When we play mobile games we often expect for gameplay to closely resemble another game we’ve already played. It is no secret that the mobile market has a bad case of “me too” game design, where we see developers cloning and tweaking successful games. So it is refreshing to find a game which take a…
Month: December 2016
Casually Corporate: why the casual nature of game development may be hurting our industry
When you picture the 9 to 5 job we were all told to work towards in the 90’s the concept of the office was undergoing some major changes. As people stopped working in offices in a traditional sense and started being crammed into cubicles, the way we worked stopped being a social matter and became…
Design Home: player opinion as a mechanic
The thing that elevates a good game to a great game is its ability to make the players’ choices feel meaningful. Typically we think of mechanics as the tools and actions we use to complete the objectives of a game. They can sometimes be reflections of the players personality, like in rpgs such as Dark Souls…
Check this out: a culture of sharing
In my article Minecraft at my friend’s house: organic growth among children, I wrote about how games find organic growth among children and their social groups. In today’s article I will be exploring the culture of sharing that gamers have developed and how it is expressed. I was recently at a party with my girlfriend…
Idle games: progress & dedication
Idle games have emerged as a new and interesting genre of game, which focuses primarily on rewarding the player with the feeling or progress. At first the player’s inputs are used to generate progress and once this mechanical system has been established, the player is given option to automate the progress generating input. My…
Glorifying OT: the law of diminishing returns
Video game development philosophies have grown by leaps and bounds since the development of the first commercial video games. However, one facet has become a mainstay of development which has had a detrimental effect on the talent within the industry, and that is the glorification of working overtime or “crunch”. Leadership and planning The concept of overtime…
Foldit: how the gamer mind is aiding scientific research
This past weekend I was at a party talking with a friend of mine who happens to be a biochemist, I was telling him about my work in ludology, and how in my writing I explore the concepts of game studies that show the impact games can have on the world. He mentioned a game…
Guilds: leaders and charges
With the advent of MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft, the concept of player organizations has become an important part of gaming culture. As opposed to teams, which may be created for single matches, guilds serve as persistent organizations with hierarchy, leadership, and long-term objectives. Mobile games adoption of guilds Mobile games have adopted the guild…
Peaceful Tortoise vs War-hungry Hare: the pace of progress
In my first article about the mobile builder title Forge of Empires, Forge of Empires: progression and maintaining culture, I spoke to the capacity for the game to be played as a game of diplomacy. In today’s article I will be discussing the lessons the game taught me about why a power would use war and…
Wanted Train: Challenge
Catch that train! In one of GTA V’s most exciting moments Trevor is forced into an action sequence that culminates with him jumping a motorcycle onto a train and riding it across the train cars. This sequence is set up as a challenge for the player but ultimately has some scripted areas to make the flow…
We’re moving to Vegas!: change and consequence in the video game industry
When I was just starting out as a QA tester in the video game industry I had the great fortune of working for 2K Games on several amazing projects. The beauty of 2K West, our office of 2K Games, was that our facility was strictly QA. Everybody from the entry level tester to the biggest wig around,…
Nicole the Traveling Merchant – part 2: Practice
I wrote about my inspiration for a traveling merchant character within Skyrim in my character article Nicole the Traveling Merchant – part 1: Inspiration. In today’s article I’m talking about the development of my character Nicole, and the process I went through in defining her playstyle. The dangers of picking flowers As I ventured out into the wilderness with…
Play Professor 