Ludum Dare October Challenge returns: Sell a game! Turn pro!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 30, 2014

The Ludum Dare October Challenge, started 4 years ago, has kicked off again. Your mission, instead of making a game, is (deceptively) simple: Sell a game. Make at least $1  (Or equivalent in other currencies) And thereby become a pro. The cool thing about this one is that there are very few rules. You don’t […]

Filed Under: Biz, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

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 […]

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Game Dev Quote of the Week: Divinely Inspired Marketing Edition

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 26, 2014

As I’ve become a little bit of a Larian fanboy, I found myself looking up more information on the Divinity series. It was years before I tried the original game. Try as I might, the name “Divine Divinity” sounded absolutely ridiculous, and in a totally lame display of judging a book by its cover, I […]

Filed Under: Quote of the Week - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Big Indie-an vs. Little Indie-an

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 25, 2014

“Indie” has been a purposefully inclusive title. It designated those games or game developers that worked outside the standard gatekeepers, the big game publishing industry that dominated the scene only a few years ago. It was really a catch-all to cover everybody excluded from that system. Even then, there wasn’t a great hard-and-fast rule to […]

Filed Under: Biz, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Steam’s New Curation / Discovery Thingy

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 24, 2014

If you are on Steam, chances are you’ve learned about their new Discover interface and the new curation stuff. I’ve not had much time to touch it yet, but it’s high on my priority list. The big question is… will it help people find the games they’d like to play. I’m not sure, and the […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Shocker: Unfinished Games to Remain Unfinished

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 23, 2014

I keep grumbling (I try to think positive and to avoid grumbling too much) about people being willing to pay more for a promise of a game than an actual, completed game. I’ve suspected that as we had some high-profile failures in Early Access and crowdfunding games, that this might be tempered somewhat. We’ve had […]

Filed Under: Biz, News - 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

Wasteland 2

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 19, 2014

It’s out. Or maybe I should have said, “Holy crap, it’s out!” If I can cast my mind back that far, I remember this being the Kickstarter project I was most excited about. A known property. A known, experienced team. An RPG project that said all the right things: Turn-based, tactical, party-based. Even some of […]

Filed Under: Game Announcements - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Quick Take: Delver

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 18, 2014

Okay. Remember how I like to rant about early access, how awful it is, and how it’s possible to get screwed and all that? Yeah. Well, Nethack has been “in development” for how many decades now? 🙂 Of course, it’s had a number of “official” releases. It seems there are certain kinds of games, particularly […]

Filed Under: Impressions, Roguelikes - Comments: Comments are off for this article

Frayed Knights 2: Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 17, 2014

In Frayed Knights 1: The Skull of S’makh-Daon, I established the existence of alchemical grenades. They made the hobgoblins a lot more deadly, but they could also found and used by players, or manufactured by a certain alchemist. A certain twisted, evil, black-hearted part of me really liked the idea. But then, I’m a guy […]

Filed Under: Frayed Knights - Comments: Read the First Comment

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

The Indie World, Post-Minecraft

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 15, 2014

Unless we’re all victims of the most epic troll of gaming history – or the deal suddenly turns sour before the contracts are all signed (and it may be too late for that), it’s official – Minecraft and its studio Mojang are being sold to Microsoft for $2.5 billion. Which – is mind boggling. Utterly […]

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

Game Dev Quote(s) of the Week: So Much For Common Wisdom Edition

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 12, 2014

For today, here’s a super-fresh quote from Swen Vincke or Larian Studios, which strikes near and dear to my heart. After hitting a home run, selling more than a half-million units, paying all the debts and investors and being able to fund the next game with the proceeds, Vincke snarks: “So much for turn-based fantasy […]

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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 […]

Filed Under: Game Development - Comments: 18 Comments to Read

Notch – Cashing Out of Indie-dom (for a while)?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 10, 2014

Markus “Notch” Persson is an incredibly lucky person. And with that, I don’t mean that at all as a slight against his skills. The guy paid his dues. He made craploads of games for previous employers. He co-created an MMO. He participated in Ludum Dare competitions. He’s got mad skills. He’s easily in the top […]

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: 12 Comments to Read

Category / Genre Doesn’t Mean Squat: Tell Me a Story About Your Game

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 9, 2014

I remember as a kid, getting one of the first Commodore 64s off the assembly line, and the absolute dearth of games available. I remember really wanting to get one game – Turmoil – even though it was a clone of an only somewhat entertaining game because it was one of the only ones out […]

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: Comments are off for this article



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