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Breaking Out of Breakout
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Spring RTS Engineering Internals
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For a Career in Gaming, are Game Design Degrees Worth It?
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Building a First-Person Shooter Part 1.2: The Player Class
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Techniques for Finding Unlisted Game Internships
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Indie tutorial: Organizing your work as a team
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Making it in Indie Games: Starter Guide
Building an In-Game Store for the First Time? Here are the 4 Keys to Success
Published in Game Design
By Yaniv Nizan - So you have a great concept for a mobile game and you have heard that free games with in app purchase is the way to go but you are not sure where t...
Breaking Out of Breakout
Published in Game Design
By Thomas Duindam - For the past couple of years, me and some friends have spend one day each week working on ‘Caromble!’ 'Caromble!', a breakout/ pinb...
Life of a Level Designer
Published in Game Design
By Szymon Barchan - Take a look at what it really means to be a level designer, from a Bulletstorm developer
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Building an In-Game Store for the First Time? Here are the 4 Keys to Success UNDER REVIEW
May 23 2013 07:08 AM | Posted By Yaniv Nizan
in Game Design
So you have a great concept for a mobile game and you have heard that free games with in app purchase is the way to go but you are not sure where to start. Guess what? You are not alone and many are struggling with this challenge. Here are 4 golden tips.
Tagged With: iap in-app purchase in-game store virtual currency mobile iphone android ios
Breaking Out of Breakout UNDER REVIEW
May 21 2013 11:07 AM | Posted By Thomas Duindam
in Game Design
For the past couple of years, me and some friends have spend one day each week working on ‘Caromble!’ 'Caromble!', a breakout/ pinball styled game. We would like to share why working on a retro game is interesting and how you can build upon a classic game.
Tagged With: retro breakout physics 3d design pinball
Life of a Level Designer
May 14 2013 11:07 AM | Posted By Szymon Barchan
in Game Design
Take a look at what it really means to be a level designer, from a Bulletstorm developer
Tagged With: level design fps unreal 3d udk scripting
Documentation for Indie Studios: Why do you need it? UNDER REVIEW
May 09 2013 07:00 AM | Posted By Ivan Spasov
in Game Design
This article features the importance of writing down good documentation for the entire development process. This is applicable for the indie studios and indie developers and teams that quite often miss out on this important step.
Tagged With: design documentation technical indie
Non-Linear Story Lines UNDER REVIEW
May 06 2013 07:05 AM | Posted By BrendanL.K
in Game Design
Take a simple concept of summarizing stories with lines, and blow it out of perspective. Make your stories more interesting with non-linear stories.
Tagged With: story non-linear design writing
The Infinite Game
Apr 20 2013 05:42 AM | Posted By Anton Temba
in Game Design
Find out how to control the longevity of your project and how to create the ultimate, infinite game. Be warned, this is a massive guide.
Tagged With: game design design infinite infinite game super game
Taking Slender apart, an Introduction to Horror Games
Apr 19 2013 05:44 PM | Posted By Jonas Schwammberger aka Bluefirehawk
in Game Design
Slender has been an internet phenomenon, creating more videos of screaming and sobbing players than most AAA games in the Survival Horror genre. I have never met a person who truly wasn't scared or at least startled by this game. So come with me on this journey, if you too want to be a diabolic Game Designer who makes grown men cry!
Tagged With: Slender Introduction Dissection Mechanics Horror
Dominoze PC Post-mortem: Nine Years, One Programmer
Apr 18 2013 09:34 PM | Posted By Christopher Haag
in Game Design
The developer of the PC game "Dominoze" describes the life cycle of a unique 3D physics puzzle game that was never finished, and how development without boundaries or goals can simultaneously result in a commercial failure and a personal success.
Tagged With: indie design development physics postmortem
100-Percenting It: Video Game Play Through the Eyes of Devoted Gamers
Apr 05 2013 09:18 PM | Posted By Preeti Khanolkar
in Game Design
This is a summary of my academic publication on gaming, which explores the deeper meaning that games have for gamers, the social quality of games, gaming etiquette, and the desire to 100-percent games, among other topics.
Tagged With: game study morals violence 100-percenting it hardcore gamer atmosphere immersive worlds etiquette talking trash sociology social interaction competition accomplishments thoroughness status stigma cheating walkthroughs
I Have a Game Idea!
Apr 04 2013 07:43 PM | Posted By Casey Hardman
in Game Design
New to game development? Have a game idea, but don't know how to turn it into a game? Want to sell your idea to a game studio and get rich? Let's talk about it.
Tagged With: game idea game design idea guy
Developing Your Game Concept By Making A Design Document
Apr 04 2013 05:02 AM | Posted By Mare Kuntz aka sunandshadow
in Game Design
This tutorial will walk a beginning or intermediate game designer thorough the process of evolving their initial game idea into a full design document. This guide also explains how the design document is then used to begin and developing the design into a playable game, and continue as a guide throughout the development process.
