PreMortem.Games

MAY 24, 2023

White Star Studio, a small and ambitious game development studio based in Shenzen, China, has captured the essence of ancient China in their game Thriving City. When the team first decided to make a sim management style game, they quickly settled on a city building sim. “We by Emperor Taizu of Song.

Studios 104

Studios Balance Content Playtesting 104

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. No matter what type of game you’re making, these 10 elements are critical to making a good game. Need help on your board game? Constraints.

Game Design 130

Game Design Game Designer Tile Games 130

iXie gaming

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

The last thing you need is to release a faulty or error-prone video game to players. Players will not like it and may create a negative impression of your video game due to the poor gameplay experience. Remember, we live in an interconnected world where your video game can go viral overnight, attracting significant traffic.

Quality Assurance 52

Quality Assurance Bug Cross platform Playtesting 52

Brand Game Development

APRIL 7, 2017

I’ll be explaining my development processes for this game so that you can learn from them. My hope with the Dev Diary series is that by being really direct and transparent about my own development experiences, you’ll see how I respond to real problems. We’re in this together, game devs.

Mechanics 130

Mechanics Dev Simulation Games 130

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

Game Design 130

Game Design Game Designer Playtesting Games 130

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. I’ve created a playtesting log and I’ve done 11 tests so far.

Dev 130

Dev Playtesting Simulation Editing 130

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.

Demo 130

Demo Playtesting Simulation Advertising 130

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? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.

Balance 130

Balance Games Communications Mechanics 130

iXie gaming

OCTOBER 10, 2023

Testing console games is crucial in ensuring your game functions as intended before releasing it to the audience. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach for testing your console game, several best practices can help you test your console game thoroughly. But why is console game testing important?

Console 52

Console Localization Games Mechanics 52

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?

Retail 130

Retail Games Game Design Game Designer 130

iXie gaming

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

The gaming sector has experienced numerous changes over time. Whether it’s game development , every aspect of creating games has experienced new trends in recent times. One of the notable introductions in the industry has been video game test automation.

Simulation 52

Simulation Scripting Games Playtesting 52

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.

UX 130

UX Playtesting Game Design Game Designer 130

Brand Game Development

MARCH 16, 2020

To get the Start to Finish series going, I’ve spent some time discussing games, game development, and the amount of careful messaging that is needed to create and sell a great game. At this point, you may be beginning to have some healthy doubts about the benefits and drawbacks of self-publishing a game.

Games 130

Games Quality Assurance Art Game Developer 130

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? How long have you been making games? What games have you worked on?

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Playtesting Games Game Design 130

iXie gaming

OCTOBER 3, 2023

Testing your game before releasing it to the public is crucial. It helps you identify, document, and mitigate defects and bugs in your video game. This improves the game’s overall performance, stability, and security. Also, game testing increases the chances of your game’s success. But what is gameplay testing?

Bug 52

Bug Mechanics Beta Playtesting 52

Brand Game Development

JANUARY 25, 2021

It’s no secret that if you want to make a great board game, you’re going to have to test it a bunch. Games are complex systems. That’s why it’s important to learn how to identify and fix problems with your board game. I’ve written before about the usefulness of documenting your playtesting.

Playtesting 130

Playtesting Games Mechanics Editing 130

Deconstructor of Fun

MAY 23, 2023

At that point, Second Dinner revealed that their first project just so happens to be a licensed Marvel IP, which the team has been working on for six months already and is currently beginning to playtest. Fastforward to September of 2022 and the game, Marvel Snap, is finally out globally after a considerable amount of time in soft launch.

Tile 95

Tile Mechanics Feature Mobile 95

PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

For some, the idea of developing a game alone is daunting. 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. After a five-year hiatus from game development, he returned as a solo developer to create his debut game Repunk.

Dev 156

Dev Playtesting Art Games 156

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? Games are more than just what’s in the box. Who is Carla?

Playtesting 130

Playtesting Games Advertising Prototyping 130

Game Global

JULY 12, 2021

Do you want to make people laugh at the silly things the game’s troops say if you click on them enough times? If so, you probably want to be a game writer. You should concentrate on building up your writing portfolio and getting regular game writing work. And that’s valid! This is a clip of the Heider-Simmel animation.

Cutscenes 52

Cutscenes Writing Scripting Localization 52

Radiator Blog

MARCH 16, 2023

Last month, game industry documentary makers 2 Player Productions debuted a massive 32-part YouTube game dev doc series Double Fine PsychOdyssey , chronicling the development of Psychonauts 2 from its earliest glimmers of pre-production in 2015 to its final release in 2021.

Art 59

Art Concepts Dev Studios 59

Brand Game Development

JUNE 20, 2019

In fact, I’ve even said: “ don’t build a board game, build a business.” Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Allow me to introduce you to Jeff Beck of Grandpa Beck’s Games. Check it out and see what you think!

Asset 130

Asset Mechanics Games Balance 130

Sirlin

JUNE 13, 2015

I want to show you some of what I'm working (Codex, Flowchart, and a Fighting game) and tell you about Patreon. During Pandante development, I posted dozens of versions of the game board, cards, rules, etc. Patrons helped playtest and also just point out errors or give suggestions how to improve things. Instead.it's fun.

Fighting 52

Fighting Fantasy Art Build 52

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 26, 2017

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the eighth of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Playtesting storytelling. Not allow you to, but make you.

Art 130

Art Mechanics Games Game Developer 130

Deconstructor of Fun

MARCH 14, 2023

Last week in Istanbul, Google and Deconstructor of Fun brought together a thousand-strong group of high-level mobile game execs to talk about the future of the business. His data and insights were based on US data as a proxy for the western market, and focused on platform privacy, or the “Apple global mobile game recession”.

Games 59

Games Cross platform Mobile Mobile 59

Tom Francis

AUGUST 20, 2019

I thought it would be an interesting game design challenge to come up with a single player game you can play with a regular deck of playing cards. In the video I both explain it and play a full game. In the video I both explain it and play a full game. Could just be theme/art/flash, or perhaps a mechanics change?

Games 52

Games Playtesting Prototyping Concepts 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.

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Games Playtesting Dev 130

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. Need help on your board game? But how do you do that?

Tile 130

Tile Games Playtesting Balance 130

Brand Game Development

JULY 15, 2019

One of the hallmarks of good board game design is being able to create hard choices. Particularly when hard choices come from simple mechanics. Let’s talk about how you can create hard choices in your board game. Need help on your board game? When selecting a game mechanic, it is the most familiar solution.

Tile 130

Tile Mechanics Games Puzzle 130

Radiator Blog

JUNE 30, 2022

Zugzwang by Robert Yang This post details my process and intent for making my new release Zugzwang (pronounced in German like /ts'OOK-ts'VAHng/ ) a tactical sex dungeon roguelike cum ritual game. SPOILER ALERT: This post spoils what happens in the game. So this game too is set in a dungeon -- a divine sex maze dungeon.

Code 52

Code Educational Education Prototyping 52