News

2D Procedural Generation In Unity With ScriptableObjects
2D Procedural Generation In Unity With ScriptableObjects
How I used ScriptableObjects in Unity to build my flexible 2D Procedural Generation tool called Strata. Strata allows for the generation of varied 2D levels composed of a mix of hand-authored and generated content using Tilemaps.
Sept. 7, 2018
BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY: Best Practise Guidelines
BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY: Best Practise Guidelines
Promoting sustainable business practises is a key issue for the International Game Developers Association. This white paper aims to provide practical tips for sustainable management—featuring a series of points that have immediately actionable value.
Sept. 6, 2018
Primal Instinct | Companion AI in Far Cry Primal
Primal Instinct | Companion AI in Far Cry Primal
Far Cry Primal introduces a taming mechanic that allows players to use wildlife as an assisting character. In this piece I explain how this was designed and implemented.
Sept. 6, 2018
QA and our flirtation with Programming
QA and our flirtation with Programming
Job specifications for Gameplay QA Testers are increasingly asking for programming experience. How does this impact our core QA teams? What skills are we missing out on?
Sept. 6, 2018
How Free to Play Design Runs out of Steam
How Free to Play Design Runs out of Steam
Today's post looks at how one of the biggest strengths of Free to Play design can come back to hurt the game when it comes to retaining players over the long term.
Sept. 6, 2018
My experience at PAX West with Indie MEGABOOTH and why it was totally worth it.
My experience at PAX West with Indie MEGABOOTH and why it was totally worth it.
Like a dream, the encounters of Indie MEGABOOTH flow naturally together in a series of meaningful, interconnected events that provide much needed validation for the risk and sacrifices of indie devs.
Sept. 6, 2018
A Game Jam Postmortem + Tips for Unreal Engine 4 Beginners
A Game Jam Postmortem + Tips for Unreal Engine 4 Beginners
After my first "real" experience using Unreal Engine 4 during the UE4 Spring Jam, I wrote this article as a collection of tips for beginners, in the form of a Game Jam postmortem. Beginners might find some helpful and non-generic tips here.
Sept. 6, 2018
First Time Porting to Consoles: Gotchas and Things to Consider
First Time Porting to Consoles: Gotchas and Things to Consider
I give a overview of the small but important console features that we have not considered when we were developing Lightfield for PlayStation4 and XBox One.
Sept. 4, 2018
Games that make us think
Games that make us think
What is the common point between Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, Spielberg’s ET and Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables? They are all seen as masterpieces in their respective genre, but why?
Sept. 4, 2018
Mess with This: Reset Hard's Approach to Modding
Mess with This: Reset Hard's Approach to Modding
Some technical background on how I'm approaching modding in Reset Hard and why.
Sept. 4, 2018
Planning and the Unknown Unknowns
Planning and the Unknown Unknowns
In this blog post, I talk about why we always fail to meet our deadlines and why our plans never work out, an some ways to mitigate that using psychology from Daniel Kahneman's book-- Thinking: Fast and Slow.
Sept. 4, 2018
Genetic Algorithms in Games (Part 1)
Genetic Algorithms in Games (Part 1)
Part of the problem with procedural generation is ensuring the content is both interesting and challenging across multiple playthroughs. Genetic algorithms offer us a novel solution to this problem.
Sept. 4, 2018