PreMortem.Games

MAY 19, 2023

Intricate mechanics The dev team faced two major challenges when translating the physical act of climbing to gameplay mechanics: replicating the intricate mechanics of grip, support, weight, and motion, and ensuring user-friendliness. Of these, the climbing system proved to be the most demanding task.

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Indy Dev Studios Playtesting 104

Cocos

MARCH 25, 2024

Hey wonderful folks on the Cocos Dev Team! Also, I’ve been toying around with the animation tool’s “embedded player”… I realize it’s still experimental feature, but it got me thinking… is there a way that we can preview a spine animation in editor without having to manually playtest the game?

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Dev Animation Animation Playtesting 40

PreMortem.Games

APRIL 19, 2024

One of my close friends, Ches Denison, joined me working 5-10 hours a week as a playtester, game designer, and just a general jack-of-all-trades-guy. Once playtesting began in early 2023, player feedback further refined my vision. Plus, maintaining a healthy work-life balance is the most important thing you can do as a game dev.

Playtesting 127

Playtesting Games Mobile Mobile 127

Brand Game Development

JULY 9, 2018

/r/tabletopgamedesign and /r/boardgameindustry are good for connecting with other designers and developers, getting feedback on a design, or even organizing playtests. Many developers choose to create their own subreddits for playtesting. The post How to Use Reddit as a Board Game Dev appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev.

Dev 130

Dev Playtesting Games Platformer 130

Ask a Game Dev

DECEMBER 14, 2023

Then playtest your changes and see how things feel. Then gather some friends, playtest the game, and see if it feels good. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ How does the game experience change if you halve the price of every property?

Playtesting 52

Playtesting Dev Build Game Design 52

Keith Burgun

APRIL 27, 2023

I notice it with my playtesters that all of us are sincerely way more excited to play. I’m doing a bunch of playtesting recently on all eight characters because I want them to be as awesome as possible for the launch of the Kickstarter in a few months. By contrast, this version consistently gets way more positive reactions.

Dev 52

Dev Playtesting Games Development 52

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. Now your game is ready for blind playtesting. Send your game to new blind playtesters. Need help on your board game? Don’t interfere.

Playtesting 130

Playtesting Games Mechanics Editing 130

Game Analytics

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

Playtesting is crucial at this point. And many of the regular tricks that devs use to save on rendering costs are lost when building VR games. “It When we asked Schell Games what they’re using, they recommended User Testing for their playtesting, and GameAnalytics for collecting quantitative data. You may have to get creative.

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Dev Playtesting Fantasy Render 91

Ask a Game Dev

MAY 5, 2023

This is where playtesting comes in. We typically run playtests as often as possible in order to ferret out these issues so that we can adjust them if they are too egregious. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ What is the FANTa project?

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Playtesting Dev Content Texture 52

Ask a Game Dev

JANUARY 23, 2024

Whenever I do solo dev work, the feature that always takes the longest and tends to require the most work to get something playable by actual players is the UI. Small-team dev also tends to build more system-driven games because it's more dev-time-efficient than creating single-use narrative-driven content.

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Dev Build Content Feature 52

DameDev.tv

DECEMBER 12, 2022

Rick has more than 14 years experience in the game dev industry, working on IP's that include Mario, Transformers, Captain America and Mortal Kombat. Until next time, happy dev'ing! He's done it all, from Game Designer, Producer, Creative Director and Executive Producer to GameDev.tv's

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Game Developer Game Development Development Dev 90

Astral Clock Tower Studios

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

We're so happy you're joining us for another epically magical installment of the Kristala Dev Blog! This is the place where we break down all aspects of development for 3D Dark Fantasy ARPG Kristala—an indie game in developed by the wildly talented dev team behind women-owned indie games studio, Astral Clocktower Studios. Level Design.

Dev 52

Dev Animation Animation Concepts 52

DameDev.tv

OCTOBER 7, 2022

Industry veterans Rick Davidson & Tim Ruswick* are joined by Stephen Hubbard to understand how he got started in game dev, see what he’s been up to since we last saw him, discuss how to launch your first game and play his new game, Tilecraft. for people to playtest and provide feedback. that it really stuck!

Dev 52

Dev Bug Games Playtesting 52

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

Through playtesting, you can answer the question “do the mechanics suit the theme?”. Figure out the theme you want to capture, try building it through mechanics, then playtest and tweak until you successfully captured your desired theme. The post Theme vs. Mechanics appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev.

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Mechanics Playtesting Concepts Art 100

Brand Game Development

APRIL 7, 2017

I’m trying something different on the Dev Diary. My hope with the Dev Diary series is that by being really direct and transparent about my own development experiences, you’ll see how I respond to real problems. We’re in this together, game devs. Key Takeaways for Game Devs. This is a teaching blog.

Mechanics 130

Mechanics Dev Simulation Games 130

Brand Game Development

JUNE 3, 2019

You can further pare down journey maps and empathy maps to very specific scenarios and instances which create many playtesting questions. Playtesting in this stage of game design is related to user research in UX design. The post Why Gamification Makes Everything Else More Fun appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev.

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UX Playtesting Game Design Game Designer 130

PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

After launching Jumplight Odyssey in August of 2023 the studio failed to secure additional funding and was forced to lay off the entire game’s dev team in November. Three years later the situation at League of Geeks has changed drastically. Many of us have been in the industry for a long time. “Our

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Studios Concepts Playtesting Development 143

Brand Game Development

APRIL 27, 2020

Two groups that come to mind are the Tabletop Game Playtesters Guild and Card & Board Game Designers Guild. The post 6 Ways to Find Play-Testers for Your New Board Game appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. Remember: they’re doing you a huge favor! Finally, go in prepared. Visit your local game store.

