News

Steel Hunters Dev Log: What Have I Done [Literally & Figuratively]
Steel Hunters Dev Log: What Have I Done [Literally & Figuratively]
Mostly a development update on my indie game (Steel Hunters), some highlights, some budget low-low-low-low-lights (and publishing? maybe?), environment creation/iteration, gameplay this and that, MICROMORTS/Banana Equivalent Dose, and syyyystems design!
June 27, 2018
The Westworld Fallout. A Discussion on Work-for-hire.
The Westworld Fallout. A Discussion on Work-for-hire.
I am going to discuss a recent lawsuit filed by Bethesda Softworks versus Behaviour Interactive regarding the new Westworld mobile game and Bethesda popular Fallout Shelter title & we are going to take a look at Work-for-hire agreements.
June 27, 2018
Keep Running | Procedural Level Generation in Sure Footing
Keep Running | Procedural Level Generation in Sure Footing
Building scalable and flexible level generation isn't easy. So I started a research project and wound up launching a game on Steam.
June 27, 2018
A brief history of murder in Ultima Online
A brief history of murder in Ultima Online
POSTMORTEMS is a new book of selected design essays by Raph Koster, covering a quarter-century of online game design from MUDs through major MMOs like Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. Here is an exclusive excerpt.
June 27, 2018
Thousands of indie android devs on the brink of extinction after Play store changes visibility algorithm rules
Thousands of indie android devs on the brink of extinction after Play store changes visibility algorithm rules
On June 21st, hundreds of small, independent Android game developers started observing a decrease in new daily installs across their games published on the Play store. By Monday morning, most of them lost from 80% to 90% of new organic traffic.
June 26, 2018
Card Games - No Gain from Pain, Part 1
Card Games - No Gain from Pain, Part 1
Games are meant to be fun, but sometimes designers can take things too far and create designs and mechanics that just aren't enjoyable. In this article I go over some of these designs and explain why they are best avoided.
June 25, 2018
Indie Devs: Get more social content and value from your trailer
Indie Devs: Get more social content and value from your trailer
How do you get more content from your current social materials without creating something new?
June 25, 2018
Fighting Games Ideas: Some Ridiculous, Others Not, & Some That Hopefully Never Happen
Fighting Games Ideas: Some Ridiculous, Others Not, & Some That Hopefully Never Happen
Inspired by the twitter account @goodFGideas, I decided to write about some ideas for fighting games of my own. They may have posted some already, but I'm trying to take a deeper dive on some of mine.
June 25, 2018
Video Game Deep Cuts: Flipping Out On Primal Rage
Video Game Deep Cuts: Flipping Out On Primal Rage
This week's highlights include a discussion on 'asset flips' and store-bought assets for games, an emotive postmortem of canned arcade game Primal Rage II, and lots more besides.
June 24, 2018
How To Report Bugs
How To Report Bugs
Handling bugs in a proper way is essential for game quality. In this post I'll present a clear and effective method to report bugs.
June 22, 2018
Hail to the King: Amulets and Checkmates and Chogue, oh my!
Hail to the King: Amulets and Checkmates and Chogue, oh my!
In this short essay, Pippin explains how he and Jonathan Lessard figured out an ending to their Rogue/chess hybrid Chogue, providing an in depth example of their approach to hybridisation in game design.
June 22, 2018
Data-supported videogame shrink: what we do to understand our players better
Data-supported videogame shrink: what we do to understand our players better
How we do community management at Pixonic: why we appreciate the angriest comments and value personal communication with everyone.
June 22, 2018