Radiator Blog

MARCH 16, 2023

Last month, game industry documentary makers 2 Player Productions debuted a massive 32-part YouTube game dev doc series Double Fine PsychOdyssey , chronicling the development of Psychonauts 2 from its earliest glimmers of pre-production in 2015 to its final release in 2021.

Art 59

Art Concepts Dev Studios 59

PreMortem.Games

APRIL 17, 2023

Staying motivated isn’t hard at all for the solo dev. “It Write the idea down in as much detail as is feasible – what it looks or smells like, how it should seem or feel, what effects it should have on the viewer, or on the code. It took him 4 years to create his game and in that time he learned some valuable lessons. “If

Game Developer 197

Game Developer Game Development Development Games 197

Brand Game Development

MAY 14, 2018

Operational failures come from a problem in your plan’s implementation, but not necessarily the core concepts of your plan. Concept Design: The creation of initial ideas based on what hobby board gamers are currently interested in. Concept Design & Market Validation: Did the core concept of the game resonate with customers?

Game Developer 130

Game Developer Game Development Development Concepts 130

Brand Game Development

APRIL 13, 2018

After a year of documenting the Highways & Byways development process through the Dev Diary, this is not the post I wanted to write. I would have much preferred to write a post about how Highways & Byways funded on day 1. Was it the basic concept? Writing this post was like performing an exorcism.

Data 130

Data Writing Dev Game Developer 130

Brand Game Development

MARCH 8, 2021

You can see this reflected in the 9 and 10 scores of Board Game Geek, where people repeat some variation of “I really can’t explain it” and rattle off mechanics while trying to explain it. The concept is so absurd that Stanley Kubrick made a comedy movie out of it. That tells you all you need to know.

Mechanics 130

Mechanics Games Fantasy Tile 130

Brand Game Development

JANUARY 4, 2021

That means implementing a number of catch-up mechanisms for losers, even if that might irritate skill players. There are a number of catch-up mechanisms both subtle and obvious that never let you lose hope: You might get lucky and win a coin bonus when landing on a ? Give your strange ideas a chance to fly every once in a while!

Game Developer 130

Game Developer Game Development Development Games 130

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 23, 2017

I’ve split it into five sections for your convenience: How Ben, Sarah, and Will Got Started How Working in a Team Feels The Downsides of Teamwork Communication in a Team Advice for New Game Devs. I’ll also be writing responses for Will. This is unusual for most game devs, I think. Advice for New Game Devs.

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Playtesting Games Game Design 130

PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Yet, for indie dev Almar, it offered an escape from the corporate rat race he felt trapped in. I usually start with a location or concept from which I build a ‘mind map’. Then I write down everything I consider relevant into spreadsheets to compare them all. This concept grew organically from a single idea.

Dev 158

Dev Playtesting Art Games 158

Game Designing

OCTOBER 1, 2022

With GDevelop, anyone can easily get started making and even selling their own games – and you won’t need to write a line of code! Once you’ve outgrown GDevelop and want to move on to other software, many of the skills and concepts you’ve learned will carry over into other game development environments. GDevelop Beginner Tutorials.

Games 52

Games Code Game Developer Game Development 52

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 16, 2019

The naive designer may lament that board gamers are only looking at the surface, not seeing the mechanics or the potential for incredible gameplay. This is a really complicated concept. Underneath that, though, there’s a complex game with mechanics such as engine building and area control.

Art 130

Art Games Communications Fantasy 130

Brand Game Development

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Brainstorm game concepts for 30 minutes. Google “list of board game mechanics.” Write the first draft of your rules. Write down what works and what doesn’t. Write a 100-150 word story for your game. Write down anything you find that doesn’t reinforce the story you want to tell. Stuck along the way?

Dev 130

Dev Writing Game Design Game Designer 130

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 30, 2019

Experiment with a theme or mechanics you’ve never used. “Accessible” is a loaded word in board gaming, but the basic concepts are simple: make games for as many people as you can. You can read more about that in my article here: Setting Up Social Media as a Board Game Dev: A Primer Course. Happy New Year!

Dev 130

Dev Prototyping Games Game Design 130

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 11, 2017

Game rules are how we regulate the mechanics of our games so that they are consistent with the messages we want to send to players. This guide comes in four parts: What are some guidelines for writing good rules? What are some guidelines for writing good rules? Brandon: What are some guidelines for writing good rules?

Mechanics 130

Mechanics Concepts Writing Games 130

Deconstructor of Fun

FEBRUARY 28, 2022

The Vietnamese developer WolfFun breathed new life into its top-down MOBA Heroes Strike by relaunching it with blockchain-based play-to-earn mechanics. As every day brings more news about massive fundraising rounds and eye-popping token valuations for blockchain games, it seems that crypto, NFTs, and play-to-earn are on every game dev's lips.

Mobile Gaming 52

Mobile Gaming Mobile Mobile Games 52

Brand Game Development

JULY 17, 2017

The following excerpt is from Games Speak through Mechanics, Not Rules (Dev Diary: 04/28/17). If you strip out all the mechanics that put obstacles in your players’ path, what’s left? The core engine is the bare minimum set of mechanics you need to have a functioning game. That’s a mechanic. Chess tells a story.

