Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 19, 2021

Breaking into the top of the genre requires often massive development investments, an unrivaled content pipeline, and superb live operations - and often an appealing IP. All of the above require serious investments, which increases the risk of building an RPG game for a studio. Small Giant did it with Puzzle and Empires.

Cross platform 52

Cross platform Mobile Mobile Platformer 52

Mircosoft Game Dev

AUGUST 10, 2017

Elaborated below: 1) Who will play the game? Just try to picture who is going to play the game. Common answers are: Everyone, e.g.: this is a nice puzzle, tower defense, casual, etc. A mainstream audience, e.g.: an RPG, FPS or strategy game. A niche audience, e.g.: an adventure game, turn-based strategy, etc.

Prototyping 52

Prototyping Alpha Asset Point and Click 52

Deconstructor of Fun

APRIL 25, 2022

Developing a detailed, polished universe like this presumably took a lot of time and effort from the team, but it pays off in the end as they continuously push out more content over time for player engagement. In terms of content, the plot of Cookie Run: Kingdom advances very quickly while maintaining a grip on the details of the characters.

Baking 52

Baking Simulation Build Animation 52

The Bottom Feeder

APRIL 27, 2022

I've been trying to get good at game design for almost 30 years. In other words, yes, the game will troll you. The game will trick you and hide things and be confusing and unfair. Yet, when it matters, when you're in the fights, the meat of the game, you always have a fair chance. I mean, seriously.

Fighting 52

Fighting Writing Software Game Design 52

Sirlin

APRIL 26, 2019

As of this writing, we’re in the 8th year of Game of Thrones seasons with only 4 episodes left, and yet there are numerous major reveals still left. By looking at the show from a game design standpoint, I think we see how a lot of it has to end up. Game of Throne is, on a casual viewing, a very complicated show.

Game Design 40

Game Design Game Designer Games Writing 40

Radiator Blog

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

This is similar to my tactics games writeup and Enderal (huge Skyrim mod) writeup where I spoil some interesting game designer / systems design things. I don't discuss much of the game narrative. I assume general game design knowledge but minimal Deathloop-specific knowledge.

Fighting 52

Fighting NPC Puzzle AI 52

Keith Burgun

JUNE 18, 2022

Indeed, one of the main starting points for the design was that it wouldn’t be a puzzle, standing in contrast to the highly puzzle-like nature of Advance Wars. Even super “frustrating” games like Dark Souls, are actually, on a very fundamental level, extremely “normal” and arguably even generic.

Games 52

Games Puzzle Graphics Cutscenes 52

Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 17, 2020

As ironSource agrees , a corner stone for making a hit hypercasual game is to reduce CPIs by increasing IPMs (installs per thousand impressions). On looking deeper, it was found that this was driven by two things - 30-35% of the growth was driven by increased IAP integration in various hypercasual mini-genres, most notably Puzzle.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Platformer Studios Data 52

Grid Sage Games

JULY 17, 2022

The amount of content variety offered by the original Garrison design was more suited to a lower visitation rate, not the “I’m going to play almost my entire run inside these things” which it had become for some people. Sample Garrison content list from Beta 11. It’d sure be nice to resolve that!

Beta 52

Beta Content Balance Mechanics 52

The Bottom Feeder

AUGUST 30, 2023

If that had slightly fewer sales, the most popular Zelda game ever would be Super Smash Bros. Because, at their hearts, Zelda games are puzzle games with a bit of combat bolted on. Puzzle games are a niche genre. Yet, this is an amazing time for niche games to break out and become big hits.

Fighting 90

Fighting Puzzle Games Engine 90

Deconstructor of Fun

AUGUST 27, 2019

This deconstruct is written by Eva Grillova (Game Designer at Smirk Game Studios) and Abhimanyu Kumar (Mobile Games Consultant). content coming out in the future, please do subscribe to the Deconstructor of Fun infrequent but powerful newsletter. the second piece of the puzzle. Source: BoomBit website.

Balance 52

Balance Content Mechanics Mobile 52