about melee combat”, says Jonathan Dunn, Game Designer at Triternion.

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Rampant Games

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

In the fiction, November 6, 2022 was the launch day for the game “ Sword Art Online ,” chronicled in the books, manga, and anime series of that name. Thanks to a crazy head engineer with a god complex, ten thousand players are now playing an ultra-realistic fantasy game in a virtual world with real-world stakes.

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Brand Game Development

JUNE 11, 2018

Board game conventions have a certain mystique to them. As such, board game developers often find their own interest in conventions piqued. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. We’re giving away a copy on the Pangea Games Facebook.

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Brand Game Development

MARCH 16, 2018

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. You need to make a great game. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates?

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Deconstructor of Fun

DECEMBER 19, 2022

With privacy becoming more important to mobile players and the prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) in app advertising inventories, the quality of your creatives has never been more important to the success of your games. In order to test this hypothesis, you need to work with the tools you have, which in this case is creative.

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Radiator Blog

OCTOBER 13, 2022

SPOILER WARNING: I keep specific story spoilers vague, but I do have to talk about what happens in the games somehow. Still, you can argue that it's a stunning achievement just to be able to debate these questions in a video game. Can't wait for the full frontal in the next game!) Well, I don't know anything about that.

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Keith Burgun

MARCH 13, 2024

Videogames, at least the kind I’m talking about (RPGs, adventure kinds of somewhat narrative videogames, Zelda games, Elden Ring, etc), have essentially three “places”: Outside – Hyrule field. Most of the game is Outside, just running around in a grassy area or a snowy mountain.

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Deconstructor of Fun

OCTOBER 10, 2021

Written by Ethan Levy , who is always looking for worthy, free-to-play mobile games for the N3TWORK Platform. Ask him about a free, $10,000 UA test for your game. Early this year, when it was first suggested to me that I investigate blockchain gaming, I immediately rejected the idea. In my heart, I am a game designer.

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Radiator Blog

APRIL 1, 2022

Within broader game design culture, the theme also invokes an awkward aspect of cultural appropriation and reduction. Instead I'm making a small level for a 25 year old game that no one plays. Any layout device that can break line of sight to stagger waves / structure a fight can function effectively as a closet.

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Sirlin

OCTOBER 20, 2015

Codex is a new take on customizable card games. Last week I posted a new Raw Game Design podcast episode (for $10+ patrons) where I discuss "reset buttons" in Codex (cards that blow up the board so you can possibly come back from a very bad position). Last month, I offered early access to (physical) Codex cards.

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Moonmana

APRIL 7, 2023

If you’ve ever wondered what the best game engine is, we invite you to figure it out with us. Unity versus Unreal – this seems to be an ever-lasting battle in the game development world. Having been the market leaders for years, these two are the main candidates for the title of the best game engine. What is Unity?

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The Bottom Feeder

MAY 11, 2022

It's such a big, unique, popular game that not picking it apart a bit is game-writer malpractice. Even if you hate From Software games, and many do, if you care about game design as an art, it's worth a good look. The retention rate for this game is incredibly good. I've already written about Elden Ring.

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Ask a Game Dev

MARCH 7, 2023

Games have undergone a similar sense of discovery and pioneering since the days of Pong, with a similarly evolved mantra. Perhaps the most important thing you can learn about designing games is the natural evolution of “show, don’t tell” - “Do, don’t show.” The best games never forget this. Do, don’t show.

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Sirlin

JUNE 13, 2015

I want to show you some of what I'm working (Codex, Flowchart, and a Fighting game) and tell you about Patreon. During Pandante development, I posted dozens of versions of the game board, cards, rules, etc. Right now, in addition to my podcasts, I have three main game development projects in the works. Instead.it's fun.

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Tom Francis

MARCH 11, 2017

I released Morphblade last week, which is a game I made in direct response to Michael Brough’s Imbroglio. They’re both games where you move around a grid of different tile types, and the one you’re standing on determines what you can do there. Have I gravitated towards building on other people’s ideas?

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iHobo

JUNE 8, 2022

If you want my review of Shenmue III it would be 'play this game if you have ever enjoyed a Shenmue game or are interested in unusual approaches to game narrative' It takes me quite a while to get around to playing games these days, which helps insulate me from jumping to kneejerk conclusions about what I've been playing.

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Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 31, 2021

Our 2021 predictions have been sponsored by Facebook Gaming. Facebook Gaming helps developers and publishers to build, grow, and monetize their games. Similarly, look for a wave of new titles from established companies—both in the casino and in other genres—as they strive to build growth. billion IPO.

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Ask a Game Dev

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

Larger tasks like "Build the Ice Dungeon level" are assigned to the Ice Dungeon level owner. Obviously, the Ice Dungeon is too big for a single task, so we break it down into smaller sub-tasks like "Build the boss fight for the Ice Dungeon", "Build the layout for the Ice Dungeon", "Build the regular encounters for the Ice Dungeon", and so on.

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The Bottom Feeder

OCTOBER 18, 2023

Progress Quest taught us all how simple our brains where and how easily games could use our mental reward systems against us. At some point in the last several decades of video games, everything became a role-playing game. And the designer would say, "Yeah, it should. Designers think making an RPG is easier than it is.

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The Bottom Feeder

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

It's an OK game. I'm a nobody on the outside, looking at a giant development monolith and trying to figure out how this game could possibly have ended up where it did. Standard Disclaimer This game is a huge success in every way, and I am an ant. Though God help any foolish reviewer who tries to give an AAA game less than 9/10.)

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Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 20, 2017

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the third of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Game mechanics are how we bring the core engine of a game to life.

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Raph Koster

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

Connections T he new daily game at the New York Times is called Connections , and I’ve seen a few people comment that they just don’t like it as much as Wordle or Spelling Bee. I thought it would be interesting to contrast this to Word Dad , a puzzle game made by my friend, master game designer John Cutter.

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Rindoku

OCTOBER 7, 2016

Showing your game to strangers for the first time can be a little nerve wracking. What we learned about the game. The feedback about the game was better than we could have hoped. People liked the game but there was also useful feedback (and observation) of where we can improve. Color me excited! In no particular order: 1.

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Interesting Choices

FEBRUARY 25, 2015

I've been fascinated by board games that revolve around drafting for years now, and in early 2011 I wrote a post on the pillars that make these games click. I've created an online prototype for playtesting that has seen almost 2000 games completed with at least a dozen players clocking in at over 100 games apiece.

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The Bottom Feeder

APRIL 27, 2022

Really, how hard a game can it be? I used every possible advantage the game gave me. This game is a phenomenon, with the wild sales, huge engagement, and memes to prove it. But since I can't resist writing about the thing, I want to start with the key question: Why do people love these games so much, despite the sadism.

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Deconstructor of Fun

APRIL 25, 2022

This post is written by the fantastic Game Bakery substack team of Chase, Zixuan, Haiyin, Caitou, Fish, Amy, Chow, Jing, Wanzi and edited by Caitou, Rob. From our sponsor: Do you need funds to finish, release, or promote your game? Submit your most up-to-date playable build, pitch deck, and gameplay video. Create an account 2.

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