The key to future employment in games dev is diversifying your skill set
Game Developer
MARCH 20, 2024
Game design professor Jeremy Bond shares how to prepare your students for the uncertain game industry future.
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The Clash of Choices in Game Design
Game Wisdom
MAY 25, 2023
The Clash of Choices in Game Design Josh Bycer josh@game-wisdom.com One of the many balancing acts of game design is the act of creating cool, interesting, unique, abilities for the player to use, and then balancing said abilities within the scope and design of your game.
Game Design 
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3 Signs It’s Time to Quit Working a Board Game Design Idea
Brand Game Development
MARCH 29, 2021
Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. If you don’t consistently work to improve, you won’t make the game you want to make. Note that when I say “quit”, I don’t mean “quit board game design.”
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Board Game Designer vs. Developer vs. Publisher
Brand Game Development
DECEMBER 17, 2018
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. Let’s start with three roles: board game designer, developer, and publisher. Need help on your board game? Designers make the game’s soul.
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How To Know When to Pivot on Your Board Game Design
Brand Game Development
JUNE 29, 2020
A couple of months ago, I asked the readers of this blog to send in answers to the question “ what confuses you most about board game development ?” ” I got a lot of responses, and two of them were about knowing when to pivot during a game design project. Need help on your board game?
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4 Lessons from Exit Games for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
JULY 13, 2020
Certainly, board game designers can learn a lot from well-designed escape rooms. Exit Games by Kosmos are the closest we can get to the authentic in-person experience right now. Exit Games by Kosmos are the closest we can get to the authentic in-person experience right now. Need help on your board game?
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Jussi Kemppainen is exploring AI-assisted game development with Echoes of Somewhere
PreMortem.Games
AUGUST 30, 2023
With the discussions over the use of AI in game development raging on, Jussi-Petteri Kemppainen , Lead VFX Artist at Mainframe Industries and founder of Dinosaurs Are Better , spends his spare time to see what all the fuss really is about. are answered in his regularly updated dev blog. With his free, experimental 2.5D
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7 Lessons from Monopoly for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
MARCH 9, 2020
When board gamers need a game to mercilessly mock , they look no further than Monopoly. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Monopoly is a bad game, but have a little respect. This is a critical element of good game design.
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6 Reasons Escape Rooms Will Make You a Better Board Game Designer
Brand Game Development
NOVEMBER 25, 2019
Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Escape Rooms will make you a better board game designer. With this in mind, here are six reasons I believe that Escape Rooms will make you a better board game designer. Escape Rooms are master classes in theme.
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4 Lessons from Santorini for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
JANUARY 14, 2019
It has been given the modern board game polish, though, with adorably cutesy art of Greek gods, and an incredibly photogenic set of stackable plastic components. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Physical game presence counts for a lot.
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Game devs talk design methods, system mechanics in design summit
Game Developer
MARCH 13, 2023
For anyone with an interest in game design, Polaris' developer summit has different articles covering various aspects of design development.
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10 Elements of Good Game Design
Brand Game Development
FEBRUARY 17, 2020
When I was a neophyte game developer, I found an excellent article by Wizards of the Coast, creators of Magic: the Gathering , called Ten Things Every Game Needs. This two-part article was so influential in my initial design of War Co. This two-part article was so influential in my initial design of War Co.
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EA rejection of Alice sequel marks end of American McGee’s game dev career
Game Developer
APRIL 10, 2023
With his Alice: Asylum pitch rejected by Electronic Arts, game designer American McGee is leaving the game industry entirely behind.
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4 Lessons from Sagrada for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
JANUARY 28, 2019
It is also a smashing success of a game – so let’s talk about why that is. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Take note, aspiring game designers! This is arguably one of the worst feelings that a game can give you.
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4 Lessons from Root for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
SEPTEMBER 16, 2019
Indeed, on the Pangea Games Facebook group where we regularly give away free board games, Root has by far the most popular prize we’ve ever given away (all three times we’ve done it)! Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.
