Rampant Coyote’s Best Posts of 2013

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 31, 2013

So here it is, the last day of 2013. Time for me to start accidentally back-date forms and checks to the previous year again. I thought I’d visit my stats and see what posts actually resonated with people and grabbed the most visitors. Interestingly, my most popular blog post from twelve months ago was actually […]

Filed Under: Rampant Games - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

The Game Design Rough Sketch

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 30, 2013

I heard a joke the other day: “Weeks of programming can save you hours of planning.” It’s pretty true, although for certain familiar tasks for veteran programmers, the planning can take a lot more time than just jumping into code. I think in code. But of course, that’s the kind of thing that gets me […]

Filed Under: Design, Production - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Game Dev Quote of the Week: Chris Roberts on 3D

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 27, 2013

This week: The father of Wing Commander offers an (old, somewhat dusty) opinion on the virtues of 3D graphics: “One thing I discovered is that 3D is more intimidating from the outside than from the inside. Once you figure out what’s going on, it’s really pretty simple. It seems harder than it is and once […]

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An Author is Me?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 26, 2013

“If you really like it you can have the rights, It could make a million for you overnight. If you must return it, you can send it here But I need a break and I want to be a paperback writer, Paperback writer.” – The Beatles, Paperback Writer In fourth grade, my class was assigned […]

Filed Under: Books - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Merry Christmas!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 25, 2013

A very Merry Christmas to you and yours. I hope your day – and the season – is filled with peace and happiness. And here’s some custom programmer art to spoil it all for you: My wife did a better job with our Christmas Card, taking advantage of a very fun family portrait session we […]

Filed Under: General - Comments: 10 Comments to Read

Popping the Question, Gamer-Style

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 24, 2013

With the help of a musician and programmer friend, gamer geek Robert Fink proposes to his gamer girlfriend, Angel White. Awesome. Mr. Fink, yer doin’ it right, IMO. Congrats to the couple!

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: Read the First Comment

The Death of Deathfire?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 23, 2013

I’m saddened. Guido Henkel and the Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore have officially pulled the plug. The Deathfire Team: Thanks you for all your support This crap happens all the time, really. Games get canceled, for many reasons. But in this case – with the failure of the Kickstarter and the episodic alternative – the reason […]

Filed Under: Biz, Production - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

Frayed Knights: A Maze of Twisty Little Skill Trees

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 20, 2013

Making Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon was a learning experience for me, of course. It’s funny how you can think you know what you are doing after decades of playing games, and even years of experience making games, but when it comes down to actually implementing a design and making it fun… it throws […]

Filed Under: Frayed Knights - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Game Development Quote of the Week: Derek Yu on Resources and Constraints

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 19, 2013

Today’s quote of the week comes from the absolutely outstanding article (which I’m pretty sure I’ve linked to before) “Finishing a Game” by Derek Yu. If you are an aspiring game developer who hasn’t yet gone through to release, I strongly recommend this article. “The fact is, if we all had unlimited resources and unlimited […]

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Learning from Game Jams

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 18, 2013

I haven’t been a very successful “game jam” developer. I’ve participated in a few, even completed a few, but I’m not a regular participant. I have lots of excuses. But mainly, with major projects in development, and a family / social / church life and responsibilities, it’s tough to carve out an entire weekend for […]

Filed Under: Game Development - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

RPG Design: Declaring Victory. A lot.

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 17, 2013

I’ve been doing a little bit of course-tuning of the combat system for Frayed Knights 2: The Khan of Wrath, which is to be expected as I’ve radically changed some significant aspects from … well, anything I’ve played before. The spell system, which is quite possibly the most complicated spell system “under the hood” ever […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

My Philosophy of Quest Design

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 16, 2013

… Maybe I need an intervention. “But there was no other way…” “Really?” “… As epically awesome!” Seriously, it sometimes feels like half my writing & design efforts (in the content phase) are focused on justifying just why the player has to do things in such a convoluted manner. But then I volunteered for that […]

Filed Under: General - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Rampant Games’ Official Stance on “Let’s Play” Videos

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 13, 2013

I thought I’d done something official about this already, but if I did, consider this a reiteration of my stance on Let’s Play videos: I love ’em. Please go ahead and make a Let’s Play video of Frayed Knights – or my ancient game Void War, if you really want to… Just make sure appropriate […]

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Game Dev Quote of the Week: Lee Perry

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 12, 2013

This week’s quote of the week comes from Lee Parry, formerly a lead designer at Epic (and now an indie): “If there’s one single thing I would drive into any developer’s head if I could, it would be the importance of great player feedback.  When I talk about feedback, I mean the classic loop between […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Twenty years of Doom

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 11, 2013

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Doom‘s release. I guess, in a very round-about way, it is because of that day in 1993 that I became a professional game developer. Doom took the industry by storm, and I think it was a not-insignificant factor in convincing a bunch of engineers from the simulation industry to […]

Filed Under: Retro - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

RPG Design: The Forgettable Fight

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 10, 2013

Maybe it was the link to the Richard Garriott quote last week, or the Matt Chat interviews with Guido Henkel, or… more likely… my current coding and rebalancing of Frayed Knights combat, but I’ve been thinking about combat in RPGs a bit more lately, and how it has changed between the old classics and modern […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 15 Comments to Read



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