gamedev

CGD Podcast Episode 16: A Conversation About Rogue-likes with Black Shell Games

January 29, 2016 / Podcast / 1 Comment

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 …

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Contests Explained

November 30, 2015 / Game Design / 7 Comments

I have described the four essential “forms” of interactive entertainment, based on four distinct values that these four types of play produce. You can get a more in-depth introduction on these forms by reading this, but I’ll quickly break it down here. First, you start off with a “bare interactive system” – this is an …

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

October 22, 2015 / Game Design, Podcast / 6 Comments

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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Clockwork Game Design Podcast – Episode 2: Distractions

October 13, 2015 / Podcast / 1 Comment

Episode 2, already!? Yep! I spent essentially all day one day recording both of these episodes, because I wanted to really get the ball rolling. It’s kind of annoying to have just one episode of a podcast, I feel like. Today’s episode deals with the distractions and other obstacles that have slowed our growth in the …

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3 Minute Game Design – Episode 2: The Forms

November 12, 2014 / News / 1 Comment

Somehow I was able to put everything off for a couple of days and churn out this second episode of my new game design video series, 3 Minute Game Design. Let me know what you think.