Five Questions New Indie Game Developers Should Ask Themselves

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 22, 2015

A recent survey found that most authors make less than minimum wage. Must game developers do, too, although I’ve arrived at that conclusion purely through anecdotal evidence. Seriously, on a per-hour basis, I’d do far better flipping burgers at McDonalds. Daniel Cook wrote not too long ago about Minimum Sustainable Success in the games industry. […]

Filed Under: Game Development, General - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Releasing a Game Has Grown Much Harder?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 20, 2015

According to Cliff Harris, releasing an indie game in 2015 (in this case, Gratuitous Space Battles 2) is much harder in 2015 than it was only two years ago. Or, as he says it: “Of more interest will be what I’m learning about releasing a game in 2015 vs one in 2013. Holy f**k, its […]

Filed Under: Game Development - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

RPG Design: Leveling Up the Game

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 9, 2015

I’m an overachiever. I want bonus XP (eXperience Points). I want to hit the optional sub-quests and pick up the extra-cool Butt-Kicking Boots of Bophram which will be a nice boon to my butt-kicking for at least three more levels. Which I’ll go through a little earlier than “average” because, hey, I like bonus XP […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

When It All Just Works

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 8, 2015

I think I managed to damage myself working in the Torque Game Engine for Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon. Not meaning any disrespect for the people who developed and improved on it, as it was pretty dang cool for its time, but I kept finding things that I needed to do were really, really […]

Filed Under: Programming - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Frayed Knights: Things to Do in a Dungeon (on a Saturday Night)

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 3, 2015

One of my design guidelines for Frayed Knights  is to avoid having too much repetition of an encounter “type” along what is the likely a critical path in my levels. In other words, I don’t want a dungeon that is just full of similar combat encounters. That’s boring. In fact, I try to avoid having […]

Filed Under: Design, Frayed Knights - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Making Games – Towards More Productive Iteration

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 24, 2015

I’m a firm believer in iterative design. I don’t practice it as well as I should, but I strongly believe in it. In games, it’s the ‘right thing.’ In my world, I usually start with a “paper prototype” – forcing myself to think about a concept methodically enough to describe it in a paragraph or […]

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

Sometimes I like it a little rough…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 23, 2015

… I’m talking about game polish, of course. What did you think I was talking about? By way of explanation – polish is important. Polish is something that removes the barriers to a player’s enjoyment of the game.  It’s a good thing. But there’s also something to be said for a little bit of rawness, a […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

What does a Castlevania game have to do with RPGs?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 19, 2015

I can’t say I’m a giant fan of “Metroidvania” games, personally, although I’ve played a decent amount of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (never got *that* good at it, but it was enjoyable). I think my younger self would have enjoyed them a lot more – to the point of near-obsession. As it is… I […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Indie Games: do we need to go big or go home?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 18, 2015

A friend pointed me to this post by Joost van Dongen called “What Many Indies are Doing Wrong.” I liked the article even though I disagree on a few points. But … Joost is a more successful indie than I am, so I’d weight our respective opinions appropriately. On many points, I completely agree. Now that […]

Filed Under: Game Development, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Bundles of Trouble

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 17, 2015

I’m in a bundle right now – the Indie Royale Mixer 16 Bundle. And it’s ridiculous. I mean… ten games for chump change. The kind of money you find under seat cushions. Like I said earlier, at this point it’s really just marketing for the next Frayed Knights. Get the first game practically free, so […]

Filed Under: Game Development, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

How Do You Make Video Games?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 12, 2015

The first video games I played did not “hook” me. I mean, I liked ’em, sure. But they didn’t create the passion in me about the medium. That came later. A year or so later. There are a lot of circumstances that could be blamed, but somehow I caught the vision: Imaginary worlds in a […]

Filed Under: Game Development - Comments: Read the First Comment

RPG Design: The Dungeon as Simulation

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 20, 2015

I kinda missed the earliest days of “0e” Dungeons & Dragons (meaning the original, pre-1st edition game) and similar role-playing games. By the time I got into D&D, 1st edition was The Thing, but it – and the community, such as it was back then – still contained vestiges of that old style of play […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Lessons learned from 22 years of making indie RPGs

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 19, 2015

Jeff Vogel is something of a personal hero of mine. Nope, I’ve never met him (just know a lot of people who have), though we’ve exchanged a couple of emails and forum posts over the years. I can’t even say I’m a giant fan of his games, although they are quite good. But the guy […]

Filed Under: Design, Interviews, Quote of the Week - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Frayed Knights: improvement by constraint. Or: bypassing the hat and going straight to the rabbit

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 18, 2015

It’s funny. Right before Salt Lake Comic Con last fall, I was pretty sure that I’d settled on “it” for the UI for Frayed Knights 2: The Khan of Wrath. And to be fair, as far as keeping things simple enough for strangers to pick up and play the game, I did okay. Not great, […]

Filed Under: Design, Frayed Knights - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

RPG Development: What Inspires Me

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 17, 2015

Making indie games is, simply put, awesome. So is making RPGs. Making indie RPGs – man, if only it paid well, it’d be one of the greatest gigs on the planet. As it is, it’s an awesome hobby. But it’s also very hard – at least the way I do it. Maybe I’m just bad […]

Filed Under: Game Development - Comments: Read the First Comment

Old-School RPG Design – Navigating and Exploring

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 12, 2015

So I was going to do some research. Just… you know, research. I’m always trying to capture the feel of “old-school” gaming in Frayed Knights, and so I thought I’d go back and check out Might & Magic Book 1 – The Secret of the Inner Sanctum.  So I got hooked on it once, but on […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 15 Comments to Read



« previous top next »