This is how the magic happens! This post lays out a process in three very broad steps for how to put the principles on this blog into practice. There are links to more detailed subject analyses made previously, and attempts have been made to minimise repetition. Before you get started, you should be aware ofContinue reading “Your Next Systemic Game”
Category Archives: Game Design
Maximum Iteration
The quality of your game is directly related to the number of iterations you have time to make. The adage is that game development is an iterative process. We know we should be tweaking and tuning our game until it feels and runs great. To make it the best it can be; greater than theContinue reading “Maximum Iteration”
Game Balancing Guide
This post is all about what game balancing is and how to do it. Just remember that every game has its own unique needs and challenges, so cherry-pick whatever sounds reasonable for your game. This post will become a “living” post of sorts, added to over time. Tell me about your own balancing tools andContinue reading “Game Balancing Guide”
Definitions in Game Design
“We’re making an ARPG with survival and roguelike elements,” begins the pitch. “It also has some light platforming, is made with Godot, and intented for release on Steam in Early Access.” For the business-minded person in the crowd who just played Path of Exile 2, they may focus on the ARPG bits or conjure upContinue reading “Definitions in Game Design”
Game Economy Design
The What and The How Hey there, I’m Keelan. For the better part of my career in the games industry I’ve worked as what’s known as a Game Economy Designer. Game Economy Design predominantly concerns itself with the relationship that the resources within your game have with the mechanics of your game. If this soundsContinue reading “Game Economy Design”
Tabletop Roleplaying as a Game Design Tool
The goal is to allow the player and their avatar to occupy the same emotional space. Harrison Pink, Snap to Character: Building Strong Player Attachment Through Narrative At Graewolv, while exploring the concept of the demon-powered first-person shooter, one question that kept nagging at my brain was who I was actually playing and why itContinue reading “Tabletop Roleplaying as a Game Design Tool”
Challenges to Systemic Design
Systemic design comes down to making objects and rules and inviting the player to interact with them. This sometimes clashes with game design at large or the expectations of external stakeholders. This post is dedicated to some challenges that are facing systemic game design right now. It won’t go into broader problems like financing orContinue reading “Challenges to Systemic Design”
Making Money Making Games
There’s a popular joke about money and game development. It goes something like this: To make a small fortune from gamedev, start from a big one. A key element of gamedev finances is risk. Games are entertainment products, and even when someone has a great time testing your game at a conference or all theContinue reading “Making Money Making Games”
My Game Engine Journey
There, but certainly not back again. It’s sometime around the late 1980s/early 1990s that some developers start talking about a “game engine” as a thing. Maybe not even using the term “engine” yet, but in the form of C/C++ libraries that can be linked or compiled into your project to provide you with ready-made solutionsContinue reading “My Game Engine Journey”
A State-Rich Simulation
The object-rich world is crucial for making systemic games. Similarly, the state-space of your game can be used to describe the entirety of your design and to facilitate more holistic game development. But it’s about time that we talked about data, since it keeps coming up. How to describe the smallest pieces of your simulationContinue reading “A State-Rich Simulation”
Playtank 