70 percent of devs unsure of live-service games sustainability
Game Developer
APRIL 16, 2024
With so many games fighting for players' attention and interest losing out over time, time sink games are at risk of eventually losing steam.
How to Fight “Tired Mode” as a Game Dev
Brand Game Development
JULY 28, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. How to Fight Tired Mode. Speaking of avoidance, the best way to fight Tired Mode is to never fight it at all. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Part 1: Recognition. Part 2: Prevention.
Fighting 
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Solo dev Vladyslav Pidiashenko “I hope IHAS will inspire players to better their lives”
PreMortem.Games
OCTOBER 30, 2024
After finishing IHAS, I will start to build a strong team to work on games that are beyond my scope a solo dev.” It’s used to both fight enemies and solve puzzles. I have a lot of respect for solo indie developers, but I often struggle with the limitations and it is not what I want to be doing long-term. Playtest early.
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Ascent of Ashes dev switches to Godot halfway development “Not as chaotic as Unity”
PreMortem.Games
DECEMBER 16, 2024
One with ruins of a collapsed civilization, where you have to fight through raiders and remnants of that civilization to claim your spoils. This also meant we had less dev time to fix bugs or optimize performance. Exceedingly difficult The team first built the game in Unity. Good money after bad The team now faced a tough decision.
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Wrapping up 2023 • Celebrating the life and works of solo developers
PreMortem.Games
DECEMBER 22, 2023
Solo dev Graham Reid: “Being part of a like-minded community is really important” Young Dutch indie developer Lente is something of a free spirit. Solo dev Lente lives and works on a boat and that shows in her game Spilled! Despite being a solo dev all that time, he never really struggled with his motivation. “I
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Solo dev Lincoln McCulloch’s all-consuming journey to develop Dungeons & Kingdoms
PreMortem.Games
JULY 26, 2024
I then had enough time to focus on game dev, so I made the decision to start changing careers. I didn’t really think about what it meant to be a solo dev, I just focused on what I wanted to do which was learn how to make games. I knew plenty of software devs, even some that were making games, but they worked for game companies.
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Solo developer Voidmaw on creating Katanaut: “Done is better than perfect”
PreMortem.Games
JANUARY 30, 2025
Eugene, the solo developer behind Voidmaw , has spent three years crafting Katanaut , a fast-paced action-roguelite where players embody a katana-wielding astronaut fighting to escape a collapsing space station. The toll on mental health can be quite high for solo devs. How do you deal with that? Its definitely a challenge.
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Is it common for Gameplay Programmers to also work in other areas (rendering, engine, tools, etc) while on the same project? Why does that happen?
Ask a Game Dev
DECEMBER 3, 2024
However, that expert may not always be available - maybe she's out on parental leave, maybe he has too many other fires to fight, maybe she's gone home for the day and it's 2am and we need to fix this for the build tonight and I'm the only engineer still awake and answering. As the saying goes, you take any port in a storm.
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Solo dev Almar works on debut game Repunk “I’ve had some darker moments”
PreMortem.Games
NOVEMBER 17, 2023
Yet, for indie dev Almar, it offered an escape from the corporate rat race he felt trapped in. The indie community is amazingly helpful, but you will have to fight by yourself with every single element in your own game – and that takes time! The toll on your mental health can be quite high for solo devs.
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Previously, you’ve explained that even with all the high-profile flops recently, lifestyle games with a big investment up-front and ongoing revenue are still the most financially viable projects. Would there be a tipping point in the market where that changes, and smaller and more experimental projects become the more viable strategy?
Ask a Game Dev
APRIL 1, 2025
Nothing is impossible, but this is improbable due to fighting against the human instinct to stay safe. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on BlueSky Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ
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Why do Fighting Games include invincibility frames for moves that are not blocks/dodges/etc? What is the benefit to having attacks have fractions of a second where the opponent cannot land a hit?
Ask a Game Dev
DECEMBER 19, 2024
Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on BlueSky Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ Invincible moves are a high risk - high reward choice, which is what makes them interesting in gameplay.
