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.
This site uses cookies to improve your experience. By viewing our content, you are accepting the use of cookies. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country we will assume you are from the United States. View our privacy policy and terms of use.
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.
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? Save your old work.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Brand Game Development
NOVEMBER 25, 2019
Need help on your board game? 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.
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? Mitigate push-your-luck with a good catch-up mechanic.
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.
Brand Game Development
NOVEMBER 28, 2016
“Theme-first or mechanics-first” might be the most asked “big question” in the board game community. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Theme and mechanics are inseparable parts of board games as a whole.
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. Constraints.
Brand Game Development
OCTOBER 28, 2019
Last year, Everdell by Starling Games raised nearly half a million dollars on Kickstarter. It has remained a popular board game since, regularly topping out the Board Game Geek Hotness and showing up multiple times as a giveaway prize in Pangea contests. Everdell is a worker placement, tableau-building board game.
Brand Game Development
JANUARY 7, 2019
In 1995, the game formerly known as Settlers of Catan was nothing more than the obscure creation of designer Klaus Teuber. The board game market as we know it today did not exist yet. Catan was the first major hobby board game to come into existence. Need help on your board game? Need help on your board game?
Brand Game Development
MARCH 9, 2020
Monopoly: it’s one of the oldest board games in the store. It’s one of the top 10 best-selling board games. It’s also a terrible board game. When board gamers need a game to mercilessly mock , they look no further than Monopoly. Need help on your board game? Monopoly has a staggeringly low 4.4
Brand Game Development
JANUARY 28, 2019
Sagrada is one of my recent favorite board games. It is fundamentally a pretty simple game, but it has a lot of really endearing qualities. It’s ultimately a puzzle game, but a very attractive one with some subtle elements that arise from it being a nearly perfect information game where players draw from the same draft pool.
Brand Game Development
JANUARY 13, 2020
That is by no means a small amount to raise, but what’s interesting is that Spirit Island has remained on the Board Game Geek Hotness list off and on for almost three years. Clearly, there is much more to this game than what immediately meets the eye. Need help on your board game? You’re next, agriculture games!).
Brand Game Development
MARCH 31, 2017
Need help on your board game? 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. Also, the game doesn’t have a defined win condition yet.
Ask a Game Dev
DECEMBER 27, 2023
for example, if there’s some sort of new unifying game mechanic in the DLC or expansion (think artifact weapons in WoW Legion), we may need to build content around that new mechanic and old stuff might take too much effort to repurpose.
PreMortem.Games
AUGUST 9, 2023
As if developing a game by yourself wasn’t daunting enough, Pat Naoum decided to completely handpaint his debut game The Master’s Pupil. But the end is here, the game is out now on steam. 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.”
Ask a Game Dev
OCTOBER 25, 2023
Many decisions in games have a clearly correct answer - shoot the enemy in the weak spot, avoid the enemy attack, study and react to the enemy pattern, choose the weapon with higher DPS, and so on. Players are thus able to demonstrate their skill in the game through making good decisions.
PreMortem.Games
FEBRUARY 13, 2023
As if developing a game by yourself wasn’t daunting enough, Pat Naoum decided to completely handpaint his debut game The Master’s Pupil. But the end is near, the game will release on steam sometime in the foreseeable future. Every man and his dog has made an indie game but no one has painted a game yet.
Brand Game Development
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
This week while working on my current board game design, a lot of things have come into focus. Now it’s time to start tweaking board game rules. This is where board game design often becomes very tricky. Need help on your board game? Many of the rules in a game will come from the board, cards, etc.
Ask a Game Dev
MARCH 5, 2024
Starcraft, for example, had all Zerg units regenerate, all Protoss have a combination of shields and health, and Terrans have a mix of organic (healable) units and mechanical (repairable) units. To do this, think about what makes a Corp and try to capture that in gameplay mechanics. Your faction abilities should be similar.
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?
Brand Game Development
APRIL 27, 2020
Play-testing is the most important part of board game design. It’s how you turn rough, raw ideas into polished, ready-to-play games. ” Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Visit your local game store.
Ask a Game Dev
FEBRUARY 28, 2023
ALT Being able to look at the details of the various different weapons in the game also make the world feel more real and lived-in. For the second major reason, I should point out that one important principle of game design is that acknowledging the choices a player makes within the game helps make those choices feel more real to the player.
DameDev.tv
DECEMBER 5, 2022
Do you ever wonder what game you should make first? If so, keep reading this What Games Should I Make First Livecast and learn more. He's done it all, from Game Designer, Producer, Creative Director and Executive Producer to GameDev.tv's 0:51 - 4:53) The first moments in a game should show the core experience.
