Game Design: Puzzle-Solving vs. Problem-Solving

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 28, 2015

Many types of games emphasize puzzle-solving. Adventure games, hidden-object games, and many popular indie platformer games come to mind (Super Meat Boy being one of the best examples). For me, puzzle-solving is overcoming a problem for which there is a narrow range (often only one) solution, or a “best” solution. The challenge may be in […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Design: Responsible Glitchiness

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 17, 2015

Note: This is a heavily-edited (more like “influenced by”) version of an article that I wrote in 2006 for the old blog. If it rings at all familiar, that’s why. My first Game Developer’s Conference was in 1995. This was when it was still called the “Computer Game Developer’s Conference” (CGDC), and it was the […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Too Sick to Indie?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 14, 2015

I get this crazy idea that if I’m too sick to sleep, too sick to go to work, I’ll be able to take advantage of that sick time and get some indie dev time in (or at least write some blog posts). It almost never works out that way. While I try to be paranoid […]

Filed Under: Game Development - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

RPG Design: Realistic Dungeons?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 7, 2015

A couple of weeks ago, we had a discussion in the comments section about using real-life castles and dungeons in RPGs. I thought I’d elaborate on my thoughts in a post. Many years ago, with access to a university library, I researched tons of actual castles – mainly European – searching for maps and floor […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 12 Comments to Read

The “I Made This” Bias

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 30, 2015

Frayed Knights 2 has elevators. Not many, as it’s a medieval fantasy game, so I don’t want to go overboard with them. They’d require either sophisticated engineering or sophisticated wizardry to operate, and not many areas warrant that. I wrote some classes and scripts which makes it easy to add an elevator and controls to the […]

Filed Under: Game Development - Comments: Comments are off for this article

20 Classic CRPGs Every Designer Should Play

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 23, 2015

Gamasutra reposted (re-advertised?) a classic but excellent article about 20 essential computer role-playing games (and a bonus non-computerized game) that every game designer (particularly RPG designers) should play. Game Design Essentials: 20 RPGs If you haven’t read it yet, or are just idly curious, the games are: Dungeons & Dragons (tabletop), Wizardry, Ultima, Wasteland, the […]

Filed Under: Design, Retro - Comments: Comments are off for this article

RPG Design: The More You Know, the More You Know to Zip It

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 16, 2015

I was a lot more opinionated about RPG design a few years ago. I talked a lot more about experimental design ideas, pushed a lot more concepts that really went far outside the bounds (well, I thought they did, anyway) of conventional design. I’ve come to realize I don’t do that so much these days. […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

RPG Design: Level-Limited Loot

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 12, 2015

In principle, for single-player role-playing games, I’m against the idea of having level minimums on items. This is a thing that came up in multiplayer CRPGs years ago, primarily because experienced players could “twink” a lower-level character with their high-level hand-me-downs and completely wreck the math and balance for the less experienced character. That’s a […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Frayed Knights 2: Drama Stars and You

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 28, 2015

One of the areas of “streamlining” for Frayed Knights 2 was the drama star abilities. To explain further, I’d like to recap a little bit for those who haven’t played Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon. Like most people, I tend to save the game frequently when things are getting dangerous. When I suffer a […]

Filed Under: Design, Frayed Knights - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

It’s About Time… For A Game Made in No Time!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 27, 2015

Do you want to do a game jam, but you can never find the time? Well, courtesy of the weirdness that is Daylight Savings Time, the time has been found for you… This is a game jam that by a quirk of procedural custom takes place in zero time. You start at 2 AM and […]

Filed Under: Events, Game Development - Comments: Comments are off for this article

[Archive] Dress Codes and Development

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 23, 2015

I pulled out this old article from the old, lost blog from about 9 years ago. I think it’s still pretty relevant. I’ve noticed with some curiosity that after having a positions at a few different companies in my career, the most productive software development teams were the ones at the companies with the least […]

Filed Under: Game Development - Comments: Comments are off for this article

How Much Does It Cost To Make a Video Game?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 7, 2015

I want to make a video game. How much will it cost? How much time will it take? How many people do I need on my team? How much can I expect to sell? These are all what we often call “How long is a piece of string?” questions. There are so many variables involved […]

Filed Under: Biz, Indie Evangelism, Production - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Minimum Survival Skills in a Post-Gold Rush Game Development World

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 5, 2015

Can you spot the common thread(s)? “Several different sources have indicated that the company has already used the majority of its funding, but not much has been created to show for it. The number most often received from people has indicated that, currently, the company has less than $8 million of what was raised from […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Making Bigger, Badder Dungeons

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 30, 2015

Maybe it’s because of stories of Castle Greyhawk, or that my first forays into CRPGs was through the mega-dungeon of Telengard. I’ve got this irrational fondness of really big, sprawling underground complexes. Maybe I’m enamored with the idea of huge, hidden worlds hidden below our real one. I don’t know. Even though the maps were […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

How to Suck at Indie Game Development

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 29, 2015

Cliff Harris reiterates some basic principles for what doesn’t work in indie game development. IMO, this list should be committed to memory by any aspiring game developer: How to be Really Bad at Game Development Now, everyone can probably name a game that seemingly violated at least one of these principles and went on to […]

Filed Under: Game Development - Comments: Comments are off for this article

The Four-Step Universal Indie Survival Guide

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 25, 2015

The first day of Salt Lake Comic Con 2015 is done. Thursdays are typically sparse, so if the wall-to-wall people and standing-room-only crowds for some of the panels this afternoon are any indication, Saturday is going to be absolutely crazy. The panels I attended (all three of them) were writing-specific. Naturally, the rooms were packed […]

Filed Under: Game Development, Writing - Comments: 2 Comments to Read



« previous top next »