PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

For some, the idea of developing a game alone is daunting. Yet, for indie dev Almar, it offered an escape from the corporate rat race he felt trapped in. Sadly, the reality of the business showed me that the type of games that pay the rent weren’t the type of experiences I wanted to create”, he says.

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Dev Playtesting Art Games 158

PreMortem.Games

MARCH 27, 2024

In the 2D side scrolling horror game Terror at Oakheart players follow a diverse cast of characters that are all destined to die gruesomely at the hands of a psychotic serial killer known as Teddy. The game is developed by Californian solo dev Michael Cosio, working under the name of Tainted Pact.

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Dev Horror Art Game Developer 104

PreMortem.Games

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

When Jonathan Barbosa Dijkstra lost his job, just before the pandemic hit, he decided to give his dream of making a game by himself a proper go. He took some online courses on programming and he was in business, as a solo dev operating under the name of Frambosa , only six months later. Why did you become a solo developer? “I

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Dev Puzzle Prototyping Playtesting 104

PreMortem.Games

MAY 29, 2024

The game is an Australian take on Animal Crossing and really captures that laidback Down Under vibe. It took him five years to release the game in Early Access, and all that time, he worked on it by himself. For the first three years of development, Bendon kept the game mostly to himself. And the biggest pitfalls?

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Dev Balance Feature Sandbox 117

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 30, 2019

Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. With that in mind, I want to help you come up with some New Year’s Resolutions of your own, ones specifically related to board game design. Create your first board game. Card games count, too!

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Dev Prototyping Games Game Design 130

Ask a Game Dev

JULY 6, 2023

Here are some of the lesser-known roles in the game industry that you may not have heard of: [ Technical Artist ] - an artist who writes code to help other artists realize their visions. Prototype Artist - an art generalist who specializes in putting together usable art for a game prototype.

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Prototyping Game Developer Game Development Development 52

Ask a Game Dev

APRIL 10, 2024

The kind of games that have the least cut content are annual sports titles - they have the most stringent schedules and know exactly what they are committing to with each annual cycle, so they have significantly less wiggle room than a project with a longer schedule and bigger scope (e.g.

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Content Prototyping Asset Dev 57

PreMortem.Games

JUNE 20, 2023

As far back as solo developer Sandro Luiz de Paula (aka ansdor) can remember he always wanted to be a game developer. But that didn’t discourage him at all: “I wouldn’t feel comfortable working on a game if I had to just follow someone else’s ideas.” Why did you become a solo developer? “I

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Dev Art Prototyping Development 104

PreMortem.Games

APRIL 15, 2024

This article is part of the game-dev advice newsletter Levelling the Playing Field by Rami Ismail. If you want to know more about the art, craft and science of game development, subscribe here. All we knew was that we liked how handcrafted the game was. Describe it!

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Games Indy Horror Prototyping 104

Ask a Game Dev

MARCH 27, 2024

The vertical slice is a big milestone in a game's development because it shows the entire game coming together in a cohesive play experience. Since it shows all of the major systems in the game working together, it naturally answers most questions about how the game will play. Call of Duty, Pokemon, Madden, etc.).

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Culling Demo Prototyping Dev 57

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 17, 2018

Creating board games takes an enormous amount of time and effort. The simple fact is that there are a lot of distinct tasks that have to be handled to turn a game from an idea into reality. This is why I urge each new board game designer to share the workload , delegating tasks to a team instead of doing them all alone.

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Game Design Game Designer Development Games 130

PreMortem.Games

MAY 19, 2023

Wikkl Works , a Netherlands-based game studio, is working hard on the climbing game New Heights. By using photogrammetry the game offers real life locations like famous rock faces or even well known landmarks. Then we got the idea to scan real world cliffs and mountains into the game using photogrammetry.

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Indy Dev Studios Playtesting 104

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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Prototyping Code Engine Engineering 165

Brand Game Development

JUNE 30, 2017

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Last week in the Dev Diary, I talked about how board game development is a long, ongoing process with a lot of different stages. Need help on your board game?

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Game Developer Game Development Development Prototyping 130

Ask a Game Dev

JULY 31, 2023

askagamedev : Whenever I look at any game’s online community, be it official forums, reddit, twitter, or some other form of social media, I’ll often see fans demanding the developers to tell them certain common things. I invariably chuckle and shake my head because I know that the devs are almost certain not to respond.

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Dev Prototyping Media Animation 52

Brand Game Development

MAY 15, 2017

Whenever I saw a complaint from a game dev pop up on my Twitter feed, I recorded it in Excel. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. So many of the struggles that we deal with in game development are shared by others in the industry.

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Dev Communications Point and Click Games 130

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 9, 2023

They are both well aware of the irony of two engineers developing a parody engineering game, but that hasn’t stopped Cillín Farrell and Neil Mackenzie from devoting the majority of their spare time doing just that. With the game’s 100% physics-based building system, players can solve each mission in infinite ways.

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Engine Engineering Build Mechanics 127

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 13, 2017

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. This week, I posted A Crash Course on Selling Board Games , which is my way of helping demystify that which terrifies many first-time game developers. Need help on your board game?

