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Do you have any tips on making enemy factions feel different to fight against, without spending too much designer and programmer time making full sets of different abilities for each faction? For context, I’m working on a cyberpunk brawler with 3 major enemy factions (corp, gang, cop).

Ask a Game Dev

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.

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Spotting and Dropping Bad Mechanics

Brand Game Development

Most board game mechanics will not work as well as you intend them to. Good board game developers need to know when to drop mechanics and when to refine them. I’ve been playing with a new mechanic called “traffic.” Yes, I thought this would make a good mechanic a week ago. Click here. So it goes.

Mechanics 130
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How to Fight “Tired Mode” as a Game Dev

Brand Game Development

How to Fight Tired Mode. Speaking of avoidance, the best way to fight Tired Mode is to never fight it at all. Every game mechanic, every piece of art, and every marketing endeavor ultimately comes down to your decisions. It is really, really hard to do a lot of mental work and keep your head on straight. Prioritize sleep.

Fighting 130
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Ill Tower - Hybrid Dungeon Crawler

Indie DB

Ill Tower is a dungeon-crawler / platformer with some roguelite mechanics. Climb, slide, fight the Tower’s guardians and try to recover your stolen soul.

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COCOON creator Jeppe Carlsen “I never compromise on playability”

PreMortem.Games

The game immerses players in a captivating odyssey across worlds within worlds, beckoning them to master the art of world-leaping mechanics to uncover a cosmic mystery. Carlsen’s vision for Cocoon sprang from a fascination with game mechanics. years of development. One day the idea simply popped up”, explains Carlsen.

Puzzle 257
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Strategy games should always be moving toward their conclusion

Keith Burgun

In this model, you have a goal, and a “core mechanism” which has two parts: a core action and a core purpose. So if all of the supporting mechanisms are supporting that singular core mechanism, which itself is pursuing the goal, then, *in theory*, the game state ought to always be moving toward its conclusion.

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what should one focus on, mechanics-wise, so that in the end players will enjoy losing?

Ask a Game Dev

Not a lot of games do this, but I really like how fighting games have replays of your matches where you can go back and see the inputs and the events that transpired. Most battle royale games offer the ability to spectate or start queueing for a new game immediately upon game loss. Losing can be an opportunity to learn and improve.