Game Design

June 15, 2019June 14, 2019

The Difficulty Dilemma Part 1

Lately I have been playing through the game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and I can confirm that the rumors are true – this game is hard as heck. This is pretty much par for the course for FromSoftware, the makers of Sekiro, who are well known for making BloodBorne and the Dark Souls series. These…

June 1, 2019May 31, 2019

History of Game Design: The Suprisingly Ancient Origins of Pinball

When I think of Pinball machines my mind is filled with contradictions. With its blinking electronic displays and sounds it seems incredibly modern, and yet its inherently mechanical nature makes it feel like a relic of a bygone era. Its mechanics are so simple, and yet mastering them and learning the unique intricacies of a…

May 27, 2019

Beating Feature Creep (Repost)

Hey everybody, as mentioned in last week’s post I had to move across the country this week, so I did not have time to write a new article this week. However, there should be a brand new article up at the regular time this Saturday, so keep an eye out for that. I will be…

April 27, 2019April 26, 2019

Can Realism in Games go too Far?

Games, both digital and tabletop, have been undergoing an unprecedented explosion of creative growth over these past few decades. In Video Games the advancement of technology has allowed for incredible leaps forward in what is possible in this medium. As for tabletop games, the past few decades have brought wave after wave of innovative designs,…

April 13, 2019April 12, 2019

Designing for Humans

Sometimes as a game designer it can be easy to treat your design as an end in itself. This is a problem that I occasionally fall into – you have so many ideas for your game, and it all seems to click together perfectly in your head. Then you end up bringing it to a…

March 30, 2019March 29, 2019

Managing Virtual Economies: Inflation Domination

Game designers wear many hats. Depending on what type of company you work for and your position within that company, designers might have to be engineers, psychologists, graphic designers, executives, and so much more. A much less common role, but no less vital, is the role of economist or central banker. Virtual economies are becoming…

March 25, 2019

No More Tutorials! How to Convey Information Through Design (Repost)

Hey everybody! Due to traveling to GDC last week I wasn’t able to post a new blog. However, I hope you enjoy this article from a few months back, and a new post will be up on Saturday this week as usual. Thanks, and I’ll see you later this week! There are few things that…