I’ve been thinking about computer RPGs a lot recently, and trying to play a bunch. There’s a quality that I’ve always loved about especially older computer RPGs: you really felt this sense of ambition behind them. You could sort of feel that there was someone who was super excited, who kept asking the question, “what … Continue reading "The CRPG Project"
Read MoreToday’s show has two main topics: how do we prioritize what to do as solo devs working on large projects? And secondly, we discuss Dark Souls and the other Fromsoft games. Today’s guest is Peter “Nomorebirds” Siecienski, who some might know as the winner of our Push the Lane Fan Art Contest, or as a … Continue reading "CGD Podcast: Solo-dev priorities, and Dark Souls with Pete Siecienski"
Read MoreI think that game design theory often has the issue of “seeming cool” while not being terribly practically useful, or only having very narrow utility. Of all of the game design theory I’ve worked on before, this thing here has been by far the most useful. I’ve used it countless times on just about every … Continue reading "“The Triangle” tool for your game design purposes"
Read MoreI love patch notes. I believe that most other game designers love patch notes too, but if you’re someone who doesn’t care about patch notes, you probably will be confused by all this. For awhile there’s been this idea floating around that Riot, the developers of League of Legends, have been issuing arguably-unnecessary balance changes … Continue reading "I don’t want update patches. I want UPGRADE patches."
Read MoreBeen thinking a lot about output randomness and what it means in games. My overall opinion on output randomness has not really changed much, but I think from the process of working on Gem Wizards Tactics, which does have some light output randomness, I have come to some new conclusions about when and why it’s … Continue reading "How Strategy Games can use Output Randomness"
Read MoreHi everyone! Today’s episode goes into some depth about emergent complexity: what is it, what isn’t it, why would we want it, and how do we get more of it? We talk about specific examples in games like 4X strategy games, and most importantly (because I’m making one), squad tactics games. I want to say … Continue reading "CGD Podcast Episode 73 – Emergent Complexity"
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