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. All this before there’s ever any playtesting done. This is never a good thing.”

Dev 104

Dev Puzzle Prototyping Development 104

Ask a Game Dev

JANUARY 24, 2025

At the start, you have one or two developers who write a pitch. Really early on, you only have one to five senior devs working on building a prototype for the approved pitches. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ

Prototyping 52

Prototyping Dev Playtesting Build 52

Brand Game Development

MAY 1, 2017

You can keep a dev diary. Don’t write off a reviewer based on subscriptions or web traffic. 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.

Games 130

Games Playtesting Dev Prototyping 130

Brand Game Development

APRIL 27, 2020

Write down everything they say and keep a good attitude even if you disagree. 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. Don’t argue, just listen.

Demo 130

Demo Playtesting Simulation Advertising 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 147

Art Concepts Dev Studios 147

Brand Game Development

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Playtest a Ton. Be direct when writing rules. Use present tense, active voice, and second person when writing rules. 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?

Balance 130

Balance Games Communications Mechanics 130

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. I’ll also be writing responses for Will. Along with handling all the business, Ben has playtested and helped develop our designs.

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Games Playtesting Game Design 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. I sometimes use blank cards or write on prototypes if I need to iterate quickly, but that typically only happens at conventions. Carla: I also do a lot of interviews!

Playtesting 130

Playtesting Games Advertising Prototyping 130

Brand Game Development

APRIL 20, 2020

The first topic I want to write about comes from a guy identified only as Matt in the comments. Hold yourself to no standards and just start writing or drawing. Now circling back to what Matt had asked about finding playtesters, here’s how you might apply these principles. Need help on your board game? Just jump in.

Writing 130

Writing Playtesting Game Developer Game Development 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. By using my own work as an example, I hope you can read their original write-up with a concrete context and use their lessons to make an incredible game of your own. It stalled out for the next four.

Game Designer 130

Game Designer Game Design Tile Games 130

Brand Game Development

MARCH 16, 2020

You do the game development and playtesting. That may sound icky, but don’t simply write off the traditional publishing route. I write with the intention of speaking specifically to self-publishers, because that is what I know, that is what I’ve done, and that is what I like. You go find the art.

Games 130

Games Quality Assurance Art Game Developer 130

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 9, 2019

I was literally turning 26 when I somehow got the idea in mind that I needed to either write a book or invent something to help pay for business school. So I started writing a book on how to fail well. Anyway, I started writing a book on how to fail well and then I thought… having barely gotten into the book, “I need to fail more.

Retail 130

Retail Games Writing Indy 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.

Beta 105

Beta Alpha Mechanics Build 105

Mircosoft Game Dev

OCTOBER 7, 2018

The organizers of the Game Industry Conference (which is also in Poznań just after GodotCon) are letting us use their great venue, and it will be a great opportunity to get together with Godot users and core developers (our lead dev Juan Linietsky is coming from Argentina). All core devs as tutors. Thursday, 11 October 2018.

Demo 52

Demo Simulation Shaders Engineering 52

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 15, 2023

I’ve been interviewing developers since 2013, talking to dozens of candidates at companies such as King, Foxglove and Yager, writing job specs for various roles, and providing hiring decisions. At one point I helped King open their Berlin office, interviewing potential members of their initial dev team.

Studios 104

Studios Engineering Engine Communications 104

Game Global

JULY 12, 2021

You should concentrate on building up your writing portfolio and getting regular game writing work. They’re related, but the difference is this: A game writer’s primary responsibility is to promote the story that the game tells through the scripts they write. Creative writing. Technical writing.

Cutscenes 52

Cutscenes Writing Scripting Localization 52

Mircosoft Game Dev

JULY 2, 2018

After three days of intensive game development and two weeks of playtesting and rating (over 3,500 ratings!), And while there was no voting criterion for the writing, the introduction and ending texts of the game are definitely worth reading! we now have the results for our June 2018 Godot Community Game Jam !

Playtesting 52

Playtesting Writing Animation Animation 52

AWS Games

JULY 26, 2022

Once you’ve specified your messages, you can write handlers for them using GameSparks’ Cloud Code functionality. Then, use “ MegaFrogRace ” for the game name and use the existing “ GameDeployment-MegaFrogRace ” role for the Dev stage, then select Create. In our sample solution, we’re only using messages of the request type.

Build 69

Build Console Games Code 69

Grid Sage Games

MARCH 10, 2022

Beta 11 is finally tackling this project, and we’ve already seen it manifested across propulsion , weapon mechanics , storage units , fabrication and more, but the comprehensive item-by-item review has only come to pass as part of the conclusion to this dev cycle. Fine tuning. Trap Extractor demo.

Balance 52

Balance Mechanics Beta Prototyping 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. The above samples show encounters added to a variety of Garrison layouts, highlighted with a dev visualization overlay.

Beta 52

Beta Content Balance Mechanics 52

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

I’m going to go ahead and just make this a SPOILER discussion as far as game content goes, so that I can write freely about related mechanics, so maybe don’t read this one if you’re spoiler averse and not familiar with teleporting.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Concepts Balance Terrain 52

Brand Game Development

JULY 20, 2020

Garret is a sharp guy and a good game dev. That’s why I hit him up on Discord with the following message: I’m going to be writing a post soon called “Let’s Set Expectations: Time, Money, Effort.” Brandon: Let’s say I’m a brand new board game dev. What should you expect the first time?

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Games Dev Playtesting 130

PreMortem.Games

JUNE 14, 2024

It was right at the beginning of the pandemic, in early 2020, when Austrian indie dev Dominik Hackl started working on Summit , a 2D mountain-climbing Metroidvania. Without much game dev experience he relied on YouTube dev vlogs to help him along. Writing down everything that comes to my mind on paper.

Dev 104

Dev Games Playtesting Art 104

Radiator Blog

JUNE 30, 2022

In my playtests, it felt like the best tactic is to try to trap the cop in the corner with your body while the AIs coordinate a big orgy that gives you a huge payout. Level 4 originally had two cops to make it more difficult to trap them, but in my playtests that turned out to be way too punishing and forced a forever stalemate.

Code 100

Code Educational Education Prototyping 100