Warning: light spoilers for the first several hours of Starfield. I have a lifetime of fond memories of Bethesda games. I say this to provide full context for my criticisms below. After the first fifteen hours or so, I’m critical of aspects of the game and its design, but this shouldn’t be read as a […]
Yep, a Bethesda Game: Starfield First Impressions Read More »
For my entire career, I’ve been an advocate of procedural systems in games that generate endless content. Procedural generation has been a design pillar of some of my favorite titles – going all the way back to my early days playing Nethack and the original Civilization, with its evocative random maps. From a production perspective,
Berries on the Hill: Lessons in Procedural Game Design Read More »
There’s an analogy I like for game development that I’m fond of stretching beyond plausibility to make a point. I first used my favorite metaphor years ago when I started blogging, and I’ve been itching to expand on my original premise ever since. For as many years as I’ve been in the game industry, I’ve
Climbing High: A Tortured Metaphor for Game Development Read More »
My son started eighth grade in the Texas public school system last week – trudging to the bus with an overladen backpack on a muggy August morning, returning in the afternoon’s 100-degree heat exhausted and overwhelmed. My son is a great student. He’s rules-bound, focused, and more concerned about his grades and pleasing his teachers
Feed the Machine: The Future of Remote Work Read More »
I can’t help myself – I have to spend another week’s worth of digital ink on Baldur’s Gate 3. (This blog is spoiler-free, minus whatever the screenshots give away.) After 25 hours of play with the full version, I’m confident in saying Baldur’s Gate 3 is the masterpiece the hype suggested it would be. So
The Familiar and the New: Design Takeaways from Baldur’s Gate 3 Read More »
My stepfather is one of the smartest people I know – an engineer and a mathematician, a polyglot descendent of a Scottish poet, and a whiz with computers long before they were in every household. I’ve written before about how he first introduced me to games; to no small extent, I owe my career to
Barriers Tumbling: AI and the Future of Game Development Read More »
In the last two weeks, a Baldur’s Gate 3 “controversy” was sparked by a July 8 Twitter thread written by the head of Strange Scaffold, Xalavier Nelson Jr. In the thread, he expressed concern about players expecting Baldur’s Gate 3 to set a new standard for RPGs. The suggestion, somewhat clumsily stated, was that Larian
Good Game Development: Thou Wouldst Be Great Read More »
There’s a moment early in Baldur’s Gate 3 involving an owlbear that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. It made me sad, then it made me wince, and then laugh. It has it all – pathos and comedy in equal measure, executed perfectly by Larian Studios, the veteran RPG developer entrusted with what’s sure
Evoking Memories: Games Now Have History Read More »
A while back, my dad sent me a quote that I immediately stuck on the wall next to my desk. It’s applicable to his long career in geotechnical engineering, but it’s attributed to A. R. Dykes, who was talking about structural engineering: “Engineering is the art of molding materials we do not wholly understand into
Fumbling Toward Fun: Game Design and the Great Unknown Read More »
My dad, a retired engineer who operates a maple syrup farm in New Hampshire, rarely “comes down off the mountain” (as he puts it). When the occasion calls, he’s extremely hospitable and social with friends and family – but in his free time he prefers solitude and getting out in nature. When it comes to
Flying Solo: Tabletop Fun for the Misanthrope Read More »