PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 2, 2024

What started as a simple concept quickly turned into a game that challenges players with a mix of strategic depth and risk-reward mechanics. Solo devs have to be generalists, and that’s not for everyone”. I think we have a similar attitude about what ‘good game design’ is, mechanically.

Dev 104

Dev Development Mechanics Writing 104

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 30, 2019

Experiment with a theme or mechanics you’ve never used. “Accessible” is a loaded word in board gaming, but the basic concepts are simple: make games for as many people as you can. You can read more about that in my article here: Setting Up Social Media as a Board Game Dev: A Primer Course. Happy New Year!

Dev 130

Dev Prototyping Games Game Design 130

PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

I sketch many times, not only my concept art but even game mechanics. Crude will release on 22 December 2023 and Remote Life 2: Fearless on 7 May 2024 The post Solo dev Mario Malagrino “The psychological pressure is the worst part of game development” appeared first on PreMortem Games. On paper, it looks very clear.

Game Developer 138

Game Developer Game Development Dev Development 138

Brand Game Development

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Brainstorm game concepts for 30 minutes. Google “list of board game mechanics.” The post Make a Board Game in 28 Days: A Challenge by Brandon the Game Dev appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. Make a Board Game in 28 Days: Printable Download. Stuck along the way? Pick one idea worth pursuing. Download a Printable Copy.

Dev 130

Dev Writing Game Design Game Designer 130

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 12, 2016

Much like theme vs. mechanics , separating people into gateway gamers and hardcore gamers is another persistent dichotomy in the board game community. Unlike theme and mechanics, though, I think this distinction is much more useful. You can make complex games based on simple mechanics like Patchwork.

Build 130

Build Mechanics Art Concepts 130

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 17, 2017

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Only after your game is functional and has a few mechanics and rules do I recommend bringing in play-testers. “Fun” is a nebulous and weird concept for game developers. Click here.

Point and Click 130

Point and Click Mechanics Games Art 130

Brand Game Development

JULY 17, 2017

The following excerpt is from Games Speak through Mechanics, Not Rules (Dev Diary: 04/28/17). 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. That’s a mechanic. Chess tells a story.

Communications 130

Communications Game Developer Game Development Development 130

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

This communication happens on five levels: the core engine of the game, mechanics, rules, the internal narrative or “theme”, and the external narrative or “community and marketing.” The core engine is the bare minimum set of mechanics and concepts you need to have a functioning (but not necessarily fun) game.

Engine 130

Engine Engineering Mechanics Games 130

PreMortem.Games

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

He took some online courses on programming and he was in business, as a solo dev operating under the name of Frambosa , only six months later. So, his solo debut game Billy Bumbum might be the first and last game he made as a one-man-dev-team. But for me it might be different than for other solo devs. This is never a good thing.”

Dev 104

Dev Puzzle Prototyping Development 104

Radiator Blog

MARCH 16, 2023

Last month, game industry documentary makers 2 Player Productions debuted a massive 32-part YouTube game dev doc series Double Fine PsychOdyssey , chronicling the development of Psychonauts 2 from its earliest glimmers of pre-production in 2015 to its final release in 2021.

Art 147

Art Concepts Dev Studios 147

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

Cogmind generally has fewer such direct escape options, but teleport mechanics are out there, if an advanced tech not usually available until the late game. 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.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Concepts Balance Terrain 52

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 11, 2017

Game rules are how we regulate the mechanics of our games so that they are consistent with the messages we want to send to players. Short-term mechanic testing. Brandon: At the short-term mechanic testing stages, you’re really just using rules to help underlying mechanics manifest themselves! Private testing.

Mechanics 130

Mechanics Writing Concepts Games 130

Ask a Game Dev

MARCH 29, 2024

Each of the terms are the same basic concept - a demonstration of gameplay - but they each have small but important distinctions. Prototype - A playable example of a single gameplay system to prove out the concept. Examples might be character movement, a combat combo system, or a specific game mechanic.

