PreMortem.Games

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

All this before there’s ever any playtesting done. It usually starts with a ‘think pad’, which is basically just a google doc where I write down anything to do with a specific game concept. “Having full control over the entire project and its creative direction counts as a pitfall too. I realized I missed this aspect a lot.

Dev 104

Dev Puzzle Prototyping Playtesting 104

Brand Game Development

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Playtest a Ton. Be direct when writing rules. Use present tense, active voice, and second person when writing rules. With all this said, how does one create rules that fulfill the twin purposes of balancing the game and communicating clearly? I have some guidelines. Use Present Tense, Active Voice, Second Person.

Balance 130

Balance Games Communications Mechanics 130

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 25, 2016

Write down what people say, update your game, and save a new copy. When you playtest a game, alone or with other people, you’re going to be creating a lot of data. Log every single playtest with the game and make sure your playtest matches with a game version number. Game development is iterative. Who played?

Playtesting 130

Playtesting Data Communications Writing 130

Brand Game Development

APRIL 20, 2020

The first topic I want to write about comes from a guy identified only as Matt in the comments. Hold yourself to no standards and just start writing or drawing. Now circling back to what Matt had asked about finding playtesters, here’s how you might apply these principles. Need help on your board game? Just jump in.

Playtesting 130

Playtesting Writing Game Developer Game Development 130

Brand Game Development

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

If you hate the game you’re playtesting, do something different. Don’t just playtest it and refine the mechanics. By using my own work as an example, I hope you can read their original write-up with a concrete context and use their lessons to make an incredible game of your own. It stalled out for the next four.

Game Design 130

Game Design Game Designer Tile Games 130

Game Global

JULY 12, 2021

You should concentrate on building up your writing portfolio and getting regular game writing work. They’re related, but the difference is this: A game writer’s primary responsibility is to promote the story that the game tells through the scripts they write. Creative writing. Technical writing.

Cutscenes 52

Cutscenes Writing Scripting Localization 52

Brand Game Development

MAY 1, 2017

Don’t write off a reviewer based on subscriptions or web traffic. If something slips through your playtesting, it might very well be caught in the review stage. Reviews are great marketing, even when they’re not good. Look for engagement – comments, likes, conversation, and social media traffic.

Games 130

Games Playtesting Prototyping Dev 130

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 23, 2017

I’ll also be writing responses for Will. Sarah: It was also in 2013 that we met Ben and were playtesters for his game Tower , which he launched on Kickstarter early in 2014. Along with handling all the business, Ben has playtested and helped develop our designs. How Ben, Sarah, and Will Got Started. Brandon: Excellent!

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Playtesting Games Game Design 130

iXie gaming

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Write and deploy smart contracts defining the policies for creating, trading, and owning NFTs in your game. Test Your Game and Deploy Performing thorough playtesting is crucial in NFT game development. Here are some fundamental activities involved in NFT game development: Creating the game concept. Develop smart contracts.

Game Developer 52

Game Developer Game Development Development Asset 52

Big Games

DECEMBER 5, 2023

Voice actors breathe life into characters, and developers write thousands of lines of code. Playtesters are vital in finding bugs, glitches, and potential issues. Character models are designed, audio engines are fine-tuned for realistic sounds, and level designers create immersive environments. Testing Testing is like quality control.

Game Developer 52

Game Developer Game Development Development Bug 52

Brand Game Development

MARCH 16, 2020

You do the game development and playtesting. That may sound icky, but don’t simply write off the traditional publishing route. I write with the intention of speaking specifically to self-publishers, because that is what I know, that is what I’ve done, and that is what I like. You go find the art.

Games 130

Games Quality Assurance Art Game Developer 130

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 9, 2019

I was literally turning 26 when I somehow got the idea in mind that I needed to either write a book or invent something to help pay for business school. So I started writing a book on how to fail well. Anyway, I started writing a book on how to fail well and then I thought… having barely gotten into the book, “I need to fail more.

Retail 130

Retail Games Writing Indy 130

Mircosoft Game Dev

JULY 2, 2018

After three days of intensive game development and two weeks of playtesting and rating (over 3,500 ratings!), And while there was no voting criterion for the writing, the introduction and ending texts of the game are definitely worth reading! we now have the results for our June 2018 Godot Community Game Jam !

Playtesting 52

Playtesting Animation Animation Writing 52

Grid Sage Games

DECEMBER 22, 2023

In previous years I’ve opened the review with a collage of dev images of varying themes and content, but approaching the end of this year we have one major theme that stands out, and that I’ll be writing more about below, so let’s hear it for the interface mockups! Its time has come.

Beta 105

Beta Alpha Mechanics Build 105

Brand Game Development

JANUARY 25, 2021

I’ve written before about the usefulness of documenting your playtesting. It contains both pragmatic advice and a primer to the mindset I want you to take into playtesting. In the meantime, clarify fuzzy parts where necessary, write down their feedback, and keep playing. Now your game is ready for blind playtesting.

Playtesting 130

Playtesting Games Mechanics Editing 130

Mircosoft Game Dev

OCTOBER 7, 2018

Bring your computer and work on fixing engine issues or writing documentation under the guidance of core Godot devs. The above activities are intentionally planned not to fill the whole day, so that there is time to get to know each other, present one's work to other attendees, playtest games, etc. All core devs as tutors.

