Over the past decade or so, I think most of us have realized to some degree or another, that stuff like Twitter is… generally kind of harmful. Not in all ways, of course. It’s good for reporting certain kinds of breaking news events such as hurricanes, or riots. It may be good for raising awareness …
Randomness is very important in game design! This is because randomness allows us to make the game state larger and more complex, without overwhelming the player with too much information and therefore calculation. I’ve been writing about randomness for over a decade at this point, but this article represents my latest, most updated views on …
Randomness, and “Random Value Absorption Thresholds” Read More »
Did you know that the origin of the word “handicap” is “cap in hand”, thereby suggesting a connection between disabled people (who in the past had been referred to often as “handicapped”) and street beggars/panhandlers? 😬 It definitely seems worth moving on from this term and using another term in its place. While we’re at …
“Handicaps”, “Balanced Difficulty” and the one-player perspective Read More »
Gamelessness — the feeling of desperately wanting to play a game, but being unable to find a specific game that you want to play. I’ve experienced a lot of this, particularly over the last twenty years. It’s a big reason why I’m a game developer, and why game development as an activity tends to win …
When you’re offered a handful of powers that are highly coupled, and there’s no restriction on picking one over the other, the choice is obvious. If the powers are loosely coupled the choice will be random/arbitrary. In either case, it’s not going to be an interesting decision in my opinion. If you missed it, over …
“Pick 1 of 3” is a missed game design opportunity Read More »
Hello all! I have a special episode for you today, wherein we have a great big discussion on MAGIC: THE GATHERING – something I haven’t really dived into too deeply before on the show. For most of my life I was very, very skeptical of these games – I still think, for good reason. But …
Let’s talk about Magic: The Gathering, with two experts Read More »
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