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Prototyping Dev Games Writing 130

Game Analytics

JANUARY 3, 2023

Building video games has never been a simple task. You can have a brilliant idea for a game, but without the right skills, tools and resources, it can be near-impossible to tackle by yourself. So to get his advice and learn his secrets, we sat down to hear his story and journey as a solo-game developer.

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Build Development Games Prototyping 86

Brand Game Development

MAY 14, 2018

This is part one of four in the Failure Recovery series in Start to Finish: Publish and Sell Your First Board Game. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. With games, this involves the nature of the project itself.

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Game Developer Game Development Development Concepts 130

Ask a Game Dev

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

One common mistake I see with young devs is that they invest too much of their identities into what they do for work. I was the game dev. I worked on famous games that most people had played, or at least heard of. I would caution young devs to avoid this. The game doesn't sell well and there's layoffs.

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Dev Prototyping Game Developer Game Development 52

Brand Game Development

MARCH 2, 2020

It’s a simple app on the Steam store, it costs $19.99, and it’s been an extraordinary resource for me during the development of War Co. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. It saves you a ton of money and time on prototyping.

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Simulation Demo Point and Click Prototyping 130

Brand Game Development

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

Board game fulfillment is really complex. In fact, fulfillment often determines how big games are and how many components can be included. Many game developers think about fulfillment only after their project is complete – and you can certainly get away with it! Need help on your board game?

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Game Developer Game Development Development Games 130

Ask a Game Dev

DECEMBER 30, 2022

askagamedev : Whenever I look at any game’s online community, be it official forums, reddit, twitter, or some other form of social media, I’ll often see fans demanding the developers to tell them certain common things. I invariably chuckle and shake my head because I know that the devs are almost certain not to respond.

Dev 52

Dev Prototyping Media Animation 52

Brand Game Development

JULY 20, 2020

Over the last four articles of Start to Finish: Publish and Sell Your First Board Game , I’ve talked about a lot of things that are more complicated than you’d think. That includes the unexpected depth of the board game industry as well as the surprising variety of responsibilities which a self-publishing developer must handle.

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Prototyping Games Playtesting Dev 130

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 30, 2023

Around the same time, he delved into the world of video games, playing titles like GTA, Scarface, Ratchet & Clank, God of War, Call of Duty, and FIFA. One of the stories I wrote was a game. That game is now Hiru.” Hiru is a 3D video game for consoles and PCs, named after a Maasai prince.

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Content Studios Writing Prototyping 154

Ask a Game Dev

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

It's generally easier to prototype and develop ranged combat that feels good than it is for melee. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ Melee combat lives and dies by the animations and systems we build.

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Animation Animation Prototyping Dev 52

Brand Game Development

AUGUST 28, 2017

Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Creating board games can be an expensive affair. In fact, minimizing costs is one of the most compelling reasons to create a game and send it to a publisher instead of self-publishing.

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Development Art Advertising Prototyping 130

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 27, 2017

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Last Saturday and Sunday, I attended my first board gaming convention – Protospiel in Atlanta. Prototype of a beach volleyball game by Julio Nazario. Need help on your board game?

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Dev Point and Click Mechanics 130

Brand Game Development

SEPTEMBER 8, 2017

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. This week with Highways & Byways , I’ve been making little improvements to the game to make it more usable and easy-to-understand. Need help on your board game? Click here.

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Dev Simulation Prototyping Games 130

Brand Game Development

MARCH 22, 2021

Many of you who read this blog know that I am self-publishing board game designer who uses Kickstarter as my platform of choice for funding the bulk of my projects. Certainly no surprise if you’ve read some of my articles like A Crash Course on Kickstarter for Board Games. Need help on your board game?

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Games Localization Platformer Art 130

Brand Game Development

MARCH 12, 2018

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the last of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Ordering Print-on-Demand Samples for Prototyping.

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Quality Assurance Prototyping Games Development 130

PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

This article is part of the game-dev advice newsletter Levelling the Playing Field by Rami Ismail. If you want to know more about the art, craft and science of game development, subscribe here. Not games writing mind you, but copy writing – for pitches, store pages, press releases, & everything else.

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Writing Communications Point and Click Prototyping 104

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 22, 2017

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. I’ve already play-tested this game a ton. I even blind play-tested it at a game design convention. Need help on your board game? Just here for Highway s & Byways updates?

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Point and Click Dev Games Mechanics 130

Mircosoft Game Dev

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

We are delighted to announce that the game development studio Kefir is giving the Godot Engine project a USD 120,000 grant to fund further development of the engine. Thank you Kefir for supporting our free and open source game engine! Many thanks to the Godot team for their incredible contribution to game development.

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Engine Engineering Game Developer Game Development 52

Brand Game Development

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Tasty Humans is the latest, and in my opinion, the greatest creation of Pangea Games. It’s a tile-placement, puzzle-solving board game for 1-4 players about villagers attacking monsters. They were the creative force behind the game, and really, the soul of it. Need help on your board game? But my role?

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Tile Prototyping Games Vector Graphics 130

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. The truth is a little more complicated than that.

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Prototyping Games Localization Demo 130