Game Dev Tools Bundles!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 22, 2015

So Humble Bundle got together with GameMaker to create a bundle that includes some games that were popular / successful make with GameMaker, including *source code*, and the Pro version of GameMaker Studio, and the exporter for Android. By the sounds of how YoYo Games’ website is now getting HAMMERED with new registrations, I’d guess […]

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

On Ego Trips and Publishing Pace

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 17, 2015

Since I’m now doing double-duty as both a writer and a game developer (gee, anything else I should acquire as a major hobby / side occupation? Maybe get a law degree?), it’s been interesting having a foot in both camps and watching the parallels. Both have enjoyed an indie revolution, which has caused a good […]

Filed Under: Books, Production - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Summoning the Imagination in Games

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 15, 2015

A friend of mine in Junior High School showed me an ad in his computer magazine for Akalabeth: World of Doom. It pictured some kind of wizard near a glowing pentagram with a demon or lava-creature rising out of the earth at the center. By the standards of the time, it was a pretty cool image. […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: Read the First Comment

[Archive] Of Game Engines and Swarm Missiles

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 1, 2015

Editorial Note: This is an article that first appeared in the previous blog back in January 2006. Yeah, it’s old, but still valid. I’ve edited it to bring it up to date. Although I must admit, working with Unity has provided me with a lot fewer ugly surprises than some other engines. In early 1995, […]

Filed Under: Programming - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

How “Old School” Graphics Worked

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 26, 2015

Oh, man. This brings up some memories. I worked with the Commodore 64 graphics for years. Never produced anything commercial, but I certainly struggled with these challenges. There’s something he doesn’t bring up in the video about the Commodore 64’s sprite mode. Each sprite had its position dictated by two bytes – one for X […]

Filed Under: Art, Programming, Retro - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Good Crunch and Bad Crunch

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 21, 2015

Crunch is when people working on a project put forth the “extra effort.” It’s long hours, late nights, sacrificed weekends, and often heightened tempers. I’ve done my share of crunch, both inside and outside the games industry. I’ve done crunch as a game developer both as a full-time employee and as an indie. I could […]

Filed Under: Biz, Production - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

RPG Design: Granular Experience Points

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 19, 2015

Some people I know have dropped the concept of experience points from their D&D / Pathfinder campaigns. They simply allow the players to level up their characters at appropriate times. Is this a revolting idea to me, as an “old school” D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) player? Nah, not really. Sure, I think the game is […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: Read the First Comment

[Archive] Game Design: Is Freedom Not Fun?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 31, 2015

This is a revised version of a post from the old blog, lost in a security clamp-down last year. Since it’s referenced by one of the Wizardry 8 articles and the topic is still quite worthy of discussion, I thought I’d post it now. Randy Smith, a lead designer at EA, once wrote about how choice […]

Filed Under: Archive, Design - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Look But Don’t Touch

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 24, 2015

I remember seeing a cool fairy demo for the Matrox 3D cards around 1998 or 1999. I think the demo was either this one, or an earlier version of this one released for the Matrox G400 chipset. Either way, it was cool. The graphics may look embarrassingly primitive today, but they were very competitive with […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 11 Comments to Read

[Archive] RPG Design: Solving The Brute Force Problem

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 18, 2015

This is a previously-published (and lost) article from many years ago. I’ve discussed it a few times, but usually in reference to this original article. I’ve edited it a little bit and reposted it here. The sad thing was that when I wrote this, Gary Gygax was still alive and kicking butt. *Sigh*. Anyway, now […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Learning to Fly… Among Other Things

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 9, 2015

Today, I want to talk about hardcore flight simulators. And Rocksmith 2014. Very different games, but I think the former could learn a little from the latter. And for today’s song, Rocksmith 2014‘s entry for Tom Petty’s “Learning to Fly” I love how Ellison pulls out the slide during that solo. That’s definitely not required […]

Filed Under: Design, Flight Sims - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Dramatic Unrealism

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 29, 2015

Monsters in “dungeons” in RPGs don’t display “realistic” AI for the same reasons that enemy combatants in kung fu movies take turns getting clobbered by the hero / heroine. An organized defense (or offense) would… well, it wouldn’t be any fun. But then, an organized attack against an actual entrenched forces dwelling underground in a […]

Filed Under: Design, Writing - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

RPG Leveling Mechanics – The Fairy Tale Secret Sauce

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 22, 2015

Every once in a while I’ll hear somebody complain about the leveling mechanics in RPGs, usually about how you start as a nobody with a wooden sword and progress to becoming one of the world’s ultimate superheroes. In particular, the complaints seem to stem from the idea that you always start from such lowly beginnings. […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: Read the First Comment

Insight into the mind of a programmer

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 13, 2015

Ever try to count a large number of things, and have someone walk up to you, see what you are doing, and then say random numbers at you to make you screw up? After three decades of computer programming (two of ’em professionally), I finally realized that this is a great analogy for the mind […]

Filed Under: Programming - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

“More Is Better” Game Jam – and More (is better?) at Itch.io

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 4, 2015

Okay – first things first, there’s a game jam this week hosted by Sophie Houlden, the “More is Better” jam. It’s basically about cranking out as many games as possible, quality be damned. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that, but if the goal is to work on your rapid prototyping skills, maybe […]

Filed Under: Game Development, Indie Evangelism - Comments: Read the First Comment

Dungeon Crawling: Ten Ways It Is More Than “Hack & Slash”

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 24, 2015

I saw an article not long ago that was equating “Dungeon Crawlers” to more action-heavy, monster-bashing RPGs. It’s what we used to call “hack & slash.” The article maintained that this was the essence of old-school D&D. I disagree. Vehemently. I have no doubt that some people played D&D that way back in the day. […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 2 Comments to Read



« previous top next »