News

JikGuard
Fast Following Clash Royale - the Case of Star Wars: Force Arena
Netmarble launched their Clash Royale inspired Star Wars game just under a month ago. On paper, this game sounded like a sure shot but since launch, the game has all but disappeared from the top charts. This post answers to why the game failed.
Feb. 13, 2017
JikGuard
GDC 2017: How video game composers can use music to build suspense
Video game composer Winifred Phillips presents extra research & scholarship gathered for her GDC 2017 talk: Homefront to God of War: Using Music to Build Suspense. This info (not included in the talk) is useful for designers wishing to enhance suspense.
Feb. 13, 2017
JikGuard
Making an Indie Game About Indie Game Making
A solo developer's struggle with creativity, depression, and finding a unique voice.
Feb. 13, 2017
JikGuard
Shader deep-dive #3: Obtaining an animated look from a hand-drawn image
This shader breakdown will explain step-by-step how to transform a static image into an animated, hand-drawn sketch.
Feb. 13, 2017
JikGuard
How Breakfast Cult Was Cooked
Breakfast Cult is a tabletop RPG (and soon, a visual novel) about cosmic horror and high school drama. This is the story of how it was created.
Feb. 10, 2017
JikGuard
Digital Blue and Gray: Historians Discuss Ultimate General: Gettysburg
Historians John Harney and Michael Woods discuss Ultimate General: Gettysburg and the history of the Civil War. Topics include war as an object for pop culture and the controversial use of the Confederate flag.
Feb. 10, 2017
JikGuard
Developer Diaries: the story behind Lords of Discord (№2)
Lords of Discord is a 3D turn-based strategy mobile game rooted in the legacy of the genre’s greatest classics and here is the continuation of the dev story behind it.
Feb. 10, 2017
JikGuard
Design and Monetization Analysis of Fire Emblem Heroes
Fire Emblem Heroes had a large success in Japan and the US. I'd like to explain the analysis of game design and monetization of the mobile game, the relationship between battle system and growth and monetization.
Feb. 10, 2017
JikGuard
Procedural Level Generation in Unity for M.E.R.C. (part 2 of 2)
For M.E.R.C. we relied on procedural level generation to add more content and randomness to our game. This article details how we built our procedural level system in Unity and overcame various problems to meet our design goals (part 2 of 2).
Feb. 9, 2017
JikGuard
A Narrative Designer's Approach to NPCs
Angel McCoy talks about non-player characters (NPCs) and how they help drive the story you’re telling. Learn this narrative designer's philosophy of NPC design and why willy-nilly NPC design ends in tears.
Feb. 9, 2017
JikGuard
The Unreliable Gamemaster: Player Motivation in Story-Driven Games
This article concerns the dramatic value of player-character motivation and in story-driven games. The featured case studies illustrate techniques for adding a second narrative layer to game objectives, and how this layer can heighten player immersion.
Feb. 9, 2017
JikGuard
Creating scalable game backends in Microsoft Orleans part 1
Nowadays nearly all games need backend services and in these series of posts I want to describe a really nice and revolutionary way of doing it.
Feb. 9, 2017