Now that finals and the holidays are behind me (and I’ve mostly recovered from a nasty cold), it’s time to get back to blogging. I was thinking back to my very first blog post for Cloudfall about inspiration and I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of my biggest influences. So in this series, On the Shoulders of Giants, I’ll be taking just a bit of your time to share some amazing people, games, articles, books, videos, etc. that I think are worth your time.
Read moreGame Design as Expression Pt. 4
It’s a bit of a desert out there, huh? Which is weird, considering how big of a gaming boom we live in. But: consider the ubiquity of games, vs the ubiquity of writing little poems, scribbling a frustrated blob in the corner of a notebook, taking a picture on your phone to capture a sunrise that made you tear up for unknown reasons… we do little expressive gestures with most mediums all the time.
Just not games.
And, in fact, it’s downright silly for most people to imagine assembling a game with any ease that taking a picture or writing a poem has. A few awesome coders are talented enough to toss together some assets and make a cool thing, but that’s more of an exception than norm.
Read moreDesign Tips: The 2-Turn Hurdle
I love board games. I’ve always enjoyed sitting down with a group of friends and playing them for hours. But one problem I’ve found with most board games is the harsh learning curve when you’re trying to play them for the first time. Digital games avoid this to some extent with tutorials and on-screen prompts, but often board games have hard time teaching new players everything they need to know quickly and clearly. Eventually most players will pick up on the mechanics and get into the rhythm of the game, but there’s the risk that they’ll get frustrated and quit if it takes too long. But how long is too long?
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