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. And generally I maintained a pretty healthy work life balance for the most part of it. I realized I missed this aspect a lot.

Dev 104

Dev Puzzle Prototyping Development 104

PreMortem.Games

JULY 8, 2024

Concept art for upcoming game Moya Sithlu and his family moved to Durban from East London when he was in grade 10. It’s been a struggle balancing my master’s with all the business stuff, especially now that we were in these accelerators,” he says. I have around 160 poems now. Dissecting poems came naturally to me.”

Studios 129

Studios Educational Education Point and Click 129

Brand Game Development

MARCH 29, 2021

Finding the balance is difficult, and I think many creatives lean too much into the former category. Now look, some parts of game design – like playtesting or accessibility testing – can be tedious. “Do I care about the basic concept of the game?” Of course, burnout doesn’t just happen all at once.

Game Design 130

Game Design Game Designer Games Playtesting 130

Radiator Blog

MARCH 16, 2023

Then it cuts to concept artist Emily Johnstone anxiously trying to pitch design ideas to a group brainstorm meeting which she just happens to be the only woman in the room. They still need to balance this pre-production with finishing the studio's other projects too. Shouldn't Tim be giving more direction on the level concepts?

Art 59

Art Concepts Dev Studios 59

Big Games

DECEMBER 5, 2023

Regular software updates, including game-balancing patches and new downloadable content (DLC), keep the game fresh and engaging. The proof of concept is crucial, helping decide if the game is feasible, its cost, team size, and timeline. Balancing creativity with project constraints is tricky.

Game Developer 52

Game Developer Game Development Development Bug 52

Sirlin

OCTOBER 20, 2015

Though you might as well wait until next week because there will be a balance update within a week. Within a couple days, I plan to post a big update to the Codex print-and-play version (for $25+ patrons) that has dozens of balance changes based on the last month of playtesting.

Fantasy 52

Fantasy Fighting Balance Concepts 52

Grid Sage Games

MARCH 10, 2022

Some roguelikes don’t strive for balance, but maintaining balance has always been important to me for Cogmind, since it fits better with my vision for this type of game, heavy on tough, complex, and consequential decision-making at multiple strategic and tactical levels. Alien Artifacts. Exiles Prototypes.

Balance 52

Balance Mechanics Beta Prototyping 52

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 23, 2017

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. Will: I know for me personally, projects are a big concept. Will was also lead story writer for Tower.

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Playtesting Games Game Design 130

Grid Sage Games

OCTOBER 2, 2022

I was really unsure any of this would work at all, since internally it’s quite complex and therefore hard to gauge what outcomes are possible and whether they’d really fit into Cogmind, which has a pretty strong focus on design balance. The first iteration simply averaged together the stats of all the input items.

Engine 52

Engine Engineering Mechanics Balance 52

Rindoku

OCTOBER 7, 2016

Gabriel Tanko – Concept and 2D Art. Balancing the difficulty for a wide range of players will be a b h. Fix the problems we identified during the playtest. I’m pretty sure we’ll be doing some more playtests in the near future. Ovidiu Mantoc – Level Design, 3D Art. Cosmin Coroiu – 3D Art. Carmen Palade – Animation.

Point and Click 52

Point and Click Dev Demo Playtesting 52

Keith Burgun

JANUARY 4, 2023

We’ve only playtested it about 5-6 times – each time it was a blast , despite the balance being all wonked up – so I don’t want to get too deep into the details right now. work, is that life is too short to spend months or years trying to get a game concept working. I’m really excited!

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Game Design Game Designer Playtesting 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. Of course this change comes with significant balance repercussions, which we’ll cover when we get to discussing that topic further below.

Beta 52

Beta Content Balance Mechanics 52

Deconstructor of Fun

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Concepts like seasonal content, the introduction of event-based currencies, VIP stores are only a few examples of common practices in China in the mid to late 2000s, way before any western game started to adopt them. There was no concept of events or free/ earnable content.

Content 52

Content FPS Mobile Mobile 52

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

As a general concept teleportation technology exists in quite a few varieties throughout the world of Cogmind, though the player only has access to some of them. In fact I have two new concepts for teleportation tech, which is kinda funny because of how they evolved out of the same idea.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Concepts Balance Terrain 52

Brand Game Development

JULY 15, 2019

That aspect being players dropping pieces into the monsters’ stomachs and strategically arranging them to maximize their overall “satisfaction” Monsters are eating adventurers with their stomachs being some kind of puzzle that you drop the adventurers into was the initial concept. That is an interesting decision.

Tile 130

Tile Mechanics Games Puzzle 130

Radiator Blog

JUNE 30, 2022

For balance purposes, I limit the number of voyeurs in the maze, otherwise it can enter a deadlock where there's only voyeurs but no one for them to watch. Violence is usually the first thing to prototype in an action game, but here it surprised me how much work it took to hack violence into an existing system that had no concept of it.

Code 52

Code Educational Education Prototyping 52