PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 25, 2024

This aspect is often overlooked by smaller teams but playtesting played a pivotal role in the development of LIMBO. Here, instead of asking players for feedback, we observed how they interacted with the game. This process reinforced the importance of using gameplay itself to communicate, rather than relying on instructions.

Playtesting 138

Playtesting Games Communications Technology 138

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? Playtest a Ton. Rules vs. Rulebooks. I have some guidelines.

Balance 130

Balance Games Communications Mechanics 130

Interesting Choices

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Also wanted to give a quick update on my various boardgame designs: City Draft - This 7 Wonders inspired drafting game is consistently liked in playtests and has been improving slowly and steadily. The game feels too easy, doesn't have enough strategy, and doesn't seem to quite evoke the feelings that I'm looking for.

Game Design 40

Game Design Game Designer Playtesting Tile 40

Brand Game Development

JANUARY 2, 2018

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? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Carla: I also do a lot of interviews!

Playtesting 130

Playtesting Games Advertising Prototyping 130

Logic Simplified

SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

This sense of putting a player's abilities to use against a difficult situation in a game (challenge), and rewarding their potential for every challenge they overcome and every progress they make in the game (achievement), makes a player want to play. What is Level Design? Process of Level Designing and Game Development 1.

Mechanics 64

Mechanics Games Playtesting Concepts 64

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 15, 2023

This scenario based question covers various different aspects of working on a live game, including investigating common infrastructure scaling concepts, communicating with other team members, and keeping calm and working under time pressure on a game that’s experiencing an outage. How would you approach this?"

Studios 104

Studios Engine Engineering Communications 104

Interesting Choices

AUGUST 17, 2011

Hidden information plus restricted communication - For example, adding a rule that says that players can't talk about the cards in their hand. Games seem to be hesitant to pull the trigger here, and I can't think of an example at the moment, although I'm sure there must be one out there. Now to fine tune the rest of the mechanics.

Communications 52

Communications Co-op Mechanics Playtesting 52