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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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Games Speak through Mechanics, Not Rules

Brand Game Development

Core Engine: If you strip out all the mechanics that put obstacles in your players’ path, what’s left? The core engine is the bare minimum set of mechanics you need to have a functioning game. Mechanics: Games are not very good until you have constraints that make it hard for players to achieve the objective.

Mechanics 130
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Solo dev Josh Salley (HALbot Studios) “I believe in keeping a good work life balance”

PreMortem.Games

I just assumed game development involved writing code all day.” I never enjoyed programming very much and just assumed game development involved writing code all day. Thinking about those ideas and how I could come up with my own spin or tell my own story with similar mechanics. I believe in keeping a good work life balance.

Balance 195
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Two brothers behind MystiveDev build bodycam survival-horror Chasmal Fear

PreMortem.Games

The collaboration extends to game mechanics and gameplay loops, where player feedback plays a crucial role in shaping the final product. ” The creative process for Chasmal Fear took a different route than their past games Mirror Forge and Alan Sharp, with a focus on establishing gameplay mechanics before delving into the narrative.

Horror 209
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Solo dev Walter Woods (Here Below) of Dark and Deep “Strategic partners are crucial” 

PreMortem.Games

Even if it’s just for testing a small mechanic. In 2020 (during covid) I was also writing a short story that addressed many of the same themes of work he illustrated like The Bible, Paradise Lost, Divine Comedy. It gets lonely, your only friend being a dead artist from the 1800s.” What’s your creative process? “I

Dev 147
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Analysis • Palworld by Pocketpair: the equal-opportunity offender

PreMortem.Games

Similarities all around Beyond its look and feel, the gameplay mechanics found in Palworld also closely match those from other well-known games. The survival mechanics and in-game tasks draw on Rust. Beyond Pokémon, some of the creature designs are similar to those found in Dragon Quest.

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#Drive Rally by Pixel Perfect Dude is a love letter to the golden age of rally games

PreMortem.Games

So, what sets our game apart is its blend of authentic ’90s rally racing experience with modern gaming mechanics. Ultimately, we decided to create our custom physics engine, using NWH Wheel Collider as a base for collisions and writing every part of car physics from scratch.

Pixel 152