The Liquid Fire

MAY 1, 2024

If you are not already familiar with this game mechanic, you may read about it here. When we get around to implementing “Lore” game mechanics we will need to be able to track the “Academia” part of the “Lore” For now, since I am not actually using this game mechanic yet, we can just skip it.

Asset 52

Asset Scripting Data Mechanics 52

PreMortem.Games

JULY 21, 2023

Fun fact: Semblance was Kimani and Myres’ graduation project and a bug in it morphed into the game’s main mechanic. The deformable terrain was a bug. Kimani recalls “I had a nugget of something I was working on and when Ben joined, he built levels. We were trying to create a soft platform that would bend a bit when you land on it.

Games 104

Games Bug Terrain Game Design 104

Mnenad

JULY 8, 2018

The Mechanic I. I was looking for suitable solutions for having both views in the mechanic of the game. But before I explain the narration, I want to jump back in time when I started building the endless terrain generator. Having the character and the story set, the mechanic was implemented. Adobe Acrobat Document.

Prototyping 52

Prototyping Terrain Open World Rigging 52

Game Errors

APRIL 6, 2023

Putting Effort into Putting No Effort In At All Before tearing into this game for being one of the most low-effort games in the Far Cry era, one has to say that if this were a brand new game with a different title and from a different developer, you would praise its mechanics and some of its graphics and design.

Terrain 52

Terrain Sandbox Mechanics Bug 52

iXie gaming

OCTOBER 26, 2023

Here are some key aspects to consider in functional testing: Core mechanics. Ensure that basic gameplay mechanics work as intended, including movement, interaction with the environment, and combat. Verify the accuracy of the in-game map, including geography, terrain, and landmarks. This guarantees a seamless gaming experience.

Open World 52

Open World Quality Assurance Bug Games 52

Grid Sage Games

MARCH 10, 2022

Mechanics that are never quite worth taking advantage of, items that haven’t lived up to their potential, or were later superseded by other options but remained unchanged, or even long-term experiments that were included at some point but never updated/expanded/removed.

Balance 52

Balance Mechanics Beta Prototyping 52

Grid Sage Games

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Items in Rogue may also be cursed and therefore non-removable except via special means, though that is a tangential mechanic tied more to the identification minigame rather than item randomization itself.) Brogue’s trippy colors come from impactful terrain features like water, lava, and gases. Low on treads or armor?

Data 52

Data Terrain Balance Mechanics 52

Game Errors

OCTOBER 18, 2023

The adrenaline of managing a colossal truck while facing unpredictable Alaskan terrains is simply exhilarating. This is because these updates usually come with new graphics and mechanics that might conflict with older, saved game files or systems that haven’t been optimized yet!

Point and Click 52

Point and Click Graphics Software Terrain 52

Radiator Blog

AUGUST 12, 2022

So I divided the bumpy terrain into quadrants, with big tree roots gating each section. It helps supplement the stealth fantasy in a game with basically no stealth mechanics. This early prototype felt weird to play, because the player could just run around the big open landscape and lead monsters on a big chase.

Prototyping 52

Prototyping Fantasy Fighting Terrain 52

Designer Notes

AUGUST 31, 2021

With that preamble done and due praise given, it is all the more remarkable that one bad game mechanic has been preserved from version to version, tweaked perhaps, adjusted at times, but still as clumsy, fiddly, and unnecessary in 2021 as it was in 1991 – the system of placing citizens on tiles.

Tile 40

Tile Terrain Game Design Game Designer 40

The Bottom Feeder

OCTOBER 18, 2023

Restrictive terrain. A thousand hours of looter shooter game can't rely on story, so the player must be made to feel good with the game mechanics. A player should always be alert and know that something unexpected can happen. There are a MILLION ways to do this. Unexpected hordes. Minibosses. Multiple minibosses.