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Oscar Salandin, developer of BOTSU Ridicuous Robots: “Solo dev can be lonely”
PreMortem.Games
JULY 29, 2024
Working in Mixed Reality, I met many ex game devs and artists, who I learned from and was greatly inspired by. Although we weren’t making games, the tech for Mixed Reality was identical to making games, so I picked up a lot of technical ability with Unity, game dev, shaders and more.” It’s made a huge difference.
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6 Ways to Cope with Kickstarter Anxiety as a Board Game Dev
Brand Game Development
MARCH 16, 2018
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Anxiety more or less hijacks your body and makes you ready to take action – the proverbial fight or flight. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. Channel your anxiety into productivity.
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Another question about NPC’s I will sometimes see players just let the NPC kill enemies which usually goes with them struggling to kill them or they take a long time to even getting killed themselves. I’m assuming the same stuff you said in your last post applies to these NPC’s?
Ask a Game Dev
NOVEMBER 5, 2024
Instead, we want them to look like they're fighting and take a while so that the player can be the hero. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ We rarely want AI allies to overshadow players - doing so will break the power fantasy.
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What is the benefit of mechanics that give the winning side advantages that help them win more, such as COD poweups?
Ask a Game Dev
DECEMBER 27, 2024
They're similar to, for example, randomly-determined critical hits that deal additional damage or dizzying your opponent in fighting games. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ
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So long 2023! Thank you for the great game dev stories
PreMortem.Games
DECEMBER 29, 2023
Thank you for the great game dev stories appeared first on PreMortem Games. About what motivates them and inspires them. About their hopes and dreams as well as the technology used. Please join us on our own little walk down 2023 memory lane. See you in 2024! The post So long 2023!
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 5
Mircosoft Game Dev
NOVEMBER 16, 2022
The illustration picture for this article is a screenshot of Object Wars , an upcoming multiplayer third person shooter in a cute, homey environment where everyday objects fight it off in battle royale or team deathmatch. The downloads for this dev snapshot can be found directly on our repository: Standard build (GDScript, GDExtension).NET
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Ascent of Ashes dev switches to Godot halfway development “Not as chaotic as Unity”
PreMortem.Games
NOVEMBER 15, 2023
One with ruins of a collapsed civilization, where you have to fight through raiders and remnants of that civilization to claim your spoils.” This also meant we had less dev time to fix bugs or optimize performance. Exceedingly difficult The team first built the game in Unity. Good money after bad The team now faced a tough decision.
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This is a hypothetical question, but do you think if there were more consoles on the market instead of the current big 3 we have today, do you think that would be more beneficial to the game industry and market?
Ask a Game Dev
JANUARY 15, 2025
They're all essentially fighting over distribution of the same pool of overall content. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on BlueSky Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ
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Tasty Humans Launches on Kickstarter Tomorrow
Brand Game Development
JUNE 24, 2019
As you and your fellow monsters toss around the village king, you attract a steady buffet of adventurers who try – poorly – to put up a fight! The post Tasty Humans Launches on Kickstarter Tomorrow appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. You are a fantasy monster trying to sate your insatiable appetite.
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Do you have any tips on making enemy factions feel different to fight against, without spending too much designer and programmer time making full sets of different abilities for each faction? For context, I’m working on a cyberpunk brawler with 3 major enemy factions (corp, gang, cop).
Ask a Game Dev
MARCH 5, 2024
When players start a fight with Corp enemies, they should have a good idea about what they should expect from Corp enemies. A lot of work needs to go into differentiating the members of each faction - what is common to those enemies and how fighting them feels different from fighting enemies from other factions.
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Spotting and Dropping Bad Mechanics
Brand Game Development
APRIL 21, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. With this mini-failure in mind as an example, what can game devs learn about spotting and dropping bad mechanics? Key Takeaways for Game Devs. Just here for Highways & Byways updates? Click here.
