Ask a Game Dev

JUNE 4, 2024

When designing a puzzle, a designer must think of the process by which the player interacts with them. Place and advertise the clues to the puzzle goal within the environment. This can be subtle or it can be obvious, depending on whether the puzzle is optional or part of the critical path.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Playtesting Advertising Dev 52

Brand Game Development

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

When I was a neophyte game developer, I found an excellent article by Wizards of the Coast, creators of Magic: the Gathering , called Ten Things Every Game Needs. No matter what type of game you’re making, these 10 elements are critical to making a good game. Need help on your board game? A clear objective.

Game Design 130

Game Design Game Designer Tile Games 130

Radiator Blog

SEPTEMBER 4, 2021

But giving the player some of the most powerful weapons in the game, right from the beginning, quickly led to pacing problems. Combined with dynamic map geometry, my personal playtests felt slightly less painful, and making the last 5% of this map felt a bit fresher than my previous maps.

Playtesting 130

Playtesting Fighting Scripting Puzzle 130

PreMortem.Games

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

When Jonathan Barbosa Dijkstra lost his job, just before the pandemic hit, he decided to give his dream of making a game by himself a proper go. I would love to be part of a small team where you’ve got your peers and still have a big impact on the game.” For me, and for others I’m sure, making your own games is ‘the dream’.

Dev 104

Dev Puzzle Prototyping Development 104

Logic Simplified

SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

Let’s begin by understanding the concept of levels in a video game. What drives a video game, and what factors control its engagement? In a game, new motives, challenges, and concepts are added to the game world, while ensuring they increase the degree of difficulty at every level. What is Level Design?

Mechanics 65

Mechanics Games Playtesting Concepts 65

Sirlin

APRIL 12, 2020

For the last few years, I’ve thought about my tabletop games Puzzle Strike and Yomi. I have not been thinking about new editions of those games, but rather entirely new games that are inspired by those games. I’ve just started rolling out content for the Yomi-inspired game to my patrons as well.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Editing Playtesting Games 52

Ask a Game Dev

DECEMBER 20, 2022

When designing a puzzle, a designer must think of the process by which the player interacts with them. Place and advertise the clues to the puzzle goal within the environment. This can be subtle or it can be obvious, depending on whether the puzzle is optional or part of the critical path.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Playtesting Advertising Dev 52

Game Dev Unchained

MAY 21, 2024

It’s about capturing the essence of what made the original game special and reinterpreting it for today’s audience.” “It’s about capturing the essence of what made the original game special and reinterpreting it for today’s audience.”

Game Developer 52

Game Developer Game Development Development Balance 52

Deconstructor of Fun

MARCH 14, 2023

Last week in Istanbul, Google and Deconstructor of Fun brought together a thousand-strong group of high-level mobile game execs to talk about the future of the business. His data and insights were based on US data as a proxy for the western market, and focused on platform privacy, or the “Apple global mobile game recession”.

Games 59

Games Cross platform Mobile Mobile 59

Mircosoft Game Dev

JULY 2, 2018

After three days of intensive game development and two weeks of playtesting and rating (over 3,500 ratings!), we now have the results for our June 2018 Godot Community Game Jam ! 110 participants developed games with Godot Engine on the theme TEMPERATURE. All games can be downloaded from the itch.io

Playtesting 52

Playtesting Writing Animation Animation 52

Interesting Choices

AUGUST 17, 2011

Cooperative multiplayer is an oft-underused method of allowing people to play games together in a more accessible and casual manner. Not to say that those games aren't well designed and enjoyable overall. Of course, many games have also managed to solve this problem, either intentionally or as a side effect of another mechanic.

Communications 52

Communications Co-op Mechanics Playtesting 52

Deconstructor of Fun

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Oleg has built his data driven product management expertise working on some of the biggest games as well as some of the biggest social platforms in the World. GoPractice is also highly recommended by some of the top mobile games companies, which is how I originally got connected with Oleg.

Data 52

Data Build Games Mobile 52

Sirlin

JUNE 13, 2015

I want to show you some of what I'm working (Codex, Flowchart, and a Fighting game) and tell you about Patreon. 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. Instead.it's fun.

Fighting 52

Fighting Fantasy Art Build 52

Astral Clock Tower Studios

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

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. If you're a big lover of fantasy games (and we're betting you are!), 3D Modeling.

Dev 52

Dev Animation Animation Concepts 52

Grid Sage Games

JULY 17, 2022

In the time since Garrisons were added, however, a combination of relevant changes to the game started putting pressure on their original design: Many more full branch maps were added, along with factions, each with their own enticing reasons to visit them compared to the weaker incentives for entering a Garrison.

Beta 52

Beta Content Balance Mechanics 52

Brand Game Development

JULY 15, 2019

One of the hallmarks of good board game design is being able to create hard choices. Let’s talk about how you can create hard choices in your board game. He, after all, created the pattern building game that we call Tasty Humans , so it makes for a great case study! Need help on your board game?

Tile 130

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. Need help on your board game? But how do you do that?

Tile 130

Tile Games Playtesting Balance 130

Radiator Blog

JUNE 30, 2022

Zugzwang by Robert Yang This post details my process and intent for making my new release Zugzwang (pronounced in German like /ts'OOK-ts'VAHng/ ) a tactical sex dungeon roguelike cum ritual game. SPOILER ALERT: This post spoils what happens in the game. A dense randomized mini-chess puzzle where everything matters.

Code 100

Code Educational Education Prototyping 100