Games 75

Games Fantasy Fighting Art 75

Game Dev Unchained

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

But, beyond gameplay mechanics, Eco speaks to a much larger industry trend: the emergence of the metaverse. As we navigate this evolving terrain, perhaps the future of education is not about replacing traditional methods but integrating games as a complementary tool.

Indy 105

Indy AAA Platformer Educational 105

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Some roguelikes don’t go heavy on realism, in which case backtracking for this reason can be considered a non-issue and solely a decision to be made within the greater mechanical design, though this does mean progress ends up feeling gamier overall. Design Control. Architecture.

Point and Click 52

Point and Click Mechanics Open World Feature 52

Grid Sage Games

JULY 17, 2022

I’m reminded of Beta 11’s spicing up the main complex with Heavies and Cargo Convoys , though in this case it’s not just adding one or two new mechanics but instead about turning Garrisons into proper branch maps in terms of content distribution… Encounter Architecture. …alert level xD. If available, that is.

Beta 52

Beta Content Balance Mechanics 52

Mnenad

APRIL 9, 2018

As I promised in this chapter I will dig deeper into the designing process around the creatures that will be walking on the procedural terrain. My personal solution was to program my own shape generator, based on values from the terrain generator. Designing the game world's creatures. Shape generation tool. Concept art. What's next?

Terrain 52

Terrain Concepts Art Mesh 52

Radiator Blog

MAY 5, 2021

It is much better than the boring shot reverse-shot cutscene stuff going on in AAA RPGs these days, and makes Skyrim's "sit" mechanic more meaningful. Destroy the player's expectation that relationship mechanic = main cast member. Expendable companions. All in all, I enjoyed Enderal and learned a lot from it.

Open World 52

Open World NPC Cutscenes Terrain 52

Radiator Blog

OCTOBER 13, 2022

And yet it doesn't get more mechanically complicated. This isn't a STEM-y systems thing in the vein of Earth: A Primer because it's about embodying all the agency that rivers do NOT have -- they must follow the terrain, much like a player in a walking sim. Here the restraint of the walking sim format justifies the minimalism.

Indy 52

Indy Film Games Puzzle 52

Deconstructor of Fun

MAY 15, 2022

Balancing relies heavily on gear, maps are crowded with question marks, Boss fights feature repetitive mechanisms. Battle: Simplified skill point system and amazing visual effects The core of the skill system relates to balancing and mechanisms. In the later game, raid mechanisms become quite rich. Skill UI of the Witch class).

Cutscenes 52

Cutscenes Art Content Mechanics 52

Radiator Blog

DECEMBER 12, 2022

Here my walking mechanic borrows some sensibility from Death Stranding, where terrain can seriously slow down the player's speed, so a skilled player should micro-optimize their route a little and avoid water / hills / obstacles. You can place this game in a tradition of walkie-talkie games like Firewatch or Wheels of Aurelia.

Pixel 52

Pixel Film Art NPC 52

Deconstructor of Fun

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

This practice allowed them to fully immerse themselves in various games, gaining firsthand experience of monetization models, community dynamics, and gameplay mechanics. Each member of the Zynga team received a monthly stipend—an allowance of $100 to spend in-game currency on any games they chose.

Games 52

Games Data Communications Build 52

Deconstructor of Fun

JUNE 3, 2019

This deconstruction will cover: The game’s core loop Why having chosen a basic match-3 mechanic was a safe bet What other games have tried The game’s features and to which kinds of players it caters How time-limited offers and events are run successfully. Making a puzzle game doesn’t mean you can make the mechanics themselves a puzzle.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Build Feature Balance 52

Radiator Blog

JULY 6, 2021

Naked simulated AI people ("peeps") arrive and flow across the terrain. So I shifted direction to something more like Claude Shannon's Theseus (1950), a mechanical mouse that "learned" how to navigate a maze by flipping magnetic switches beneath the floor. It's a zoomed out perspective, it's not immersive, it's a simulation.

Simulation 52

Simulation Art AI Internet 52