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Makhoba Kamogelo: “Don’t let fear stop you from reinventing yourself”
PreMortem.Games
NOVEMBER 13, 2023
Why did they always have to be about fighting?” African Game Dev Prototype Fund They say the best leaders lead by example. The title has gone on to win awards and funding from the African Game Dev Prototype Fund and Humble Bundle. One of those games was Street Fighter. Kamo remembers, “It was the biggest game back then.
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How much freedom does a game designer have at a non-indie studio? Are they able to pitch and create their own ideas or are they basically project leads that get assigned games to make/design (ie that time everyone was making a WW2 shooter)?
Ask a Game Dev
AUGUST 5, 2024
We're not project leads that pitch entire games, we're [ content creators ] that build the bits of specific content in games - the spells, the monsters, the fights, the classes, the races, the quests, the environments, the stats, the companions, and so on.
What do you think is best bang for your buck for dev time to player time (besides multiplayer)? Alternately, what’s the worst (but still worth it)?
Ask a Game Dev
DECEMBER 8, 2022
Continued dev work would be spent on adding new options for the randomized content generator to create even more interesting possible combinatoric results. This usually means content like cinematics, plotted narrative, voiced lines, action set pieces, puzzles, quick time events, scripted boss fights, that sort of thing.
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The Kristala Dev Blog - Issue #30
Astral Clock Tower Studios
JUNE 29, 2021
Thanks for tuning in to another exciting issue of the Kristala dev blog! Stay tuned for details on how you can get monthly comprehensive and even more detailed issues of the Kristala dev blog for just $1 a month! Stay tuned to future issues of the Kristala dev blog for updates on Fede's progress on this important enemy.
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I must ask you what may be the most important question in the history of this blog. Why on God’s green earth do NPCs, especially ones on escort missions, NEVER match the player character’s speed? They ALWAYS seem to be a half-step slower, even when they have to lead the PC to a different location. Why is this such a common occurrence?
Ask a Game Dev
OCTOBER 22, 2024
It's so players can catch up if they get distracted or stalled by other things like fighting, treasure chests, or whatever. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ They're purposely slow so that even players with really bad/slow reaction times (e.g.
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The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance
Brand Game Development
DECEMBER 19, 2016
Dreaming big is a powerful ability that comes naturally to the ignorant and which the knowing can and must fight to maintain. The post The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. If you ever get the feeling that you need to do the reading, that you need to start somewhere – anywhere! –
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In the world of Aikyam, special powers are fueled by kindness and collaboration
PreMortem.Games
MAY 27, 2024
Toronto, Canada based indie dev Thousand Stars Studio prides itself on being a culturally diverse studio. It’s up to the three heroes Vishva, Ramli, and Guru-ji to gain the trust of the villagers and unite everyone in their fight against the demons that are aiming to seize their precious heirloom, the almighty Celestial Glue.
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A common talking point among game critics is in the game devs’ visions and if it was compromised in some way. What do you feel constitutes the developers vision as talked about by game hobbyists?
Ask a Game Dev
MARCH 3, 2023
To my knowledge, humans don’t really have the ability to read other humans’ minds with any accuracy, so actually knowing what the dev team’s vision was during development is essentially impossible for those on the outside. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ
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Dark Deception: Monsters and Mortals dev details dispute with Monster Energy
GamesIndustry.biz
APRIL 5, 2023
As reported by The Gamer , the studio's CEO, Vincent Livings, said on Twitter that in response, he will fight the litigation in court. Read more
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How do you go about setting time limits when relevant? Does someone just play through the section and set it? Playtesting? Do you put together some formula?
Ask a Game Dev
DECEMBER 8, 2023
A long fight should feel like a protracted fight and the time limit should reflect that. A short fight should feel like a sudden burst with a lot of pressure to finish it quickly. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ
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Follow up to the Soul/Tekken post, do you think that game devs going up the corporate ladder or taking more orders from corporate a large reason many franchises (or long enough running live service games) can start “drifting” in focus or the franchise “going stale.”
