Raph Koster

JULY 31, 2024

The point of this little exercise is to clarify what the fantasy that you are trying to fulfill in your game narrative is, clarify what the mechanics in your game point towards, and see whether they line up well. What is the player’s goal (in the experience)?

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Playtesting Fantasy Mechanics Games 52

Brand Game Development

MARCH 31, 2017

Also, the game doesn’t have a defined win condition yet. Some game designers – and I count myself among them – consider to be win conditions pretty important to games. I’ve pushed a rough version of the game out to Tabletop Simulator for my use only.

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Dev Playtesting Simulation Editing 130

Brand Game Development

JUNE 3, 2019

For that reason, I’ve brought in Sean Fallon, Founder & CEO of Smunchy Games and User Experience (UX) Designer extraordinaire. By looking at game design from this new angle, we hope to help you understand why board games are so playable and what that means for other aspects of our lives. What’s the point?

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UX Playtesting Game Design Game Designer 130

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 16, 2023

But also other numerous close relatives of the homo sapiens, such as Neanderthals and Homo Naledi which will be all present in our game.” While the gameplay mechanics reflect the search for historical accuracy, the team of Gorilla Softworks didn’t try to go for realism in the visual presentation.

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Technology Indy Playtesting Games 104

Brand Game Development

APRIL 27, 2020

Play-testing is the most important part of board game design. It’s how you turn rough, raw ideas into polished, ready-to-play games. Two groups that come to mind are the Tabletop Game Playtesters Guild and Card & Board Game Designers Guild. Visit your local game store. Final Thoughts.

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Demo Playtesting Simulation Advertising 130

Brand Game Development

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

This week while working on my current board game design, a lot of things have come into focus. Now it’s time to start tweaking board game rules. This is where board game design often becomes very tricky. Need help on your board game? Playtest a Ton. 14 Rules for Board Game Rules.

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Balance Games Communications Mechanics 130

Keith Burgun

JANUARY 4, 2023

For month after month, I tried fixing them with different supporting mechanisms, different ways that cards were obtained, different ways damage was dealt, and a lot more, but nothing really fixed the fundamental problem. Let me quickly explain how the game worked in broad strokes, and then I can explain the main problem.

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Mechanics Game Design Game Designer Playtesting 52

Interesting Choices

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Also wanted to give a quick update on my various boardgame designs: City Draft - This 7 Wonders inspired drafting game is consistently liked in playtests and has been improving slowly and steadily. The game feels too easy, doesn't have enough strategy, and doesn't seem to quite evoke the feelings that I'm looking for.

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Game Design Game Designer Playtesting Tile 40

Brand Game Development

OCTOBER 23, 2017

Early in 2013, our local game store owner mentioned that there were other designers in the area. We had our first game design meetings, which I continued to organize and have been running since. Along with handling all the business, Ben has playtested and helped develop our designs.

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Prototyping Playtesting Games Game Design 130

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 3, 2018

Yet the process, so heavy on rejection, has left many game designers heartbroken. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Board game publishers have to sort good from bad. There are mechanics in there that nobody’s ever seen!”

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Games Retail Game Design Game Designer 130

iXie gaming

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

This will help you shape the gameplay art style, mechanics, and general experience. Upon establishing your audience, brainstorm unique features and game mechanics. Most NFT games grant players meaningful control over their assets. Design a clear game concept integrating NFTs and define gameplay mechanics.

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Game Developer Game Development Development Asset 52

iXie gaming

OCTOBER 3, 2023

Gameplay testing is done before launching the game to identify and mitigate issues in the game’s design, controls, graphics, and mechanics, to mention a few. This ensures more efficient and customized solutions to the game. But what is gameplay testing? And how does it work? What is Gameplay Testing?

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Bug Mechanics Beta Playtesting 52

Brand Game Development

JANUARY 2, 2018

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the ninth of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Games aren’t made by one person usually and definitely not in my case.

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Playtesting Games Advertising Prototyping 130

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 26, 2017

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the eighth of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Playtesting storytelling. Not allow you to, but make you.

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Art Mechanics Games Game Developer 130

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.

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Balance Mechanics Beta Prototyping 52

Designer Notes

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

Game designers would just be guessing. So, what can games simulate? Strangely, the best example I can think of is a game trying to recreate a situation MUCH more difficult to simulate than baseball, life as a border agent in a totalitarian country. However, Wright was not making a game in the abstract.

