I made another trip up to Vancouver this week to give my encounter design talk to another developer we’re working with and once again it went very well. As in the past, though, once I get thinking about this topic it’s hard to stop. This time, my ponderings have inspired me to do some related-fields…
Games as Questions
One of the really neat things about my job is that I get a lot of time to dissect things that I know intuitively. When I go to help other developers, my job is generally to try to explain why the changes I’m suggesting will make a game better. It’s one thing to intuitively know…
Gamasutra Boss Battles Article Published
I wrote another article! This time its about Boss Battles. Check it out, if you’re into that kinda thing. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6132/boss_battle_design_and_structure.php
Guest Post: Colin Munson – “Challenging Challenges for Thinking People”
My friend and fellow designer Colin Munson asked if he could write a guest post for my blog, and my answer was “HELLS YEAH!” Colin and I worked together for 5 years at Insomniac, and he’s one of my favorite Game Designers in the industry. I found the following editorial fascinating, and I’m proud to…
Idea: Dynamic Easy Mode
I had an idea that I’d like to explore some more when I get some free time. I’ve noticed a trend lately in games’ easy modes (I tend to always play games on easy mode. I’m so hardcore it hurts sometimes) where, in addition to making it easier to avoid death, the game has made…
My First Gamasutra Article
The industry website gamasutra.com has published an article of mine! It’s on the troubleshooting techniques I use when I find a game mechanic I’ve designed isn’t coming out deep enough: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/5901/evaluating_game_mechanics_for_depth.php Check it out and let me know what you think!
Idea: Using Movie Structure to Inform Game Design?
I’ve been reading a lot about storytelling recently. Besides rereading “Characters and Viewpoint” by Orson Scott Card, the most recent ones I’ve read have been the “Save the Cat” books, by Blake Snyder (great reads, if you’re at all interested in screenwriting). Snyder proposes a very analytical breakdown of the plots in movies. He has…
Idea: A Pen-And-Paper RPG Meta-System
My gaming group is quite odd, as it turns out. It’s HUGE. When we get everyone, we have 11-13 people. This is great, but most games are made for 4-8 people. They tend to bog down when you get up above 8, and most pen-and-paper RPG designers aren’t trying to solve the problem of having too…
Image: Data visualization – Art or Data Structure?
I was working on a coding project and I had a need to visualize a Data Structure I was making. One of the iterations ended up with this image. I thought it was so cool, I saved it. It looks like a neat Modern Art painting.
Oblivion Exploration Analysis
I’m really slammed at the moment, so I though I’d post some excerpts from some analysis I did a while back on the exploration in Oblivion. Note: I didn’t remove all spoilers or grammar errors, but I got a bunch of em. Summary One of the coolest things about Oblivion is how “free form” the…