Today I have an interview with Civilization V designer, Jon Shafer. Jon’s an experienced 4X strategy game player and creator, and I wanted to talk to him about the design issues these kinds of games tend to face. Here’s a few subjects we talk about: Diplomacy systems Lack of dynamics in the late (and often …
It is common to hear players talk about “tactics” and “strategy” in games. In this case, the colloquial understanding of these terms happens to be pretty useful, in that it maps well to something that actually goes on in playing strategy games. With that said, it’s worth taking a moment to clarify these terms: “Tactics” …
I don’t mean “bar” as in “pub”, I mean it as in like a resource bar. In this episode, I talk about Rogue-like games in detail, why it isn’t really a genre, and what the future of these games are. What can we do with single-player strategy games? Must they all be “managing highly random …
CGD Podcast Episode 17: Rogue-likes and Other “Bar Games” Read More »
I had a conversation with the main developers at Black Shell Games – Daniel Doan, Raghav Mathur, and Thomas Espinoza – on the topic of Rogue-likes, a design pattern that has appealed to both of us. In the episode, we cover topics like the relationship between Rogue-likes and gambling, grinding, difficulty, replay value, and other …
CGD Podcast Episode 16: A Conversation About Rogue-likes with Black Shell Games Read More »
“Whoops, I have the antidote for the Kragle, how did that happen?” – Lord Business At best, my design theory work tends to get mixed reviews. It’s my belief that if any creative work fails to connect with people, it’s the fault of the communicator. As a writer, you’re setting out to connect with people, …
Today I wanted to introduce people to a new game that I’m designing called EMPIRE. In order to do this, I think it makes sense to first talk about what already exists, and then talk about what I’m doing that’s different. EMPIRE is my take on the so-called “4X Strategy” genre of digital games. I’ve …
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