Brand Game Development

JANUARY 7, 2019

You create an island of hexagonal tiles, each of which represents a different type of terrain. From this terrain, you gather wood, grain, brick, sheep, and stone. Over time, you build up settlements and roads. The game can be adequately explained in 10 minutes. In board games, trading is not uncommon.

Game Design 130

Game Design Game Designer Terrain Mechanics 130

Designer Notes

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

Hi everyone, I’m Soren Johnson, and welcome to You Have No Idea How Hard It Is To Run A Sweatshop Here are the published games that I’ve worked on over my career, some of which I will touch on over the next hour. I’d like to talk about some of these examples today and examine how best to build meaning in our games.

Mechanics 75

Mechanics Game Design Game Designer Build 75

Game Dev Unchained

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

Today, with an impressive team of 32 people, they’re working on Eco , a virtual society game built inside a self-contained ecosystem. The premise is thrilling: “You are building a virtual society inside of an ecosystem,” Krajewski explained. “This is what we’re building with Eco ,” Krajewski said.

Indy 105

Indy AAA Platformer Educational 105

Grid Sage Games

MARCH 10, 2022

Mechanics that are never quite worth taking advantage of, items that haven’t lived up to their potential, or were later superseded by other options but remained unchanged, or even long-term experiments that were included at some point but never updated/expanded/removed. Categorical Approach.

Balance 52

Balance Mechanics Beta Prototyping 52

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.

Tile 40

Tile Terrain Game Design Game Designer 40

The Bottom Feeder

OCTOBER 18, 2023

At some point in the last several decades of video games, everything became a role-playing game. Turns out, if your game design is a little lacking, all you need to do is spackle on a bit of "Make bars fill up to make numbers get bigger to make bars fill up." Restrictive terrain. Unexpected hordes. Minibosses.

Games 75

Games Fantasy Fighting Art 75

Grid Sage Games

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Overall Rogue doesn’t really have many different item characteristics to modify or games systems to interact with, which is a primary limiting factor in the extent of randomization a game can support. Brogue’s trippy colors come from impactful terrain features like water, lava, and gases. Low on treads or armor?

Data 52

Data Terrain Balance Mechanics 52