Game Development Quote of the Week – Early Richard Garriott

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 6, 2013

Now, bear in mind that this was said less than a third of the way into his career (so far) – around the time of Ultima 6’s development. But here’s an old quote from Richard “Lord British” Garriott on his RPG design philosophy during Ultima’s heyday: “My philosophy is that once you get people compelled […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

White Water Rafting vs. The Amusement Park

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 26, 2013

As a teenager one summer, I went whitewater rafting down the lower New River in West Virginia. Several class 4+ rapids, and tons of lower ranking rapids in about a 14 mile stretch. It remains one of the the coolest memories ever. It was exhilarating and exhausting. There were times where the water felt like […]

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Game Design Quote of the Week – Calvin French (“The Real Texas”)

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 21, 2013

“Creating dungeons or levels is quite hard. In particular, it’s hard to know where to begin. What I do to get started is I try to hold to a certain constraint which is that map areas (including dungeons or levels) should exist geographically first. It should have an ostensible purpose outside the confines of the […]

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Ghost Town of Norrath Pt 3 – Design Thoughts

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 20, 2013

This is the conclusion of a three-part series. You can read part 1 here, and part 2 here. All-in-all, it’s pretty remarkable that EverQuest is still running today. While it’s far removed from its heyday, the fact that it’s still around – running under a different monetization plan than originally envisioned, and in an era […]

Filed Under: Design, Retro - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Ghost Town of Norrath pt 2

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 19, 2013

So, as I promised in yesterday’s post, here are some thoughts on the changes that have been made to EverQuest over the years to keep it (at least minimally) viable while numerous competitors have come – and in  competition has grown, and in some cases become nothing but a memory. The trend, as things progress […]

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Multiplayer Only? Nevermind.

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 30, 2013

I did it again. I bought an indie game because of a steep discount without looking too closely at its description. No single-player mode. You know what this means? It means I am never, ever going to play it. I may look at it, analyze it a little bit to see what the developers did […]

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Procedural Everything

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 23, 2013

I have a love-hate relationship with procedurally generated content. One of the very first CRPGs I ever played was Telengard, by Daniel Lawrence. This was one of those formative experiences with procedural content. In effect, this gargantuan dungeon that would have consumed several megabytes with traditional storage was packed into a 64k computer (really 48k […]

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Frayed Knights: Dungeon Creation Rules, Part 1

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 18, 2013

At one point, I decided to document the things that I thought made up the “secret sauce” (not much of a secret now, is it?) that I thought gave Frayed Knights its flavor. I also wanted to make a checklist for quality and help certain other people I’ve contracted to help make content for the […]

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

RPG Design: Expendable!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 17, 2013

One of the issues that I face when playing any RPG – computer, dice & paper, whatever – is my tendency to hoard expendable items. Expendable items (AKA consumables) are those things that can get “used up.” Potions, magic items with charges, scrolls, etc. Often, at the end of a game, my level 60 character […]

Filed Under: Design, Frayed Knights - Comments: 30 Comments to Read

The Joys of Crappy AI, and the Importance of Obviousness

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 9, 2013

Read most articles about game AI, and you’ll see a call for improvement. “Why can’t we have better AI?” As it turns out – and this is an open secret in the game dev community – players often don’t like it. That’s why. A recent article, Artificial Intelligence?, on MMORPG.com, discusses one failed attempt to […]

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

Game Biz: Serving Two (Or More) Masters

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 18, 2013

Blizzard officially announced the shut-down of their auction house for Diablo III. There are several more months of operation before it gets phased out, but Blizzard has thrown in the towel on this controversial in-game feature. I don’t play Diablo III, myself. Oh, I was going to. I very nearly pre-ordered it. But then I […]

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

The Challenge of an Episodic RPG

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 13, 2013

I’ve had an idea for an episodic RPG for a long time. A very long time, actually – since before Frayed Knights. I actually put a great deal of time and research into the design. One day, I plan to revisit it – with a vengeance. After Frayed Knights 2 and 3 are out the […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 14 Comments to Read

What Tower Defense and RPGs Have In Common

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 6, 2013

What? Another tower defense game? Seriously? That genre isn’t dead yet? Yes, of course, I bought it.  Stupid bundles. Seriously, I need another tower defense (TD) game like I need another hole in my head.  And yet… Gah. Maybe I should admit that I have a problem. I suspect there’s some kind of emotional correlation […]

Filed Under: Design, Geek Life - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Whadayamean, “Turn-Based?”

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 5, 2013

It seems to me that the last couple of years have brought something of a resurgence of turn-based gaming. Now, it was never truly dead or completely niche – Civilization remains one of the best-selling games on the planet, and it has (thankfully!) remained comfortably turn-based for all of this time. Meanwhile, most other “strategy” […]

Filed Under: Design, Dice & Paper - Comments: 17 Comments to Read

How to Design Puzzles for Role-Playing Games

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 23, 2013

I love puzzles in my RPGs – except when I hate them. I have a low threshold of tolerance for the kind of frustration they can yield, but I enjoy great satisfaction in solving them. It’s like having a sweet tooth and an allergy to sugar. When Legend of Grimrock was released, I was ecstatic.  […]

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Checklists for Making Awesome Video Games, and for Making Game Development Awesome

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 18, 2013

Making video games has always been as much art as science. At times, chained to the oars of a ship chasing the bleeding-edge horizon of technology or constrained by massive budgets to make obsessively risk-averse design decisions, the industry has drifted further out on the “science” side. Perhaps now, with the rise of indie games, […]

Filed Under: Design, Links & Tidbits, Production - Comments: 2 Comments to Read



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