Radiator Blog

AUGUST 12, 2022

So I divided the bumpy terrain into quadrants, with big tree roots gating each section. To unlock each root gate to the next section, the player must fight their way into a little fort and press a big obvious flashing red button. It helps supplement the stealth fantasy in a game with basically no stealth mechanics.

Prototyping 130

Prototyping Fantasy Fighting Terrain 130

Radiator Blog

MAY 5, 2021

It is much better than the boring shot reverse-shot cutscene stuff going on in AAA RPGs these days, and makes Skyrim's "sit" mechanic more meaningful. Destroy the player's expectation that relationship mechanic = main cast member. It's not uncommon to walk between towns and fight like 6 different packs of wolves. Money sink.

Open World 130

Open World NPC Cutscenes Terrain 130

Radiator Blog

OCTOBER 13, 2022

The high visual polish and stellar production values adorn a solid but predictable gameplay loop: you fight through dungeons with random rooms / enemies, collect resources, and bring them back to your hub to build up your village and its inhabitants. And yet it doesn't get more mechanically complicated.

Indy 130

Indy Film Games Point and Click 130

Designer Notes

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

I argued then that we need to stop assuming that a game’s theme or SETTING determines its meaning and, instead, that meaning comes from the mechanics themselves. Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about games which do a good job of constructing meaning from their mechanics and also about ones which do it poorly.

Mechanics 80

Mechanics Game Designer Game Design Build 80

The Bottom Feeder

OCTOBER 18, 2023

The trick is making sure the fighting part is engaging. Restrictive terrain. Unless actually fighting a boss fight. A thousand hours of looter shooter game can't rely on story, so the player must be made to feel good with the game mechanics. That's the loop. Which means it has to have variety. No suspense.

Games 81

Games Fantasy Fighting Art 81

Keith Burgun

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

And basically EVERY SINGLE FIGHT is: dodge roll their moves, then counter attack with all your stuff. But it really doesn’t matter much what skills you take, it changes almost nothing, because there just isn’t much mechanical terrain in this game. That’s it. That’s about it!

Fantasy 105

Fantasy Fighting Terrain Games 105

Grid Sage Games

MARCH 10, 2022

Mechanics that are never quite worth taking advantage of, items that haven’t lived up to their potential, or were later superseded by other options but remained unchanged, or even long-term experiments that were included at some point but never updated/expanded/removed.

Balance 52

Balance Mechanics Beta Prototyping 52