Demo 52

Demo Simulation Shaders Engine 52

PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Then I write down everything I consider relevant into spreadsheets to compare them all. But the process doesn’t end there, and usually I keep discovering things that make me go back and forth and iterate, playtest, iterate, refine, playtest, iterate… I definitely recommend getting feedback from external playtesters at each step.” “I

Dev 156

Dev Playtesting Art Games 156

Radiator Blog

MARCH 16, 2023

This recap post / viewing guide covers only the first half of the series (episodes 01-17) and I'll try to write-up the second half later. Tim Schafer also has to refresh his writing workflow; should the blockout dictate the script, or the other way around, or how do you manage that back-and-forth?

Art 59

Art Concepts Dev Studios 59

Mnenad

JULY 8, 2018

Where do I begin here… Let me go back to the point I quit writing about in the blog. Playtesting - “One of the best experiences I made with this prototype” fellow student testing GenoTerra. The creature designs.

Prototyping 52

Prototyping Terrain Open World Rigging 52

AWS Games

JULY 26, 2022

Once you’ve specified your messages, you can write handlers for them using GameSparks’ Cloud Code functionality. Alternatively, you can also write your own request body. Since the StartMatchmaking request has no input fields, we can simply write {}. In our sample solution, we’re only using messages of the request type.

Build 64

Build Console Code Games 64

Brand Game Development

JANUARY 2, 2018

Every iteration of each game has to be created somehow and there are A LOT of iterations – usually a new one after each playtest, especially in the beginning. I sometimes use blank cards or write on prototypes if I need to iterate quickly, but that typically only happens at conventions. Carla: I also do a lot of interviews!

Playtesting 130

Playtesting Games Advertising Prototyping 130

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 15, 2023

I’ve been interviewing developers since 2013, talking to dozens of candidates at companies such as King, Foxglove and Yager, writing job specs for various roles, and providing hiring decisions. During the following Playtesting session, the game designer is unimpressed with the current state, mentioning missing features.

Studios 104

Studios Engine Engineering Communications 104

Designer Notes

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

The programmers writing these games would absolutely make some pitchers better than others at preventing hits because that was how everyone thought baseball worked before McCracken. She writes: After I analyzed the results from this study, I was dismayed to find that playing the game had no effect on positive feelings toward the poor.

Simulation 73

Simulation Agent Game Design Game Designer 73

Grumpy Gamer

JANUARY 18, 2018

When I write, music is helpful. I assume you mean "playtesting" since we don't do beta testing. But, at any point in development, from playtesters, bug testers, or us playing the game, we're constantly finding puzzles that don't work. How you divide your time between making games and living "real life" ? I'm off skiing today.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Point and Click Playtesting AI 52

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. Updated Token Shop The new token shop has been released while writing this article, so I’d like to give a quick update on how it works.

Tile 95

Tile Mechanics Feature Mobile 95

Deconstructor of Fun

MARCH 14, 2023

Kudos to Neil Long of Mobilegamer.biz for joining the event and writing the notes. You can find edited highlights of each talk below, and videos of each session – just hit play to start watching. Designers should highlight game progression and grant it early, as well as provide customization options and meaningful choices in the early play.

Games 59

Games Cross platform Mobile Mobile 59

Grid Sage Games

MARCH 10, 2022

The scope of this rebalance is way too large to cover in its entirety, and while I don’t plan to write about every aspect, we’ll be looking at the broad strokes and pick out some representative examples here and there. As is the changes are too new and we’ll have to see what real playtesting turns up. Fine tuning.

Balance 52

Balance Mechanics Beta Prototyping 52

Deconstructor of Fun

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

During the writing of this post, we connected with the folks behind Geeklab and they agreed to offer a free month to their service for all of our readers. Not to mention that the playtests on Playtestcloud usually lasted for more than the required 30 minutes. That’s how confident they (and we) are in their platform.

Data 52

Data Build Games Mobile 52

Grid Sage Games

JULY 17, 2022

In playtesting so far this (among other benefits we’ll get to later) is already clearly tempting players who would otherwise always prefer regular branches over infiltrating a Garrison. Almost sounds like RIF, but by design the two are actually mutually exclusive options, so I look forward to seeing who uses it, and when and how.

Beta 52

Beta Content Balance Mechanics 52

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

I’m going to go ahead and just make this a SPOILER discussion as far as game content goes, so that I can write freely about related mechanics, so maybe don’t read this one if you’re spoiler averse and not familiar with teleporting.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Concepts Balance Terrain 52

Tom Francis

AUGUST 20, 2019

I’ll write the rules here, but they’ll make more sense when you see it played: If you’re following closely, you might notice I slip up and fail to kill the king of clubs when he should have died, but I re-kill him with the next play so it’s fine. In the video I both explain it and play a full game.

Games 52

Games Playtesting Prototyping Concepts 52

Brand Game Development

JULY 20, 2020

That’s why I hit him up on Discord with the following message: I’m going to be writing a post soon called “Let’s Set Expectations: Time, Money, Effort.” We’re going to explore why that is so that you get a clear-eyed look at what you’re committing to. Garret is a sharp guy and a good game dev.

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Games Playtesting Dev 130

Radiator Blog

JUNE 30, 2022

In my playtests, it felt like the best tactic is to try to trap the cop in the corner with your body while the AIs coordinate a big orgy that gives you a huge payout. Level 4 originally had two cops to make it more difficult to trap them, but in my playtests that turned out to be way too punishing and forced a forever stalemate.

Code 52

Code Educational Education Prototyping 52