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King of Cards: Joustus Deep Dive - Part 1
What’s up, design devotees? With King of Cards’ one-year anniversary right around the corner, we thought it would be festive to finally tell the tale of how Joustus came to be!
Sept. 14, 2020
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Putting into play - The hidden art of pacing 3 (3)
How narrative systems bridge the gap between writers and designers, assisting in translating movies to games, merging story- and gameplay structures, and capturing the core rhythm of engaging and motivating forces to be embedded into mechanics.
Sept. 14, 2020
JikGuard
The CRPG Project
In this post, Keith Burgun talks about the history and present of CRPGs, and what he sees as "the project" of the pursuit of fantasy simulation in these games.
Sept. 14, 2020
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Art Design Deep Dive: Dynamic 2D lighting in Dwerve
In this article, I explain how we added 2D dynamic lighting to our 2D Unity game called Dwerve.
Sept. 14, 2020
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Xbox goes for lock-in with All Access
Microsoft thinks differentiating new platforms on better-looking and playing experiences is getting trickier. So now we have Xbox Game Pass & All Access. Is it going to work?
Sept. 14, 2020
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Behind the dizzying ride to the top for Among Us
The amazing ‘out of the blue’ success of multiplayer party game Among Us on Steam is, uh, amazing. But what happened? I delve into it with the help of one of its co-creators.
Sept. 11, 2020
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Designing Nonviolent Games: A Hopepunk Love Letter to your Audience
Designing nonviolent games feels like we're beginning the race well behind the starting line. This article will outline solutions to solve that problem.
Sept. 11, 2020
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Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime Sales Analysis: The First Five Years
It’s hard to believe but this week marks five years since the release of Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. Now that we have some perspective on selling a video game over the course of five years, we wanted to share some data with other developers.
Sept. 10, 2020
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Systematic Chaos - Procedural Map Generation in The Riftbreaker
This article explains our approach to procedural map generation - one of the pillars of The Riftbreaker project. It offers a step-by-step description of the entire process and explains our workflow for level design.
Sept. 10, 2020
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Behind the music: Crafting the score for Ori and the Will of the Wisps - Part 1
Speaking to us during a Q&A, composer Gareth Coker explained how he crafted the score to Ori and The Will of the Wisps. This is the first half of an incredibly detailed two-parter filled with tales and tidbits from the world of game audio.
Sept. 9, 2020
JikGuard
Behind the music: Crafting the score for Ori and the Will of the Wisps - Part 2
Speaking to us during a Q&A, composer Gareth Coker explained how he crafted the score to Ori and The Will of the Wisps. This is the second half of an incredibly detailed two-parter filled with tales and tidbits from the world of game audio.
Sept. 9, 2020
JikGuard
Can influencer-branded game stores work? 2
Let's look at a new concept that’s trying to harness the most potent force in the game discoverability universe - the streamer/influencer.
Sept. 8, 2020