CGD Podcast Episode 24 – Execution and Single-Player Games, with Frank Lantz

Today we have another episode with Frank Lantz, game designer, writer, and Director of the NYU Game Center. Today’s show involved two major topics: execution, and my seemingly crazy idea about how single-player should probably be the “default” number of players for a strategy game (something I’m going to be writing an article about soon). …

CGD Podcast Episode 24 – Execution and Single-Player Games, with Frank Lantz Read More »

James Lantz’ Challenge to the “Information Horizon”

This will be less of a formal “article” and more of a “blog post”. Tonight, following last night’s podcast with Frank Lantz, game designer James Lantz (yes relation) made the following tweets: @keithburgun great podcast! i am still unconvinced on the idea of information horizon. randomness is not special, it’s just a multiplier — james …

James Lantz’ Challenge to the “Information Horizon” Read More »

CGD Podcast Episode 23 – “On Games At the Games”, A Conversation with Frank Lantz

This week I had a great conversation with NYU Game Center director Frank Lantz about randomness and general game design philosophy. We meant to get to three other topics – execution, reading and improvisation, but not all-that-surprisingly, we never got there in the 70+ minutes of this episode. Mentioned in this episode: Frank’s “Against Design” …

CGD Podcast Episode 23 – “On Games At the Games”, A Conversation with Frank Lantz Read More »

CGD Podcast Episode 22: Mind Games and Reading the Opponent

What does it mean for a game to involve a lot of “mind games”? Can you really make “reads” off of an opponent and predict what he’s going to do? What’s the difference between “reading the opponent” and “a lucky guess”? This episode explores these questions, discussing games like Poker, Street Fighter, Rock Paper Scissors, …

CGD Podcast Episode 22: Mind Games and Reading the Opponent Read More »