Tagged With: game design document concept genre features pet design doc
What does a Game Designer do? An Introduction to Role UNDER REVIEW
Mar 31 2013 12:29 PM | Posted By Jonas Schwammberger aka Bluefirehawk
in Game Design
Game Design is a word thrown around in many different game review journals. But what is it, and especially what does a Game Designer do, and when did you do a good job?In this article I hope to shed some light on the role of a Game Designer.
Tagged With: beginner game designer role careers level designer game designer
Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics
Mar 23 2013 06:31 AM | Posted By Casey Hardman
in Game Design
The Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics approach helps to teach new game designers how to focus their game designs and create more concentrated gaming experiences.
Tagged With: game design aesthetics mechanics dynamics aesthetics of play genres beginner
Ravenwood Fair Postmortem
May 01 2012 01:56 PM | Posted By YetiZen
in Game Design
Hello from YetiZen!YetiZen has two arms. We are a key community builder as we run the San Francisco Game Developer's Workshop, the largest regularly meeting game developer group in the world (5000+ game developers last year). We also run the YetiZen Accelerator, the only games focused accelerator in existence.After hundreds of requests to bring the San Francisco Game Developer's wor...
Raw Meat: Game Design Tips from Team Meat's Edmund McMillen
Jan 31 2012 05:12 AM | Posted By Pat Flannery
in Game Design
Edmund McMillen is one of the most popular indie game designers of the past 5 years. From his early award-winning work on Gish, through the mega-popular Super Meat Boy, and now his personal project The Binding of Isaac, his games have exhibited truly brilliant design and a unique visual style. Check out some of his tips for designing your own games, highlighted here, and be sure to watch the fu...
The No Twinkie Database!
Jan 24 2012 02:40 PM | Posted By Ernest W. Adams
in Game Design
designersnotebook.com —
The "No Twinky" database is an extensive list of commonly occurring design mistakes seen in video-games, and provides a reference for designing good games by explaining what not to do.
The Tao of Game Design
Jan 24 2012 02:37 PM | Posted By Ernest W. Adams
in Game Design
designersnotebook.com —
In this piece, veteran designer Ernest Adams shares some basic precepts for game design.
Grand Theft Auto Design Document
Jan 17 2012 01:08 PM | Posted By DMA Design Ltd
in Game Design
scribd.com —
This document from 1995 shows a scanned copy of the Race'n'Chase game, which later became known as Grand Theft Auto.
The Chemistry Of Game Design
Jan 10 2012 12:45 PM | Posted By Daniel Cook
in Game Design
gamasutra.com —
In this article, Lost Garden author and successful video-game designer Daniel Cook describes a system of developing "skill atoms" and linking them together into "skill chains" to better describe and measure the experience players will have during a session of play. This technique can help to measure whether or not new skills are introduced at an appropriate pace, and where more...
What actitivies can be turned into games? (Lost Garden)
Jan 10 2012 12:42 PM | Posted By Daniel Cook
in Game Design
lostgarden.com —
In this short piece, Lost Garden author and successful game designer Daniel Cook takes a look at what activities are suitable for turning into games.
Game Pitch - Bioshock
Jul 18 2011 10:00 PM | Posted By Irrational Games
in Game Design
You've seen AAA game design docs posted online and have learned how to design your game on paper. Now how about securing that funding? Learn again from the pros by seeing how they pitched their games!
How Can We Solve the "Pacing Problem"?
Mar 23 2011 01:00 AM | Posted By Tristan Pendergrass
in Game Design
I haven't exactly had my ear to the ground when it comes to the philosophy of game design/writing, so my apologies if I'm being redundant. I want to share my thoughts on what I call “the pacing problem.” I'll elaborate: First of all, I'll acknowledge that it isn't the ambition of many games to have a good story. Either they don't need one in the first place by nature (Mi...
The Strategy Game Designer's Constitution
Jan 13 2011 11:00 PM | Posted By leiavoia
in Game Design
This article aims to help strategy game designers create games with more strategic depth and rigger while being alerted to conceptual design problems. It contains some "golden rules" for design, interesting game mechanics to consider for your games, and a thought-provoking list of potential victory and ending conditions that you may have completely overlooked. After reading this article...
Some Game Playing Styles, and How Games Match One Style or Another
Jan 25 2010 05:17 AM | Posted By Lewis Pulsipher
in Game Design
A big obstacle for beginning game designers is the common assumption that everyone likes the same kinds of games, and plays the same way, that they do. Sometimes the nature of the traditional video game obscures all the different things games can be. The author relies on 50 years of playing games of all kinds to describe several quite different points of view
Tagged With: games #8220 game classical players romantic player play playing
Book Excerpt: Mastering Unreal Technology Volume 1: Introduction to Level Design with Unreal Engine 3
Sep 21 2009 07:28 AM | Posted By Jason Busby, Zak Parrish, and Jeff Wilson
in Game Design
This excerpt is taken from Chapter 9: Introduction to Kismet