The Knights of Unity
FEBRUARY 5, 2021
In the first one, we will list the most important reasons why you should create at least an outline of the fundamental features and mechanics you want to have your game. Design document in a personal project. Such an approach will surely be more beneficial than designing on the go and in rush.
Brand Game Development
DECEMBER 3, 2018
It’s no secret that board game publishers like to reduce risks. Most publishers have a system in place to help them filter marketable game ideas from unmarketable game ideas. Yet the process, so heavy on rejection, has left many game designers heartbroken. Need help on your board game?
Brand Game Development
DECEMBER 30, 2016
When you tell someone that you’re into board games, they often ask, “oh, you mean like Monopoly ” before you instinctively cringe. on BoardGameGeek , Monopoly is the kind of game that board gamers love to hate. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.
Brand Game Development
OCTOBER 23, 2017
I’ve talked about the benefits and challenges of working alone in the board game industry. Yet I’m a bit of an odd beast in the board game development world since most people prefer to work in teams. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.
DameDev.tv
NOVEMBER 14, 2022
Rick Davidson & Tim Ruswick* are joined by Laurie (Avocado Fire) to discuss stories in video games. In this Livecast they talk about the story in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and Cloudpunk amongst other topics related to storytelling in video games. Content is objects that have been physically built or created in the game.
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? Here’s the goals I’ve set for my company, Pangea Games.
Brand Game Development
DECEMBER 2, 2019
As you might expect, this is also the time of year when a lot of people to go to Google and type in “top 10 board games for Christmas 2019.” ” Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Why are certain games popular right now?
DameDev.tv
SEPTEMBER 29, 2022
Industry veterans Rick Davidson & Tim Ruswick* are joined by Yasmin Curren, to play Cult Of The Lamb and discuss the gameplay mechanics and features of the game and what it means to be a technical designer. She’s an enthusiastic storyteller, game designer and content creator.
PreMortem.Games
JANUARY 19, 2024
His debut game Unknown Number was the first game in what its creator Tom Keane called the ‘First Person Talkers’ genre. Now he’s ready to take talking games to the next level with his new project Dead Meat. It’s an interrogation game where you actually talk to a suspect and try to get a confession.
Game Analytics
DECEMBER 5, 2022
One of the reasons why hyper-casual games are so popular is due to how quick and easy they are to make. Simple controls, artwork, and game design make it easy for any developer to pick up. There are other ways to build a game on a budget. Because choice is how you can differentiate a book from a game.
Brand Game Development
SEPTEMBER 11, 2017
Board games can be about all sorts of things. Games, at their core, might just be a series of mechanics and rules, but themes keep us from feeling like we’re playing out the logical conclusion of mathematical functions. Need help on your board game? Five Levels of Communication through Game Development.
Brand Game Development
JUNE 3, 2019
The concept is simple: through gamification, you take the elements we associate with games – point scoring, competition, rules – and apply them to something else. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Gamification is a fantastic tool.
Ask a Game Dev
NOVEMBER 3, 2023
However, I don’t want to leave things too abstract - game design is about taking an idea and translating it into real game rules and mechanics. Today, I’ll go into some more specific implementation principles that designers can use while crafting their choices in order to get the player thinking.
Brand Game Development
AUGUST 5, 2019
It’s a puzzle-solving, tile placement board game for 1-4 players where you play as a fantasy monster who’s hungry for villagers. We could not be happier with how the campaign turned out, and the game is available for pre-order now ! Need help on your board game? The Early Design. Mid-Development.
Brand Game Development
JULY 14, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. I talk a lot about the business side of board game creation. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. It paid off.
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?
Brand Game Development
APRIL 24, 2017
Board Game Geek is the online mecca for board gamers. It’s extraordinarily popular and an immense repository of all the board game data you can imagine. I cannot overstate the importance of Board Game Geek to the board game community. I cannot overstate the importance of Board Game Geek to the board game community.
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.
Brand Game Development
NOVEMBER 19, 2018
For the last few years, we’ve been living through a glorious age: the Great Board Game Renaissance. In a world aglow with smartphones, tablets, and those annoying billboards that change every five seconds on the side of the road, analog gaming has become a welcome retreat for millions. Need help on your board game?
Brand Game Development
MAY 8, 2017
A couple of weeks ago, I had the absolute pleasure of playing 5-Minute Dungeon at the friendly local gaming store for the first time. This game got us rowdier than ever before and it was awesome! Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Source ).
PreMortem.Games
JULY 17, 2023
The brutal and bloody combat game from Slovenian developer Triternion has already been very successful for the last 4 years on PC. This is a completely different beast from a shooter.” “ Mordhau at its core has always been about melee combat”, says Jonathan Dunn, Game Designer at Triternion.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
We have resent the email to
Are you sure you want to cancel your subscriptions?
Let's personalize your content