For game makers who are looking for a way to blow off some creative steam, donating a little bit of your time to helping someone else's game exist is a great way make the world better and still expand your own gameography and experience at the same time.
At the end of 2011 we finally released an update to our popular game Canabalt that had support for something like 15 languages. If only for the sake of our own unreliable memories I wanted to record some of the things we learned during that process.
Predatory game design seems to be a real problem, and most of the "defenses" for it are poor (so far). I also attempt to lay out some guidelines for ethical game design that integrate the good things that freemium models have to offer.
Games that abuse checklists and include In-App Purchases are deliberately contriving their designs in the worst way in order to extort money from players, which is unethical and unacceptable design practice.
As promised, I am dedicating a little more time, thought and explanation to exploring the role of ideas in game design. Looking forward to your feedback!
I think this would be a very good point except the images in question are actual screenshots from the specific products in question that prompted this PR blitz from Zynga. So on the one hand I think you could view this as editorializing , but on the other hand you ...
i guess i feel like this just isn't like... some kind of impossible mystery. to me it seems pretty easy to tell when i'm playing a game if it is using manipulative systems. is it systemically shallow but constantly reminding me of checklist progress does the game allow me to ...
i would propose the idea that we are 100 good enough designers to know when something we're doing is a bad idea and a source of tedium. I would also propose the idea that a LOT of us not only know what it is but have invented a way to ...
all very good points : I brainstorm before and during all of my game projects, as I wrote in the article, and I find it a good process, as long as it's not too formal. My point is just that the RESULTS of a brainstorm should be tested BEFORE they ...
hey guys all valid points. however, i think it's important to distinguish participation/recognition from mastery - in established forms of mixed media, you actually need to demonstrate mastery in some way or other to get attention or make an impact. PART of the attraction of video games, to me, is ...
