When you curl up with a good novel, you expect the writer to take you on a journey. If the author’s any good, you won’t anticipate every plot beat. You’ll be surprised by the twists and turns of the story, and characters will do and say things you couldn’t have anticipated on page 1. The …
Roads Not Taken: Building Better Narratives for Games, Part Two Read More »
I’m keeping it short this week. As the New Year began, I mentioned wanting to write less often about the industry’s problems. Last year was exhausting and I was determined to kick off 2024 with a more hopeful outlook. I still feel good about the long-term future of the game industry. A decade or two …
Winter of our Discontent: The Game Industry’s Churn Continues Read More »
Regardless of the genre, playing games is fundamentally about making decisions. Good decisions in game design involve both choice and consequence. The more players see and feel the results of their decisions, the more engaging a game will be. In a shooter, choices and their consequences are immediate and clear – which enemy to target …
Eating Well: Strategy Game Design and the Feast of Choice Read More »
Game design was a less specialized vocation when I first entered the industry. Teams were smaller and most designers wore all the hats – systems, content, and narrative. Still, my previous experience as a writer and editor meant I often got tapped for narrative work. My first contract job was creating single-player campaign story content …
Hand in Hand: Building Better Narratives for Games Read More »
In 1997, as the Blade Runner game at Westwood was winding down and getting ready to ship, the core team was tired. The project had been a long haul, with many ups and downs. We were proud of the final product, but none of us relished the idea of starting on a sequel – and …
Nautical by Nature: Breaking the Curse of the Pirate Game Read More »
Just before sixth grade, I moved from rural New Hampshire to the planned suburbs of Columbia, Maryland. The environments could not have been more different. It took a while to make new friends, but within a year or so, I started to settle in and find “my people.” It was in those formative middle-school years …
Thin Red Lines: The Problematic and Evocative War Game Read More »
I am really bad at Hunt: Showdown. Crouched on the top floor of the rusted-out stairwell in the ruins of the old prison – a place that always feels like a trap – I feel like have all the approaches covered. I’d placed a concertina trap at the bottom of the stairs, a nasty trip …
Bullets in the Bayou: Design Lessons in Hunt: Showdown Read More »
When I worked at Ensemble, the studio was fortunate to have a dedicated balance team. The team included some of the best competitive real-time strategy players around; their full-time job was to balance the real-time strategy games that made the studio famous. No matter the genre, developers talk about balancing their game a lot. It’s …
Thumb on the Scales: When to Toss Game Balance Aside Read More »
A freelance consultant’s days are busy but unpredictable. For any given week, I might have work for multiple clients, or I might be tinkering with my own game, or I might be seeking out new contracts for a future quarter. Most likely it’s a mix of all three. Consulting doesn’t have anywhere near the security …
Those of us of a certain age will remember the old commercials for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. It’s an easy-to-understand idea – a candy that combines two flavors to produce something entirely new and tasty. Never mind that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (love them or hate them) don’t taste much like an actual chocolate bar …
Peanut Butter and Chocolate: Mixing Genres in Game Design Read More »