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4 Lessons from Twilight Struggle for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
SEPTEMBER 3, 2019
No matter how you feel about it, there is a lot that new board game designers can learn from it. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. In my opinion, pacing is one of the most underrated aspects of board game design.
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4 Lessons from Quacks of Quedlinburg for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
JANUARY 27, 2020
It has since remained a hot game on Board Game Geek and a perennial favorite in Pangea Games board game giveaways! So with that in mind, what can we learn from this award-winning board game with a silly name? Need help on your board game? It’s absurd and you can’t help but smile at it.
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4 Lessons from Pandemic for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
JANUARY 21, 2019
Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. In it, I talk about why I love Pandemic for introducing me to hobby games and why I find its take on cooperative gameplay particularly effective. Photo taken by Jana Reifegerste and posted on Flickr.
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4 Lessons from Paladins of the West Kingdom for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
NOVEMBER 11, 2019
Ever since then, Paladins of the West Kingdom has been on the Board Game Geek Hotness list nearly every time I’ve checked. For this reason, we are going to dig into what makes this game so successful. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.
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5 Lessons from Catan for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
JANUARY 7, 2019
Catan was the first major hobby board game to come into existence. Even 24 years later, we can still look back at this game and learn lessons from it. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. A lot of games have come and gone and Catan endures.
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4 Lessons from Terraforming Mars for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
FEBRUARY 4, 2019
I consider this to really valuable for learning game design simply because there is so much going on. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Terraforming Mars is a game where each player acts as a corporation trying to, well, terraform Mars.
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4 Lessons from Everdell for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
OCTOBER 28, 2019
Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. The post 4 Lessons from Everdell for Aspiring Board Game Designers appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. But why exactly is that? Cute fantasy themes go a long way.
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4 Lessons from Dinosaur Island for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
OCTOBER 14, 2019
Even now, two years later, the game’s name has enough cultural cachet to lead to the most popular board game giveaway Pangea has ever sponsored. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. That entails theme, components, and art.
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4 Lessons from Spirit Island for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
JANUARY 13, 2020
Clearly, there is much more to this game than what immediately meets the eye. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. For that, we’ll reference the game’s Board Game Geek page. There’s a lot we can learn from it!
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12 Simple Ways To Get Better At Game Development
DameDev.tv
DECEMBER 12, 2022
Do you ever wonder how you can get better at game development? If so, keep reading for some great tips and watch the Livecast for all 12 ways to get better at game development. He's done it all, from Game Designer, Producer, Creative Director and Executive Producer to GameDev.tv's
Let’s say someone becomes a game developer, but realizes the gaming industry is not for them for whatever reason. What opportunities there for game developers, particularly designers, outside of the video game industry? I imagine one of them is your former job at the gambling industry.
Ask a Game Dev
DECEMBER 22, 2023
You are correct in that it is possible to transfer that body of knowledge over to the other gaming industry that is casino machines. Beyond that, here are some other roles that game design skills could transfer to. Tabletop, board, or card game design. It's still game design, just not in video games.
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So hey, about ten years ago there was basically a phase in video game development where manual saves were disabled in place of (often far apart) automatic saves. It (mostly) passed in its own time, but… what was up with that?
Ask a Game Dev
FEBRUARY 26, 2024
One major guiding principle in game design is "make it easy to do things right and hard to do things wrong". It's a lot easier to ensure the saved game is in a good state under controlled situations, such as with established save points and automatic saves.
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Final Factory by Never Games takes automation into space and adds bullet-hell
PreMortem.Games
APRIL 19, 2024
Things were getting serious three years later when Ryding decided to quit his job as a software engineer and work full time as a game developer. One of my close friends, Ches Denison, joined me working 5-10 hours a week as a playtester, game designer, and just a general jack-of-all-trades-guy.
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Timing is Everything in Board Game Development
Brand Game Development
JUNE 23, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Stages of a Board Game Project. His name is James Masino.
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Makhoba Kamogelo: “Don’t let fear stop you from reinventing yourself”
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.
