News

Video Game Deep Cuts: Guns, Water & The Nintendo King
Video Game Deep Cuts: Guns, Water & The Nintendo King
This week's highlights include musings on guns in games, a postmortem of Where The Water Tastes Like Wine, & a profile of a top retro YouTuber, among others.
April 2, 2018
Workflow and Design Behind Creating One Game from Another in a Single Week (7DRL Postmortem)
Workflow and Design Behind Creating One Game from Another in a Single Week (7DRL Postmortem)
Explaining my Seven-Day Roguelike development process and the reasoning behind choices made along the way. An in-depth look at the planning, UI, mechanics, content and more that went into over 80 hours spent converting one game into another.
April 2, 2018
Thinking About Social Interaction Systems (Or What Middle Earth and Animal Crossing Have in Common)
Thinking About Social Interaction Systems (Or What Middle Earth and Animal Crossing Have in Common)
After playing Middle Earth and Animal Crossing, I noticed they used systems in a social context. This was new to me. So I try to answer, "What are the parts of a social interaction system and how is one different from a dialogue tree?"
April 1, 2018
The Four Basics of Open World Storytelling
The Four Basics of Open World Storytelling
Open worlds and sandboxes are big, scary places for narrative designers. Whatever your mechanics may be, and however your tale is told, adhering to these four basic but essential mantras will help players better engage with and understand your story.
April 1, 2018
My Game Design Degree: A Postmortem
My Game Design Degree: A Postmortem
A new graduate breaks down the pros and cons of attending a post-secondary school game design program, as well as advice on what students can do to prepare for the future.
April 1, 2018
Avenues for Success and the Cost of Combat in RTS
Avenues for Success and the Cost of Combat in RTS
RTS combat is more interesting if players can be efficient along multiple vectors. If pure DPS is king, games are always going to come to who can churn out the most DPS the fastest/most consistently. Let's talk about how to subvert that.
April 1, 2018
A Fully-Managed Game Analytics Pipeline
A Fully-Managed Game Analytics Pipeline
A simple, serverless, and scalable data pipeline for game analytics.
April 1, 2018
How to craft visual novel trailers
How to craft visual novel trailers
Visual novel trailers require a different approach than most. Still, some universal rules can help you capture the tensions of your unique game.
April 1, 2018
How to do the Impossible: The Guts and Glory Success Story
How to do the Impossible: The Guts and Glory Success Story
How I built a commercially successful first game as a solo developer while working full-time, going to college, and raising a family. (PLUS: Video Story)
April 1, 2018
It's Not Me - It's You
It's Not Me - It's You
Toxic relationships don't have to just be between romantic partners as I discuss in my expose of how MidBoss treated myself as a senior level developer along with other developers and programmers. We were left broken and hating ourselves.
April 1, 2018
Postmortem: Amazia, a CCG for mobile
Postmortem: Amazia, a CCG for mobile
A postmortem of the financial disastrous, but well-received game Amazia created for the mobile platform. Read on how a single pivot and decision in development ultimately changed the fate of the game.
April 1, 2018
Working on Six Days in Fallujah
Working on Six Days in Fallujah
The tactical military shooter Six Days in Fallujah was an idea too early for its time. The controversy caused it to lose funding and a dedicated team. Here's some of the challenges I saw on Six Days in Fallujah.
April 1, 2018