The Cost of Development

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 14, 2013

When I hear gamers complain about the cost of video games – and arguing that indie games shouldn’t cost more than $X (X being an arbitrary number, almost always under 10, often less than 5), I wonder if they really understand the cost of making these games. I dream of one day turning “Rampant Games” […]

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

RPG Design: Hard or Soft Progression?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 3, 2013

RPGs have an inherent bias towards linearity, if only for their story and the fact that characters make (generally) move along a major axis of weak to strong. Even with a threadbare story, the dreaded Foozle or end-goal amulet is always behind some extreme challenges that you can’t just waltz in immediately and take to […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

New Year Plans: How To Become a Better Indie

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 2, 2013

I have been making games for a while, now – both as a full-time mainstream professional and as a part-time indie. Some day, I hope I’ll be pretty good at it.  But in the spirit of New Years’ Resolutions, I figured I’d set some goals and some concrete plans to meet those goals this year […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: Read the First Comment

Five Steps To Get Motivated to Make Your Indie Game

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 31, 2012

Full-time indie game developers have a pretty accessible motivator called “the bank account.”  Sadly, it works best when diminished, which is not it’s preferred state. But let’s say you are a part-time indie, or an aspiring indie, and your ability to keep eating is not tied to the completion and success of your next game. […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Game Design: The Same Game, Only Different

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 28, 2012

Today, I’m running a D&D game for my family – well, okay, Pathfinder. Which in and of itself is a very cool thing. My twelve-year-old self would be so impressed. We’re playing the second part of the Age of Worms campaign that came out in Dungeon magazine about seven years ago. It’s pretty well-written and […]

Filed Under: Design, Geek Life - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Indie Games: After the Gold Rush?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 27, 2012

I guess this is a little bit of a follow-up from yesterday’s post, but allow me to get a little pessimistic for a minute. Except I personally think I’m being realistic. Indie games have been enjoying a gold rush, a boom. Inevitably, after the boom peaks, comes a bust – a contraction. Almost everybody knows […]

Filed Under: Biz, Casual Games, Indie Evangelism, Production - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Programming: Algorithms, Deltas, and Exceptions

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 18, 2012

Sometimes I am a little slow, and need to be taught a lesson a number of times. My very first day on my first game development job, I was confronted with the design document for the game that would one day be Twisted Metal (actually, I was introduced to both that doc and the Warhawk […]

Filed Under: Programming - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

The Line Between Controversy and Exploitation

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 17, 2012

Brian Moriarty once inspired me in a Game Developer’s Conference (back when it was CGDC, I think) by talking about the wonderful potential of the medium, how it would be the dominant entertainment medium of the 21st century, and the power of the medium to educate and provoke thought. He said something about how you […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Making Games. Faster.

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 10, 2012

I was reading a little bit this weekend about fiction writers “going indie.” I’m not very in tune with the fiction biz, but what little I gleaned sounded like indie is progressing in that industry about at the same pace as indie games, maybe a couple of years behind. However, those writers who have effectively […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

How Fast Should Characters Level Up?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 7, 2012

Back in the (somewhat) earlier dice & paper RPG days, one of the key differences between skill-based RPG systems and class/level based systems (which have now married and have had lots of hybrid babies) was the pace of character progression.  In a skill-based system, you typically gained abilities, or points to spend on abilities, after […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 14 Comments to Read

It’s Dangerous to Go Alone!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 29, 2012

Now, as an excuse, with the Thanksgiving break over, I’ve been back to working 11-ish hour days for The Day Job, and so game development has slowed to a crawl again. Sadly, this has been the case most of this year. 2012’s been rough, but still not as bad as when I was working at […]

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

Ichiro Lambe on 9 Common Indie Mistakes

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 28, 2012

Have I made every single one of these? Hmmm… No! No, I don’t think I’ve done #3 yet, at least not as an indie. But all of the rest of ’em, yeas, I think I have. Even the ones I am careful to tell other people not to make. The 9 Common Mistakes Every Indie […]

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

It’s All Done Except For….

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 26, 2012

A comment over the weekend led to a short conversation about where all the development time goes. I joked (though it’s not really a joke) that if I’d chosen to use a text-based interface, Frayed Knights 2 would be done by now. Lars Doucet (Defender’s Quest) and Craig Stern (Telepath RPG) and others quickly chimed […]

Filed Under: Production - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Game Design: Decisions and Execution

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 23, 2012

Just some random musings for your Friday’s entertainment. I posit that “gameplay” is a combination of interesting decisions and challenging execution. In a game like Rock Band or Dance Dance Revolution, it’s almost all about the execution. You may need to consider when to go into overcharge mode, or how to move to hit those […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: Read the First Comment

Nine Game Production Lessons Learned from the Arcades

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 19, 2012

Many game developers of the modern era have begged that the industry transcend its arcade roots. And I cannot disagree with them, as far as they go. The arcade machines were patterned after a different amusement than what games are now (or should be). The old arcade games were designed to maximize quarter revenue, for […]

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

Game Design: Verb Consolidation

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 13, 2012

The text adventure genre provided a wonderful deception to a generation of gamers  – or to be honest, multiple generations, as the Interactive Fiction community still manages to provide some pretty interesting games for a niche audience. The grand illusion of text adventures – and certainly one of the things that most endeared me to […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 4 Comments to Read



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