Unity 4.6

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 26, 2014

The long-awaited UI system is here for Unity! I’m pretty used to using NGUI by now (and the creator of NGUI helped work on this new UI system), so I’m not sure how much I’ll want / need to mix ‘n match. But it’s nice to have that option, and worth investigating. I’m still in […]

Filed Under: Programming - Comments: Comments are off for this article

A Brief History of (Video Game) Graphics

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 24, 2014

These are fun to watch as either a gamer or as a game developer, this is a five-part series of short videos explaining the major revolutions / trends / milestones in video game graphics over the years. From vector graphics to bloom effects, it’s a pretty entertaining little set of videos. For us old-school fans, […]

Filed Under: Art - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Creating Worlds

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 21, 2014

Back in its heyday, Origin’s motto was, “We create worlds.” When I think about why I love games and why I love making games, that’s the key. As much as I do appreciate these “little” games with the single, focused game mechanic – as much as I used to love the arcade machines in the […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 12 Comments to Read

RPG Design: Escape the Dungeon? Is That All?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 18, 2014

I’m a dungeon-crawler at heart. When I think of role-playing games, my brain immediately goes to the Mines of Moria or the goblin caves under the Misty Mountains. So I’m usually trying to find my way into dungeons. But that’s me, as a gamer. A lot of dungeon-crawling RPGs have a straightforward goal: You are […]

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Dungeon Crawling So Old It’s New Again

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 13, 2014

One concept of early dice-and-paper role-playing games (and some of the old CRPG counterparts) that has been somewhat lost in the modern era is the idea of avoiding combat encounters. Old-school D&D has a not-entirely warranted reputation for being about killing everything in sight. After all, that was how you got XP (experience points), right? […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 10 Comments to Read

RPG Design: The Role of Magic and RPG Balance

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 12, 2014

I’ve been doing some brooding over Frayed Knights 2: The Khan of Wrath since Comic Con (more on that in a future post), and it’s brought about a few changes. There’s one point I’m not sure on yet, because changes might mess with the flavor. I don’t want to mess with the flavor. One problem […]

Filed Under: Design, Frayed Knights - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

Man, I think that Mass Paralyze spell is imbalanced!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 11, 2014

Amusing bug story of the week. Actually, two bugs: On Utah Indie Night, one of the group was playing the (updated) Comic Con demo for Frayed Knights 2: The Khan of Wrath. As he gets into combat for the first time, I explain that the spells are randomly generated every time the game resets, and […]

Filed Under: Frayed Knights, Programming - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Stories From a “Regular” Indie Game Developer

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 10, 2014

I don’t know what a “regular” indie game developer means, really, but I suppose it’s probably about being one of the regular, working-class indies as opposed to one of the “rock stars.” We don’t get much press. We don’t get included in documentaries. At least not usually. We’re the little local bands hoping to make […]

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RPG Design: Should We Hide the Stats?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 4, 2014

James Cox has an article worth reading over at Gamasutra, “There is No ‘+5 Sword’ in Lancelot.” In it, he makes the case that the time has come to hide all the numbers in CRPGs. He even refers to this as “babying systems.” Yeah, that reference honked me off a bit, but his idea isn’t new, […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

Game in Zero Hours: Disguise

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 3, 2014

I kinda forgot about the Zero Hour Game Jam challenge until the night of the jam. It’s the speed jam to beat all speed jams – to make a game in ZERO hours. You really can’t go faster. The game jam takes place inside the hour that “disappears” during Daylight Saving Time’s fall time change. […]

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

The Challenge of Horror in Video Games

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 6, 2014

In the Barnson household, we celebrate Halloween all month long. It’s all about scary. We value scary. My wife, who tells ghost stories professionally (yes, that is a thing), has a whole verbal essay about the value of these kinds of tales.  From the purely cautionary roles, to catharsis, to simply exploring scary situations or […]

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Cargo Cult Game Design

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 29, 2014

While they were really only identified after World War II, Pacific “Cargo Cults” emerged when primitive people encountered what seemed like miraculous wealth arriving from American and European countries, particularly during wartime. They saw the airfields and ports with constant traffic of supplies from… well, some version of heaven, they believed. In some cases, the […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Procedural Generation Jam 2014!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 22, 2014

Okay, I don’t know if there’s any way I can NOT participate in this one: Procedural Generation Jam 2014 As I was told in one tweet, “We’re going to be a really laid-back jam – nine days, generous time limits, very casual and happy.” The theme is optional. I haven’t seen anything about prizes. It’s […]

Filed Under: Game Development, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Is Simplicity Overrated?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 16, 2014

I have a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry that hangs above my desk. I use it as a reminder – because I constantly need reminding. It says, “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” I have a number of favorite quotes generally attributed to […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Voice Acting: Am I on the Fringe, Here?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 11, 2014

I tend to agree with Ken Rolston on the use of voice acting in RPGs. And Shamus Young. I’ll just excerpt the salient bit from Ken’s interview a few years back: “[L]et’s talk in the abstract about the worst thing that ever happened to role-playing games is recorded audio for dialogue. I happen to believe […]

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Rampant Games at Salt Lake Comic Con – Random Thoughts

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 8, 2014

This weekend, Rampant Games was at Salt Lake Comic Con, showing an early alpha build of Frayed Knights 2: The Khan of Wrath. We’d created a special demo particularly for for convention. The idea was to have an adventure that players could experience in about 5 minutes of playing that would give them a taste […]

Filed Under: Frayed Knights, Game Development - Comments: 5 Comments to Read



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