Designer Notes

MARCH 31, 2023

Welcome to My Elephant in the Room: An Old World Design Postmortem. Here are the games that I’ve worked on. Spoiler alert: Civilization 3 and 4 are going to come up a lot in the presentation… I also do a podcast where I interview game designers about why they make games, so check it out if you have time for 4-hour interviews.

Tile 98

Tile Point and Click AI Mechanics 98

Brand Game Development

JULY 22, 2019

Perfect board game pacing is one of the most underrated aspects of board game design. Somewhere between overwhelm and ennui, there lies a middle ground where a game is perfectly paced. A great board game feels challenging and interesting throughout. Now I want to zoom out a bit and look at the design as a whole.

Tile 130

Tile Games Playtesting Balance 130

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

This article is the first of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. The basic idea is that board games are a means of communication that facilitate gameplay. That’s no accident.

Engine 130

Engine Engineering Mechanics Tile 130

Keith Burgun

JANUARY 4, 2023

For month after month, I tried fixing them with different supporting mechanisms, different ways that cards were obtained, different ways damage was dealt, and a lot more, but nothing really fixed the fundamental problem. Let me quickly explain how the game worked in broad strokes, and then I can explain the main problem.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Game Design Game Designer Playtesting 52

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

Well I don’t really want* to go as far as creating a full-blown in-game design system with a dedicated interactive UI like you might find in some sort of RTS or games with a vehicle design element. On that note, one area of concern here is that Cogmind’s allies are notoriously disposable, by design.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Build Point and Click Tile 52

Designer Notes

AUGUST 31, 2021

The following is an excerpt from the Designer Notes for Old World. The game, a historical 4X set in classical antiquity, released on July 1, 2021, and is available for purchase here. The first Civilization game was like a game design thunderbolt, sent from the heavens and marking everything it touched.

Tile 40

Tile Terrain Game Design Game Designer 40

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.

Art 130

Art Games Tile Mechanics 130

Interesting Choices

OCTOBER 5, 2011

I'm also playing around with adding more "build around me" tiles that come early in the game, so that players can have a direction and get especially excited about tiles that they might be able to pick up later. Maybe I'll get a chance to playtest it at IndieCade and see if people have some ideas.

Game Design 40

Game Design Game Designer Playtesting Tile 40

Deconstructor of Fun

OCTOBER 23, 2023

This game, which combines Match-3 core with merge progression originally launched globally in the second half of 2020. Just when the market was becoming overheated with the lockdowns and merge mechanics were the all-new rage among the players. You decided how much time you'd spend swapping tiles or tending to your flowerbeds.

Mechanics 59

Mechanics Puzzle Tile Mobile Gaming 59

Deconstructor of Fun

SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

This analysis is written by Taras Koshelev (Lead Game Designer at My.Games Venture Capital) who focused on game mechanics and loops and Michail Katkoff (Founder of Savage Game Studios) who covered the market and marketability. Gates, which are an ultimate obstacle covering the whole battlefield from tile damage.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Tile Mechanics Build 52

Interesting Choices

NOVEMBER 30, 2018

And while overall I've been overjoyed with the response, I've seen a few comments from people who dislike the inclusion of the disaster tiles in the game, and I realized that I haven't ever sat down to write out my thoughts for why I included the mechanic despite knowing that those tiles would be controversial.

Tile 52

Tile Prototyping Build Games 52

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

Yet you must understand that people often use the phrase “board games” to refer to a larger subset of games known more accurately as “tabletop games.” People say “board games” to mean “tabletop games” the way people say “White House” to mean “US government.” Game Design. All games start with ideas.

Games 130

Games Art Media Game Design 130

Brand Game Development

JANUARY 15, 2018

This article is the eleventh of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Accessibility is a big issue in board gaming. A lot of this is just good game design.).

Development 130

Development Communications Games Game Design 130

Interesting Choices

FEBRUARY 25, 2015

Not long after that I started working on a game (then called City Draft) that would be strongly inspired by a few key influences: 7 Wonders for the mechanics and structure, Carcassonne for the idea of placing tiles in a grid, and SimCity for the theme. Science is purely all or nothing. Few viable paths to victory.

Build 40

Build Tile Point and Click Games 40

Brand Game Development

JUNE 17, 2019

But relatively few thematic games had any real heft to them. Made in 1964, Acquire is an economic board game with mechanics that we recognize in modern games such as hand management and tile placement. But Acquire did it better than any other game out there. What makes this game so good?

Games 130

Games Concepts Game Design Game Designer 130

Designer Notes

DECEMBER 10, 2023

AI works perfectly well for these types of games as the mechanics themselves hinder diplomacy.) Human-only free-for-all games of Civilization look a lot different from traditional single-player as there is often a lack of trust between humans, which leads to much more defensive play.

AI 52

AI Racing Tile Engine 52

Brand Game Development

JANUARY 2, 2018

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the ninth of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Carla: I have a few other games in the works as well, Drapple and Observance.

Playtesting 130

Playtesting Games Advertising Prototyping 130

Deconstructor of Fun

JUNE 20, 2019

Matchington Mansion isn't the only game trying to take a bite out of Playrix' apple; Family Zoo (Plarium, Aug 2017), Home Design Makeover (Storm8, Feb 2018) and My Home - Design Dreams (Zentertain, Aug 2018) have been making attempts, but have all reached nothing but a fraction of what Firecraft Studios has accomplished.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Studios Tile Mechanics 52

Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 10, 2021

The increase in time playing is presumably due to the pandemic’s effects on user behavior: various lockdowns cutting out other forms of entertainment along with an increase in down time (and honestly, the escapism games offer comes as respite from what was a bleak reality for most). As is the whole Istanbul gaming ecosystem.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Mobile Mobile Advertising 52

Radiator Blog

JUNE 30, 2022

A broughlike is a variation on a roguelike named after designer Michael Brough , who has spoken before on his design patterns like square tiles, orthogonal movement, turn parity, glitching, limited info, simple maze designs, minimal resources. A dense randomized mini-chess puzzle where everything matters.

Code 52

Code Educational Education Prototyping 52