Communications 130

Communications Game Developer Game Development Development 130

Game Designing

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Though it is easily overlooked, especially for newer devs focused more on the nitty-gritty of game development, the atmosphere is a crucial component for any successful release. Both are open-world action-adventure games with fantasy elements and similar mechanics. The best way to understand the atmosphere may be through an example.

Games 136

Games Mechanics Fantasy Art 136

Brand Game Development

AUGUST 26, 2019

It’s only after starting and successfully running a marketing agency and having two successful Kickstarter campaigns that I feel like I understand it well enough to write about it. This concept is called product-market fit. I’ve mentioned the AIDA model before in How to Get Big on Twitter as a Board Game Dev.

Advertising 130

Advertising Games Media Concepts 130

Grid Sage Games

MAY 8, 2022

Recently a player asked me a question regarding my game balance philosophy, and while I can often respond to queries by pointing to some previous article, despite all my writing and no doubt occasionally touching on related topics, I had yet to explicitly do any sort of summary of the philosophy behind my gamedev work. Difficulty.

Game Design 52

Game Design Game Designer Balance Games 52

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 19, 2020

Maybe this is standard for engine-building games, but it was a new concept to me. (It’s Besides getting money, I like this phase because it really sticks to the concept that you are a company. My husband is a bit more into game mechanics and the nitty gritty (can’t you tell I’m pleased I married a game developer?

Point and Click 130

Point and Click Games Concepts Mechanics 130

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 4, 2017

Game rules are how we regulate the mechanics of our games so that they are consistent with the messages we want to send to players. I believe writing a rule is very much an art form. Mechanics are how you bring the basic ideas to life. Rules are specific directions on how you regulate mechanics. ” – limits.

Point and Click 130

Point and Click Games Mechanics Writing 130

Awesome Tuts

DECEMBER 18, 2022

The concepts are the same, just the syntax is slightly different. We’re working in the game dev industry since 2015 and we only encountered a decimal number with 2 points at most during our career. The concepts and the principles are the same, the only difference is the syntax. C++ Variables In Unreal Engine.

Engine 144

Engine Engineering Point and Click Code 144

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

Brand Game Development

JULY 29, 2019

The rules are different in every version, but the concepts stay the same – you spin the spinner and make a handful of key decisions at intersections. For most board gamers old enough to read this blog, Risk was the first game to introduce them to concepts like area control and influence – at least in a non-abstract way.

Games 130

Games Concepts Game Design Game Designer 130

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

Cogmind generally has fewer such direct escape options, but teleport mechanics are out there, if an advanced tech not usually available until the late game. As a general concept teleportation technology exists in quite a few varieties throughout the world of Cogmind, though the player only has access to some of them.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Concepts Balance Terrain 52

Brand Game Development

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

It involves a mix of searching, managing, and writing good requirements. Your theme is that critical in order to nail down some concepts first, before diving into game mechanics. The post How to Find Artists for Your Board Game appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. He’s behind Rift Shifters and Paths.

Art 130

Art Games Development Prototyping 130

Grid Sage Games

DECEMBER 4, 2021

Hourly recording of dev work continues as usual, and the trajectory is similar to last year with more time put towards coding and work on the game itself as opposed to community-facing marketing-type stuff (an angle made easier by the lack of public releases, but we’ll get to that later :P). Development Time. Noticing a trend yet?

Beta 52

Beta Feature Data Concepts 52

Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 17, 2022

The second Clash game was Clash Mini, which entered soft launch around three months from writing this article. One of the main problems in Clash Mini is the strong similarity with Clash Royale , the other Supercell auto battler whose gameplay and unit mechanics are very similar.

Content 52

Content Mechanics Point and Click Mobile 52

Grid Sage Games

JULY 17, 2022

I’m reminded of Beta 11’s spicing up the main complex with Heavies and Cargo Convoys , though in this case it’s not just adding one or two new mechanics but instead about turning Garrisons into proper branch maps in terms of content distribution… Encounter Architecture. Some concepts: More enemies could show up?

Beta 52

Beta Content Balance Mechanics 52

Brand Game Development

JANUARY 29, 2018

Why writing rules is different than other kinds of writing How to structure a rule book Making rule books clear and concise Your player’s first experience and your rule book Dealing with rule book skimmers Parting advice. Brandon: Both in consulting and in creating books, you’ve done quite a bit of writing.

Writing 130

Writing Games Mechanics Balance 130

Radiator Blog

DECEMBER 12, 2022

Here I depart from Brokeback and take a note from God's Own Country, writing two characters with different ethnicities and upbringings: Jose is a middle class suburban Latino west coaster, and Bud is a white working class rural hill guy. The romantic interest Bud is a local ranchhand assigned as a guide.

Pixel 52

Pixel Film Art NPC 52

Brand Game Development

JULY 20, 2020

Garret is a sharp guy and a good game dev. That’s why I hit him up on Discord with the following message: I’m going to be writing a post soon called “Let’s Set Expectations: Time, Money, Effort.” Brandon: Let’s say I’m a brand new board game dev. months to manufacture and distribute.

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Games Playtesting Dev 130

Radiator Blog

JUNE 30, 2022

Violence is usually the first thing to prototype in an action game, but here it surprised me how much work it took to hack violence into an existing system that had no concept of it. L loss or often worse, since cops can exploit the same chain reaction mechanic as the player. L of semen for each one. L gain, cop attacks inflict a -1.0

Code 52

Code Educational Education Prototyping 52