News

JikGuard
Composing video game music to build suspense, part 2: jarring jolts
The 2nd of a 5-part series. Video game composer Winifred Phillips shares strategies from her GDC 2017 talk, Homefront to God of War: Using Music to Build Suspense. Part 2: Jarring Jolts, with discussion of jump scares, bumpers & whooshes.
March 22, 2017
JikGuard
The Mass Effect Paradox - Love it, or hate them
Is it possible to respect developers while disliking some aspect of their work? Is criticism tantamount to disrespect? Why are we all so on edge after the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda?
March 22, 2017
JikGuard
1 out of 5, Worst Blog Post Ever! Ratings Fraud on Kongregate
Some ne'er-do-wells have been futzing around with user ratings on Kongregate.com to cheat our monthly contests. Let's take a look at what they're doing and how we can try to combat it!
March 21, 2017
JikGuard
Making a commercial video game all by yourself, Part 5: Musical Musings
The fifth in a series documenting the production of a commercially viable game, entirely unaided. In this article we explore five ways to ensure that your soundtrack complements the game while maintaining a strong musical identity all its own.
March 21, 2017
JikGuard
Postmortem: how Crescent Loom's Kickstarter made it without going viral.
How I got funding to make a game about my neuroscience research. Real-world connections ended up mattering a lot more than "making it" in the larger internet ecosystem, but I still had to activate them.
March 21, 2017
JikGuard
Video Game Deep Cuts: The Oregon Trail CIA Escape
This week's longform game article/video highlights include CIA board games, the art of escape rooms and The Oregon Trail's genesis.
March 20, 2017
JikGuard
Building a simple procedurally-generated platformer
An example of an algorithm we might use to procedurally generate simple "endless runner" levels.
March 20, 2017
JikGuard
Indie Exhibiting at PAX East
Sharing my experiences as a first time exhibitor to PAX East.
March 20, 2017
JikGuard
Re-Visiting GDC 2015: Monetization, Retention, Design
Game industry evolves rapidly and YoY changes may completely shift the market. Sometimes it may be useful to revise "wisdom of the past". The post contains list of GDC presentations that touch fields of monetization, retention and game design in genral.
March 20, 2017
JikGuard
An Iterative Approach to Quest Design
Creating quests with branching narratives for open world games is no simple task. By applying a simple iterative method, you can save yourself from many problems later on in the process.
March 20, 2017
JikGuard
The Truth About Growing Indie Communities That GDC Missed
At GDC 2017, the session “Beyond the Install: "Building Robust Communities on Mobile," Andrew Stalbow agreed – "Community building is the best marketing you’ll ever do." So -- how do you handle trolls?
March 20, 2017
JikGuard
How we exhibited our no-budget indie game at PAX without a booth
In this article, I tell the story of how we marketed our no-budget indie game by smuggling a mobile arcade cabinet into PAX East 2017.
March 17, 2017