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Out Now • Solo dev Pat Naoum of the handpainted The Master’s Pupil: “Creativity is a tool”
PreMortem.Games
AUGUST 9, 2023
“Every man and his dog has made an indie game but no one has painted a game yet. A point of interest in the indie game sea.” Naoum calls himself a jack of all trades, a master of none, so going solo on game development made a lot of sense. Pat Naoum: “Game development takes so long!”
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Photogrammetry for Game Development
That One Game Dev
FEBRUARY 4, 2023
Read this article to understand what photogrammetry is and how it can help you today to generate reallistic 3D models for your next game. The post Photogrammetry for Game Development appeared first on That One Game Dev.
My week at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and what I learned
CG Spectrum
APRIL 3, 2023
The annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) was held last week in San Francisco, boasting 28,000 attendees ! Penny was kind enough to share her experience at GDC and why she believes it's such a valuable event for people looking to break into the games industry. Meet Penny!
Indie Gaming’s Last Stand: How Willem Delventhal Is Battling Corporate Dominance!
Game Dev Unchained
MAY 9, 2023
The Transformative Landscape of Game Development: A Deep Dive with Willem Delventhal As a digital ecosystem thrives and transforms at a rapid pace, a recent conversation with game designer and educator Willem Delventhal offered insights into the evolving realm of game development.
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6 Underrated Skills That Make You a Better Game Developer
Brand Game Development
APRIL 14, 2017
I realized that in my push to create Highways & Byways , I’ve neglected six very powerful background skills that make game developers great. Game development is about more than just game development, folks. Need help on your board game? Guiding Lights: Make great games.
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Dev Diary: 03/31/17
Brand Game Development
MARCH 31, 2017
Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Naturally, this game is nowhere remotely close to completion. Also, the game doesn’t have a defined win condition yet. The post Dev Diary: 03/31/17 appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev.
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How to Diagnose Failure & Move Forward as a Board Game Developer
Brand Game Development
MAY 14, 2018
Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. We’ll use the game development process – from start to finish – as an example. If the audience shows passion and interest, continue to game design.
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Solo dev Pat Naoum of the handpainted The Master’s Pupil: “Creativity is a tool”
PreMortem.Games
FEBRUARY 13, 2023
“Every man and his dog has made an indie game but no one has painted a game yet. A point of interest in the indie game sea.” Naoum calls himself a jack of all trades, a master of none, so going solo on game development made a lot of sense. Pat Naoum: “Game development takes so long!”
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How to Find an Audience for Your Board Game & Make Them Happy
Brand Game Development
JUNE 8, 2020
A couple of months ago, I asked the readers of this blog to send in answers to the question “ what confuses you most about board game development ?” ” I got a lot of responses, and one of them was about how to find an audience for a board game. Need help on your board game? This is not the case.
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Behind the Veil: The Complexities of Game Development and Market Reception
Game Dev Unchained
MAY 17, 2023
In the expansive and rapidly evolving world of video games, the stakes have never been higher. The rise of increasingly intricate and expensive game schemes has not only upped the ante for game developers but also heightened the expectations of an ever-demanding audience. “Game schemes are expensive. .
Why Gamification Makes Everything Else More Fun
Brand Game Development
JUNE 3, 2019
Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. For that reason, I’ve brought in Sean Fallon, Founder & CEO of Smunchy Games and User Experience (UX) Designer extraordinaire. Board Game Design Makes You Better at Business (Because of Gamification Principles).
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Solo developer Splenbit of Blocks Tracks Trains: “I like pursuing my own vision”
PreMortem.Games
MARCH 24, 2023
Splenbit is a part-time solo game developer, known for his game Blocks Tracks Trains. He obtained a doctorate in Informatics and Robotics and has been working as a software developer on various projects since 2009. And that’s what game development is to him at the moment, a hobby.
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6 Ways to Cope with Kickstarter Anxiety as a Board Game Dev
Brand Game Development
MARCH 16, 2018
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. You need to make a great game. Click here. Will this work?
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Tasty Humans Launches on Kickstarter Tomorrow
Brand Game Development
JUNE 24, 2019
Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. To celebrate the launch, I’ll be releasing a five-part case study on the development of the game every week for the next five weeks. It would have been a crime to leave this game unpublished.
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