Prototyping 64

Prototyping Demo Dev Concepts 64

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 28, 2019

Worker placement is a very simple concept with really profound implications. There is a reason this mechanic is present in many BGG Top 100 Games such as Viticulture , Caverna , A Feast for Odin , and Agricola. Sometime around 2018, I did a major poll asking people what their favorite themes and mechanics were.

Game Design 130

Game Design Game Designer Fantasy Mechanics 130

Brand Game Development

APRIL 10, 2017

For the purpose of this breakdown’s coherence, I won’t go into details of the shooting and marshal mechanics, nor will I cover the end-game shooting bonus. I’m going to focus on the programmable movement, because this mechanic alone has a lot of subtle implications which I will proceed to break down.

Mechanics 130

Mechanics Concepts Fantasy Film 130

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 27, 2017

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. I’m also very skeptical about the return on investment that game devs can expect from a typical con. They look for mechanics and general play-ability. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates?

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Dev Point and Click Mechanics 130

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 10, 2017

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. The basic idea of the core engine is “what’s left when you strip a game of mechanics and obstacles. The game’s mechanics center around that. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates?

Game Developer 130

Game Developer Game Development Development Games 130

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

The objective of Patchwork is to score the most points, but that’s kind of an abstract concept. It has depth on repeated plays, but the depth comes from simple mechanics. The mechanics may be simple, but the relationships between them give the game life and longevity. Photo by Eric Yurko of “What’s Eric Playing?”

Games 130

Games Mechanics Concepts Dev 130

Brand Game Development

JUNE 3, 2019

The concept is simple: through gamification, you take the elements we associate with games – point scoring, competition, rules – and apply them to something else. Businesses have fallen in love with this concept because they’ve found that gamification works wonders for motivating people.

UX 130

UX Playtesting Game Design Game Designer 130

Brand Game Development

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

As I said last week , “rules regulate the way mechanics are implemented. A mechanic is the concept behind the game and the rule is the way that it’s handled to ensure balance.” Rules are how we implement game mechanics. The post How to Make Board Game Rules appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev.

Balance 130

Balance Games Communications Mechanics 130

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 25, 2024

It’s a brutal journey of persistence, frustration, and constant restarts, where the stakes are as emotional as they are mechanical. Internal debate The development of Ascending Inferno wasn’t just about embracing punishing mechanics though. Left: the original concept art for the logo, right: the final logo. experience.

Studios 118

Studios Indy Mechanics Games 118

Brand Game Development

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

I extensively use examples to explain the trickiest concepts. rule book, I use visual examples to explain how the energy mechanic works. appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. Examples provide excellent context for players to understand how a game is played. In my own game, War Co. , In the War Co. Make it visual.

Balance 130

Balance Concepts Render Mechanics 130

PreMortem.Games

MAY 27, 2024

Toronto, Canada based indie dev Thousand Stars Studio prides itself on being a culturally diverse studio. This system reflects our key underlying value of unity in the game, as we uniquely weave the theme into our mechanics. It’s a whimsical, Bollywood-inspired RPG that celebrates the fun traditions and magical stories of India.

Art 166

Art Studios Content Indy 166

Astral Clock Tower Studios

MAY 27, 2021

Welcome back to another exciting issue of the ever-enchanting Kristala dev blog! We'll be sure to keep you posted on all the sweet deets as we near our Patreon launch date, so be sure to stay tuned to our socials and public dev blogs for updates and announcements (including an exciting kick-off contest where you can snag a FREE PS5 ).

Dev 52

Dev Concepts Demo Animation 52

Astral Clock Tower Studios

JUNE 29, 2021

Thanks for tuning in to another exciting issue of the Kristala dev blog! Concept Art. After Concept Artist Harold reimagined each level area in the demo, we then had him concept out the individual props that will be needed to carefully detail each environment. Hello, dear friends and fantasy aficionados.

Dev 52

Dev Demo Concepts Prop 52

Astral Clock Tower Studios

APRIL 21, 2021

Welcome back to another magically entrancing issue of the Kristala dev blog. Concept Art. As part of our demo overhaul, we recently welcomed a few new team members into our motley crew in order to help us better establish the dark-fantasy vibe we're going for—including the newest member to our Concept Art team, Harold.

