Game Design

The Clockwork Game Design Podcast: Episode 5 – The Limitations of Boardgames

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While it’s tempting to think otherwise, computers are the best tool we have for pursuing great game designs. In this episode, I also talk about how “abstract” games are problematic due to low information density, the information horizon, and a lot about the medium of board games.   Some relevant links: http://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame – all game […]

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The Clockwork Game Design Podcast – Episode 1: Introductions and Asymmetry

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Introducing the Clockwork Game Design Podcast. Episode 1 is an introduction, as well as a shorter discussion of my recent Asymmetry in Games article. Most episodes will just be me, but we do plan on having guests from time to time. The opening theme was composed by Blake Reynolds. For those who want a direct

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Asymmetry in Games

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  “Asymmetry”, in this context, refers to the player or players having different abilities from the start of a match. A Street Fighter II character, a StarCraft race, or a Magic: The Gathering deck all would qualify (for the purpose of this article, I will just use “character” to refer to any of these, as

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We Should Patch Our Games

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I’ve been hearing more and more voices crying out against patching recently, and I wanted to unpack some of what people have said. I think this is one of the many designer-to-player communication issues that crops up in the games conversation, and so here is a designer trying to improve on(“patch”) that aspect, so that

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