PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

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. I definitely recommend getting feedback from external playtesters at each step “On each one of those steps I end up having one or more concrete ‘products’.

Dev 156

Dev Playtesting Art Games 156

Mnenad

JULY 8, 2018

The idea of a helping instance was indeed present in a very early stage of the concept. Old concept of exploring the landscape during night time with a flashlight was implemented as well. Where do I begin here… Let me go back to the point I quit writing about in the blog. Just with other designs. The Mechanik II.

Prototyping 52

Prototyping Terrain Open World Rigging 52

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 15, 2023

I’ve been interviewing developers since 2013, talking to dozens of candidates at companies such as King, Foxglove and Yager, writing job specs for various roles, and providing hiring decisions. During the following Playtesting session, the game designer is unimpressed with the current state, mentioning missing features.

Studios 104

Studios Engine Engineering Communications 104

Grid Sage Games

MARCH 10, 2022

The scope of this rebalance is way too large to cover in its entirety, and while I don’t plan to write about every aspect, we’ll be looking at the broad strokes and pick out some representative examples here and there. As is the changes are too new and we’ll have to see what real playtesting turns up. Fine tuning.

Balance 52

Balance Mechanics Beta Prototyping 52

Grid Sage Games

JULY 17, 2022

In playtesting so far this (among other benefits we’ll get to later) is already clearly tempting players who would otherwise always prefer regular branches over infiltrating a Garrison. Some concepts: More enemies could show up?

Beta 52

Beta Content Balance Mechanics 52

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

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. In fact I have two new concepts for teleportation tech, which is kinda funny because of how they evolved out of the same idea.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Concepts Balance Terrain 52

Tom Francis

AUGUST 20, 2019

I’ll write the rules here, but they’ll make more sense when you see it played: If you’re following closely, you might notice I slip up and fail to kill the king of clubs when he should have died, but I re-kill him with the next play so it’s fine. In the video I both explain it and play a full game. Problem 3: Too easy.

Games 52

Games Playtesting Prototyping Concepts 52

Brand Game Development

JULY 20, 2020

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.” Although it took us 10 months to go from concept to delivery, it could have been done faster – but we were in no hurry to rush it out.

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. Since cops ignore consent, I had to program special cop-only exceptions in my core TestSexMood() code function. L of semen for each one.

Code 52

Code Educational Education Prototyping 52