Dev 52

Dev Concepts Demo Texture 52

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 28, 2024

Canadian solo dev Matt Marshall is the creator of the Cyberpunk-themed city builder Dystopika. Just trying to get a sense of place and then figuring out what kind of mechanics and interactions grow from it.” Marshall created the game while drastically resetting his professional life. A quiet place. Listening to atmospheric music.

Sandbox 138

Sandbox Art Build Concepts 138

PreMortem.Games

APRIL 17, 2023

Staying motivated isn’t hard at all for the solo dev. “It Overall, I call this process ‘Idea-smithing’ and with it I have crafted features, spells, stories and entire game concepts. It took him 4 years to create his game and in that time he learned some valuable lessons. “If If you can imagine it, you can build it”, he says.

Game Developer 197

Game Developer Game Development Development Games 197

Brand Game Development

AUGUST 26, 2019

Targeting Attention, Interest, Desire, And Action Product Your Niche Price Process & Logistics Core Concepts of Promotion Outreach Reviews Distribution Kickstarter Advertising. This concept is called product-market fit. I’ve mentioned the AIDA model before in How to Get Big on Twitter as a Board Game Dev. Your Niche.

Advertising 130

Advertising Games Media Concepts 130

PreMortem.Games

MARCH 11, 2024

Indie developer Chibig started in 2017 as a one-dev studio in Valencia, Spain. With much of the game involving little witch Mika swooping around the beautiful scenery of the island, the team is particularly proud of the flying mechanic. “We So, finally, we decided to stick to the original plan and create a short adventure.

Mechanics 104

Mechanics Indy Art Open World 104

Brand Game Development

MAY 13, 2019

Everything can be scrapped at a moment’s notice – mechanics, rules, art, and even basic core concepts. You come up with basic ideas, find physical pieces to represent those ideas, and come up with game mechanics. Then you regulate the expression of those mechanics through rules. Need help on your board game?

Game Developer 130

Game Developer Game Development Development Art 130

Ask a Game Dev

DECEMBER 27, 2023

It’s usually easier to start with concepts from cut content, since we’d already started developing it before we realized it wasn’t high enough priority to finish. The concept behind the old stuff might not fit or might not be fun anymore because the game design went a different direction from when we originally came up with the cut content.

Content 52

Content Mechanics Dev Concepts 52

Ask a Game Dev

APRIL 29, 2024

The regular practice of posting to the blog has honed my skill at taking difficult, technical, and/or complex concepts and conveying them in an intuitive and understandable way. There's a lot to be gained from doing personal game dev work and posting it publicly, but you don't need to go all or nothing. That's basically the rundown.

Communications 64

Communications Dev Mechanics Games 64

Astral Clock Tower Studios

AUGUST 31, 2021

That's why we were super excited when we learned that this year's fifth-annual Play NYC convention would be held in person (with tons of awesome precautions in place to ensure all devs, speakers, and attendees were kept safe and healthy). link] Concept Art. We can't wait to go back again next year! In-tact and broken Amulets.

Dev 52

Dev Demo Concepts Animation 52

Brand Game Development

JANUARY 29, 2018

I also work with indie dev companies on a more casual level discussing challenges, goals and brainstorming solutions. There may even be some storytelling to convey the reason or meaning behind a particular series rules and mechanics. The gameplay section should focus on round mechanics. Images help. Then hammer that home.

Writing 130

Writing Games Mechanics Balance 130

Brand Game Development

APRIL 13, 2018

After a year of documenting the Highways & Byways development process through the Dev Diary, this is not the post I wanted to write. Was it the basic concept? I handled the operations much better this time, but the core concept didn’t work. I have received lots of praise for it from reviewers and gamers alike.

Data 130

Data Writing Dev Game Developer 130

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 19, 2020

Maybe this is standard for engine-building games, but it was a new concept to me. (It’s Besides getting money, I like this phase because it really sticks to the concept that you are a company. My husband is a bit more into game mechanics and the nitty gritty (can’t you tell I’m pleased I married a game developer?

Point and Click 130

Point and Click Games Concepts Mechanics 130