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Simulation Agent Game Design Game Designer 78

Mnenad

JULY 8, 2018

The Mechanic I. I was looking for suitable solutions for having both views in the mechanic of the game. But on the other hand, this fact made me aware of my competence as a game designer.  Having the character and the story set, the mechanic was implemented. Masterarbeit_©MihajloNenad2018.pdf.

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Radiator Blog

MARCH 16, 2023

I assumed it was mostly for fans but after watching all 32 episodes (on 2x speed, skipping some parts) I've changed my mind and now I think it's essential viewing for all game designers / devs. Each level also had unique mechanics and art styles that all tied into a cohesive whole.

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Art Concepts Dev Studios 59

Deconstructor of Fun

MARCH 14, 2023

ATT did not kill mobile gaming: UA, game mechanics, and creatives Matej Lancaric , user acquisition, and marketing consultant aking the stage with a phenomenal Lenny Kravitz-inspired scarf and a positive outlook – or “Kumbaya s**t” in Lancaric’s words – the consultant offered tips and context for marketers working with iOS14.

Games 59

Games Cross platform Mobile Mobile 59

Interesting Choices

AUGUST 17, 2011

Still, any designer thinking about the cooperative space should have this problem at the forefront of their mind. Of course, many games have also managed to solve this problem, either intentionally or as a side effect of another mechanic. Now to fine tune the rest of the mechanics.

Communications 52

Communications Co-op Mechanics Playtesting 52

Grid Sage Games

JULY 17, 2022

I’m reminded of Beta 11’s spicing up the main complex with Heavies and Cargo Convoys , though in this case it’s not just adding one or two new mechanics but instead about turning Garrisons into proper branch maps in terms of content distribution… Encounter Architecture. …alert level xD. That’s a problem.

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Beta Content Balance Mechanics 52

Interesting Choices

FEBRUARY 25, 2015

Not long after that I started working on a game (then called City Draft) that would be strongly inspired by a few key influences: 7 Wonders for the mechanics and structure, Carcassonne for the idea of placing tiles in a grid, and SimCity for the theme. victory points in the final era.

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Build Tile Point and Click Games 40

Sirlin

JUNE 13, 2015

During Pandante development, I posted dozens of versions of the game board, cards, rules, etc. Patrons helped playtest and also just point out errors or give suggestions how to improve things. Codex, Flowchart, and now.the Fantasy Strike fighting game (yes, really!).

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Fighting Fantasy Art Build 52

Tom Francis

AUGUST 20, 2019

I thought it would be an interesting game design challenge to come up with a single player game you can play with a regular deck of playing cards. In the video I both explain it and play a full game. If you’re going to charge for it, maybe think about if there’s something you’d like to add to the game.

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Games Playtesting Prototyping Concepts 52

Deconstructor of Fun

OCTOBER 17, 2022

When CoDO development started, there was barely any successful 3D free-to-play shooter in the west and free-to-play design as a whole was fairly unexplored outside of Facebook games. The only examples of F2P shooters at scale were Korean (Crossfire) and Chinese (Assault Fire/Ni-Zhan), both focused on pay-to-win mechanics.

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Content FPS Mobile Mobile 52

Brand Game Development

JULY 15, 2019

One of the hallmarks of good board game design is being able to create hard choices. Particularly when hard choices come from simple mechanics. Sounds easy enough to do, but it’s actually really tough from the designer’s perspective! Let’s talk about how you can create hard choices in your board game.

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Tile Mechanics Games Puzzle 130

Brand Game Development

JULY 22, 2019

Perfect board game pacing is one of the most underrated aspects of board game design. Somewhere between overwhelm and ennui, there lies a middle ground where a game is perfectly paced. A great board game feels challenging and interesting throughout. Now I want to zoom out a bit and look at the design as a whole.

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Tile Games Playtesting Balance 130

Brand Game Development

JULY 20, 2020

I founded Tricorn Games with the aim to craft, publish, and distribute those ideas I had been tinkering with forever. Garret: The rest of the time you spend, is how much time it takes to develop the game, playtest, produce the artwork, playtest, write the rules, playtest, revise, and prototype.

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Prototyping Games Dev Playtesting 130

Radiator Blog

JUNE 30, 2022

This points to a general problem with treating sexual moods like immutable video game character classes. So in hindsight, a better game design analogy for sexual roles would've been "stances" or "buffs" that freely change and/or stack. L loss or often worse, since cops can exploit the same chain reaction mechanic as the player.

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