Today I talked about how and why games work best with a 50% winrate (even single player games). That’s because learning in games is extremely hard due to their inherently complex and ambiguous nature. Getting a loss when you had a 10% chance to win doesn’t necessarily tell you much about your choices in that …
CGD Podcast Episode 18: Single/Multi-player and 50% Win Rates Read More »
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 »
In this episode, I first discuss a new article on Gamasutra that discusses Zach Gage’s new highly random (and proud of it!) game, Tharsis. For more on my positions on randomness, I would check out this article or this video. In the second half, I talk about a new, more specific definition for “elegance” as …
CGD Podcast Episode 15: “Tharsis” Article and Redefining Elegance Read More »
In this episode, I discuss some of my many spectacular game design failures! I tried about 30 times at least to create a simple yet deep 2 player “fighting card game”. Something I didn’t even get into in the podcast was the fact that the “fighting” theme is probably part of the issue. I know …
CGD Podcast Episode 14: Failed “Fighting Card Game” Prototypes Read More »
Today’s episode addresses consumerism (or hyperconsumerism) in the world of videogames. Videogames are, for the most part, the most fun they’ll ever be at the moment of purchase, or perhaps while you’re installing the game and leafing through the manual. I talk about “hype” and how being immersed in an atmosphere of advertisements affects our …
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