Fyrecon 2019 – My Schedule

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 13, 2019

Hey folks! I will be at Fyrecon 2019 next week in Layton, Utah (June 20-22). Part of the time I will be attending a master class, and much of the rest of the time I will be participating in the new Game Development track there. Thursday, June 20, 4:00 – 4:50 PM (Room D3-302) – […]

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Build an RPG in a Week! Mini-RPG Game Jam

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 1, 2018

It can be done, and it should be done. A Computer RPG week-long game jam… It starts tomorrow evening, and goes for one week. Make an RPG. It is a competition, but I don’t think there are any prizes except bragging rights. You probably won’t be making the game of your dreams in a single […]

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

Easing Back into the Game

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 11, 2017

The last year has been a little bit … nuts. Some of it was nuts in a good way.  The day job, however, took its toll. I’m no stranger to crunch, or (sadly) extended crunch. It came with the territory as a full-time game developer, and pretty much every programming job I’ve ever worked has […]

Filed Under: Game Development, Geek Life, Rampant Games, Writing - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

The Debugging Gumshoe

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 24, 2017

Every once in a while, it occurs to me just how insane software development is as a profession. Especially when it comes to debugging software – which I find is generally about half the job. It pretty much comes down to: Here’s a complete mystery Here’s the deadline to solve it! Much of the time, […]

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

Creativity on Demand

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 5, 2017

In the tech industry, there was an old joke dating back at least from the 1970s or 1980s about how “if it wasn’t for trade shows, we’d never get anything done.” Of course, it was funny because it wasn’t such a joke. In many companies, there’s a tremendous surge of productivity leading up to showing […]

Filed Under: Game Development, General, Writing - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Crafting VR Multiplayer in Star Trek: Bridge Crew

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 6, 2017

I love cooperative multiplayer games. That said, I often avoid them, simply because I have such a weird schedule and got burned out trying to coordinate times with friends back when I was doing the MMO thing, and had too many bad experiences with pick-up groups. However, it still fascinates me. Especially as a game developer […]

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Game Development: Getting the Basics Right

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 29, 2017

I should know better playing games that come in a “shovelware” bundle. They are published by indies now, but the same thing was true in the early days of the CD-ROM revolution in the 90s, when bundlers would throw a half-dozen or more lackluster titles on a CD for $15 or less. Actually, I do […]

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RPG Design: Being the Bad Guy

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 25, 2017

When Tyranny was announced, I wasn’t interested. I’m still not. As much as I want to play all the games, my cup is definitely overflowing right now, and the concept didn’t thrill me. Actually, it left me cold. It seems I wasn’t the only one. Rock Paper Shotgun: The Fall of Tyranny This is me: […]

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PC Game Development Rulebook Rule Violation #7

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 3, 2017

There ought to be Okay, here’s one for the PC Game Development rulebook (Which isn’t really a thing, but it ought to be. Let’s get that going): Rule #7: Thou shalt not take input from the game input device without authorization! Meaning: Just because there’s a device (or especially a virtual device) is plugged into the […]

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Simpler Dungeon Design: Consider the Antagonists

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 17, 2017

Jeffro (of Appendix N fame) has a suggestion for easier dungeon design for old-school style dungeon delving. DUNGEON DESIGN: Start with the Wandering Monsters In some ways, what he’s really working through is encounter design. This was a bit of an emphasis in the late 3rd edition and 4th edition D&D dungeon design style of […]

Filed Under: Design, Dice & Paper - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Unity 5.6 is released

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 3, 2017

Unity 5.6 Released This release is supposed to finish the “Unity 5 Cycle” – which is really only interesting to the people who bought Unity 5 under the older licensing scheme. The biggest changes (in my mind) are improved lighting (desperately needed) and other graphical improvements. Vulkan support is pretty exciting too, as is the 2D […]

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Appendix N – Breaking the Old-School Fantasy Game Code

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 14, 2017

For the Frayed Knights games, I really wanted to capture the old-school spirit of not just computer RPGs, but also the style of tabletop D&D games I remember playing and envisioning as a kid. Things were different back then. If you read the old modules (both by TSR and third-party publishers), the original rulebooks from […]

Filed Under: Books, Design, Impressions - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

RPG Design: Letting the Bots Fill In the Details

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 24, 2017

Procedural content generation (PCG) is what will save computer role-playing games, if it doesn’t kill it first. What I mean is this: RPGs are really, really content-heavy. Exploration is a major element in classic RPGs (although, as Guido Henkel recently pointed out, the dice-and-paper tradition they are based on is more oriented on problem-solving). This means the […]

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Guido Henkel on a New / Old Way To Design RPGs

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 20, 2017

Guido Henkel, designer of the original Realms of Arkania CRPG series and producer of the critically acclaimed cult favorite Planescape: Torment, has put together a list of things modern RPGs are getting wrong… and how they ought to be able to get things right. The thing is… not a whole lot of what he’s saying […]

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Gamedev Addicts Anonymous…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 24, 2017

[At the weekly meeting of Game Dev Addicts Anonymous] Hi, I’m Jay. Hi Jay I’ve gone nearly 30 days without game development. Congratulations! No, it’s driving me crazy! It’s mainly because my primary development computer went on the fritz and died and I’m waiting on a replacement. I haven’t touched it because I couldn’t transfer my […]

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Josh Sawyer Interview at RPG Codex

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 30, 2016

If you are interested in understanding the mind of a professional, veteran computer RPG developer, you should head over to RPG Codex and check out this fantastic interview with Josh Sawyer. It’s lengthy, and well worth it if you are at all interested in the nuts and bolts that go into making a commercial-quality computer […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 3 Comments to Read



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