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 »
Over the course of my long career in the game industry, I’ve had good and bad experiences. Regardless of how a project turned out, I’ve always learned something. Sometimes I learn what NOT to do, but any time you work on a creative project with talented, passionate developers, you pick up something helpful. Two decades
Best Practices: Grading on Intent Read More »
I have a short attention span, and I’m easily distracted by shiny new toys. This means I have games in my Steam library with total play times of only an hour or two. I’ll even confess to owning a couple of games that I’ve played for 8-10 minutes and never touched again. (To be fair,
The Pure Dwarfy Joy of Deep Rock Galactic Read More »
In the difficult days following a game studio’s shutdown or a round of layoffs, ex-employees often feel overwhelmed. Besides figuring out their next career step, the uniquely American employer-funded healthcare system means they’re forced to cope with the additional stressor of ensuring their families stay healthy while job-hunting. Thousands of think pieces have been written
Stayin’ Alive: Self-Employment and Healthcare Read More »
Over the years, I’ve taken feedback notes for a LOT of playtest sessions. Several studios I’ve worked for, notably Ensemble, relied heavily on an iterative process. Team playtesting was a factor in decision-making and identifying the next steps. It was an “agile” process (small-A) before there was Agile. While the weekly sessions could sometimes get
Friction Reduction: Better than Fun Read More »