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Demo Playtesting Simulation Advertising 130

Brand Game Development

MARCH 9, 2020

Watch your playtesters’ reactions. With so many issues, it seems unlikely that Monopoly was thoroughly playtested. At the very least, it wasn’t playtested to modern standards. The post 7 Lessons from Monopoly for Aspiring Board Game Designers appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev.

Game Design 130

Game Design Game Designer Playtesting Games 130

Ask a Game Dev

DECEMBER 20, 2022

It’s important to get playtesters who aren’t familiar with the puzzle to test it, especially noting any frustration points. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent questions: The FAQ. Got a burning question you want answered?

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Playtesting Advertising Dev 52

PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

This article is part of the game-dev advice newsletter Levelling the Playing Field by Rami Ismail. ” does not give them same context as “In playtests we found that a turn-based paradigm fits the prototype best, which answers questions raised about the prototype’s gameplay last week.”

Writing 104

Writing Communications Point and Click Prototyping 104

Brand Game Development

MAY 1, 2017

You can keep a dev diary. If something slips through your playtesting, it might very well be caught in the review stage. appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. There’s a lot of ways to suggest that your game is going to be good. You can release a free PNP version. You can give it gorgeous art.

Games 130

Games Playtesting Prototyping Dev 130

Brand Game Development

JULY 20, 2020

Garret is a sharp guy and a good game dev. ” It’ll be aimed at letting first-time game devs know what they’re getting into with self-publishing. Even if you take out vacation, that’s 9 months – I feel like that’s a surprisingly long time frame to a lot of first time devs.

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Prototyping Games Playtesting Dev 130

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.

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Beta Alpha Mechanics Build 105

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 23, 2017

I’ve split it into five sections for your convenience: How Ben, Sarah, and Will Got Started How Working in a Team Feels The Downsides of Teamwork Communication in a Team Advice for New Game Devs. 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.

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Playtesting Games Game Design 130

Radiator Blog

SEPTEMBER 4, 2021

These huge labor-intensive maps are hard to make for a variety of reasons, but in this particular context, the most relevant problem is that playtesting the same hand-tuned encounter repeatedly quickly drains its charm and it becomes difficult to gauge whether it's still interesting or not.

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Playtesting Fighting Scripting Puzzle 52

Grumpy Gamer

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

For me to get a new playtest or (more importantly) a dev engine build can take 15-30 minutes. To compile the Windows build on Azure takes between 6 and 15 minutes which is crazy since I can compile the game locally in 1-2 minutes. Same with the Mac build.

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Debug Playtesting Build Engine 40

Brand Game Development

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Playtest a Ton. The post How to Make Board Game Rules appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. 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. This is non-exhaustive and it just includes what’s on my mind this week.

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Balance Games Communications Mechanics 130

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. Whenever I demo or playtest, I make sure to get the email address of the person, so I can inform them when the Kickstarter starts. Carla: I also do a lot of interviews!

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Playtesting Games Advertising Prototyping 130

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 59

Art Concepts Dev Studios 59

Brand Game Development

MARCH 29, 2021

Now look, some parts of game design – like playtesting or accessibility testing – can be tedious. The post 3 Signs It’s Time to Quit Working a Board Game Design Idea appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. Of course, burnout doesn’t just happen all at once. It sneaks up on you and gives you warnings.

Game Design 130

Game Design Game Designer Games Playtesting 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. The post 10 Elements of Good Game Design appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. This seems obvious, but never lose sight of it. was garbage in its first ten iterations. It stalled out for the next four.

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Game Design Game Designer Tile Games 130

Rindoku

OCTOBER 7, 2016

After months of toiling in a secluded attic, the last weeks of which were particularly grueling, we finally took Second Hand to its first public showings: first to Dev-Play in Bucharest and shortly thereafter to Clujotronic in our very own Cluj. It was scary, thrilling, amazing and… we won the Dev-Play Indie Pitch! Color me excited!

Point and Click 52

Point and Click Dev Demo Playtesting 52

Brand Game Development

MAY 18, 2020

Tabletop Simulator doesn’t just let people play before pledging, it’s also a great place to design and playtest games. Blind playtesting of your games is very valuable when it comes to helping refine your rules and making sure your game is easily approachable. The Unheard-of Benefits of Tabletop Simulator.

Simulation 130

Simulation Games Demo Playtesting 130

Brand Game Development

JULY 22, 2019

In playtesting, the time between turns has rarely been an issue. This is an example of how simple playtesting of a change can trump what you, as the designer, “thinks” will be the effect. 5) appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. The Race to the Finish.

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Tile Games Playtesting Balance 130

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 3, 2018

They could be manufacturers, retailers, designers, or playtesters. The post Why Board Game Publishers Like Some Games and Don’t Like Others appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. So they get the axe. Most publishers have friends in the business. You’re the captain of a boat on a bigger sea.

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Games Retail Game Design Game Designer 130

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 15, 2023

At one point I helped King open their Berlin office, interviewing potential members of their initial dev team. During the following Playtesting session, the game designer is unimpressed with the current state, mentioning missing features. Understand how the candidate approaches problems Engineering is a varied and ever changing sector.

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Studios Engine Engineering Communications 104