Ask a Game Dev
JULY 11, 2024
Think of what would happen to the Dark Souls franchise if the new leader was only a fan of the difficult boss fight aspect and chose not to spend those resources on the ambience and world building aspect of the game. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ
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The Kristala Dev Blog - Issue #32
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). Welp, that'll do it for another exciting installment of the Kristala Game Dev Blog!
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4 Lessons from Spirit Island for Aspiring Board Game Designers
Brand Game Development
JANUARY 13, 2020
You and all the other players in the game play as Spirits who fight off the Invaders – basically, people who want to colonize your island. However, the only real offense Bringer has is the Dahan fighting back. The post 4 Lessons from Spirit Island for Aspiring Board Game Designers appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev.
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Analysis • Unity’s decision to raise its prices should not come as a surprise
PreMortem.Games
SEPTEMBER 14, 2023
Even as creatives in other entertainment industries continue to fight to make fair wages, a new front has opened in gaming as developers figure out what to do about Unity’s new fee structure. By charging for installs, Unity is imposing on the cost structure of, especially, smaller devs.
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Hi, I’d like to ask something about dlcs. I apologize in advance if this turns out to be a stupid question but I really have no idea about how game industry works. So… do software houses usually decide the plot of the dlcs together with the main game (or at least before the main game is released on the market) or they tend to wait for the audience’s feedback and then start planning accordingly? Like, when the game is out, a certain character ends up being very popular in the fandom. So… will they decide to focus the dlc on this popular character in order to give ppl what they want or they’re still gonna stick to their original plans? In a few words, could fandom popularity influence the plot of future content of a game?
Ask a Game Dev
OCTOBER 16, 2023
We already have the first several seasons of content for this game scheduled - we plan on adding several significant boss fights and content updates over the course of the next year. At this point, we're just tuning the fight because it's so close to release that we don't want to risk breaking anything.
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I really liked your recent answer about math in game design, but im curious what KINDS of math game designers should learn. Like, what is geometry useful for vs., say, calculus? Are there any fields of math that aren’t useful in game design?
Ask a Game Dev
DECEMBER 24, 2024
How long should one match in my fighting game take? How long will it take for the average player to reach the end of this level if Marios run speed is X meters per second and his jump speed is Y meters per second? How long will the lock picking minigame run before the player gets frustrated?
How to Make Board Game Rules
Brand Game Development
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
Think long and hard about how much you want the game to fight back against the players. The post How to Make Board Game Rules appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. Consider How Much Challenge You Want Your Game to Have. Rules are the primary way to add constraints (or rather, difficulty) to the game. If a rule is confusing, drop it.
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new Quake map: Tell Me It's Raining
Radiator Blog
SEPTEMBER 4, 2021
I also tried to tackle another design weakness of mine -- I rely a lot on fights with shotguns. Compared to that, a big horde in an open space has more replay value and survives the dev grind a bit better. The water is now boring and blue. Despite these flaws, I think this level has a solid ending.
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Hello there. I have a question that still stuck in my mind lately. I have been playing games with an option to turn on “music player” or “custom radio station”. Games like GTA and Forza Horizon 3 (I think?) had this feature. My question is, how difficult is it to implement such feature? Because I rarely see this feature used these days. With the rise of music streaming platforms like Spotify or SoundCloud, wont it be easy to implement such feature?
Ask a Game Dev
FEBRUARY 6, 2024
Several fighting games also sport a jukebox feature like Tekken and Guilty Gear, but it also exists in games like Payday 2 and Sonic Frontiers. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ
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Pandemic: Getting People to Work Together
Brand Game Development
NOVEMBER 18, 2016
You play as members of the CDC fighting four pandemics, each of which are constantly threatening to wipe whole metropolitan areas off the map. The post Pandemic: Getting People to Work Together appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. That alone is enough to make it special, but it’s no one-trick pony.
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Minecraft: Using Learning to Make Players Fall in Love
Brand Game Development
FEBRUARY 24, 2017
In it, you romp around an 8-bit world, fighting monsters and building anything your heart desires. The post Minecraft: Using Learning to Make Players Fall in Love appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. Minecraft and its unexpected rise were like something out of a movie. Need help on your board game?
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