News

Break The Loop
Break The Loop
Growth and change come from breaking out of our loops, for games and their stories this can be hard. But not all change has to be related to the gameplay loop. There are other ways to express it in the story and characters of your game.
May 15, 2018
Composing video game music for Virtual Reality: 3D versus 2D
Composing video game music for Virtual Reality: 3D versus 2D
The 2nd of a 4-part series. Video game composer Winifred Phillips shares ideas from her GDC 2018 talk, Music in Virtual Reality. Part 2: 3D versus 2D, with an exploration of the role spatial delivery can play in music implementation in a VR environment.
May 15, 2018
Hitboxes and Hurtboxes in Unity
Hitboxes and Hurtboxes in Unity
What are Hitboxes and Hurtboxes? aren't they the same? and how do we implement them in Unity?
May 14, 2018
Prey 2's Locktown District
Prey 2's Locktown District
An iron fist ruled this sunny-side district on Exodus from the cancelled sequel to Prey. The once prosperous government center was now hiding a sinister secret looming over all...
May 14, 2018
The Myth of the Monomyth
The Myth of the Monomyth
The "Hero's Journey" is a narrative pattern we have adopted from the film industry. Since then we try to create our narratives around it. I will explain why this is nonsense. Games create hero's journeys all by themselves - or they wouldn't be games.
May 14, 2018
Designing death in co-op roguelikes
Designing death in co-op roguelikes
In this article I'm making an analysis of co-op death mechanics in various roguelike games and show how I made some innovations to the existing formulas in the game I'm developing currently.
May 14, 2018
How we increased the review score from mid 60’s to 80, and was it worth it?
How we increased the review score from mid 60’s to 80, and was it worth it?
Cut your losses and move on! We have all heard it. So you did not make a perfect game. Make a new one! Get over it! The following is the story of another way.
May 10, 2018
A Study Into Video Game Replayability -- Item Generation
A Study Into Video Game Replayability -- Item Generation
For the next part on my series looking at replayability, we're talking about how loot tables and item pools can keep things from growing stale.
May 10, 2018
Translation studies, some notes on a semi-formal design approach
Translation studies, some notes on a semi-formal design approach
Translating from one medium into a game form is an interesting way to think about game design, particularly how we use it to express our ideas. Here are some notes on that process.
May 10, 2018
Shadow of the Tomb Raider and the risk of making an introspective AAA game
Shadow of the Tomb Raider and the risk of making an introspective AAA game
Shadow of the Tomb Raider wants to help players dive into Lara Croft's character, but its developers say it's not commentary. How do developers sell emotionally risky games to the world?
May 9, 2018
Semi-Procedural World Generation and Rendering in Edge Of Eternity (Part I)
Semi-Procedural World Generation and Rendering in Edge Of Eternity (Part I)
How we created a GPU based semi-procedural terrain and vegetation system with Unity to fit the need of our openworld game
May 9, 2018
Simple A* pathfinding alternative with interesting side-effects
Simple A* pathfinding alternative with interesting side-effects
A* pathfinding is computationally expensive. In this article I'm talking about my experience with one of the alternatives: Obstacle avoidance and steering behaviors. I provide bunch of examples regarding simple pathfinding, group behavior, etc.
May 8, 2018