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Craig Stern's Blog
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Expert Blogs
12 ways to improve turn-based RPG combat systems  |
| Posted by Craig Stern on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 05:21:00 EDT in
Smartphone/Tablet,
Social/Online,
Indie,
Serious,
Console/PC,
Design
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| There are a lot of techniques that mainstream RPGs commonly overlook for making turn-based combat clear, elegant, and tactically interesting; here, we discuss 12 of them. |
| Read More... | 12 Comments |
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Using Details to Craft a Coherent Game World |
| Posted by Craig Stern on Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:26:00 EDT in
Serious,
Indie,
Smartphone/Tablet,
Social/Online,
Console/PC,
Design
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| If you want to build a compelling game world, you need to think not just about why the player faces the precise challenges that he or she faces. |
| Read More... | 9 Comments |
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Why Kickstarter Matters |
| Posted by Craig Stern on Mon, 04 Mar 2013 07:10:00 EST in
Console/PC,
Social/Online,
Production,
Serious,
Indie,
Smartphone/Tablet,
Business/Marketing
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| Craig Stern responds to Mike Rose's piece about Kickstarter fatigue, arguing that crowdfunding games remains as important as ever. |
| Read More... | 4 Comments |
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Humble? Sure. Indie? Not so much. |
| Posted by Craig Stern on Sat, 02 Jun 2012 06:02:00 EDT in
Business/Marketing,
Indie
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| Humble Indie Bundle V markets a big-team, big-budget, publisher-backed game as "indie." This practice has the potential to seriously hurt the indie community. |
| Read More... | 14 Comments |
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Video Games Writing: Where We Are and What We Need |
| Posted by Craig Stern on Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:06:00 EST in
Design
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| Video games writing isn't necessarily worse than writing in other media, and it's improved dramatically since the early days of gaming. But it can still be better. Here is what we need to make it happen. |
| Read More... | 10 Comments |
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All the Tedium, None of the Heart: Enough with Boasting "RPG Elements" |
| Posted by Craig Stern on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:48:00 EST in
Design
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| Game makers should stop describing their non-RPG games as having RPG elements--the phrase has come to stand for some of the least interesting aspects of the RPG experience, and tends to cheapen the genre. |
| Read More... | 16 Comments |
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Craig Stern's Comments
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Comment In: Indie vs Retail [Blog - 05/21/2013 - 07:22]
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Arcade bars are actually growing ... Arcade bars are actually growing quite popular in Chicago--the combination of games and drinking is appealing--and the retro nature of it, perhaps unsurprisingly, appeals to the native hipster element. r n r nOur local indie group, Indie City Games, actually has an indie arcade cabinet sitting in one of these ... |
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Comment In: Gamasutra Blog Guidelines - Updated and open for discussion [Blog - 05/20/2013 - 02:39]
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Would you say that this ... Would you say that this is related to UBM 's move to remove most paid positions from IndieGames.com From my position as a developer, it 's obviously better for me to have my content more prominently featured, but at the same time, I am deeply uncomfortable with the move toward ... |
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Comment In: Why Candy Box became more social than 'social games' [News - 05/07/2013 - 01:03]
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Come on. Other than its ... Come on. Other than its use of ASCII art and fantasy setting, this game has literally nothing in common with roguelikes. |
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Comment In: 12 ways to improve turn-based RPG combat systems [Blog - 04/11/2013 - 05:21]
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The point isn 't that ... The point isn 't that all 12 techniques are necessary they 're just tools that you can use to create a clear, elegant system with emergent complexity. If you don 't want to use one, don 't. |
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Comment In: Using Details to Craft a Coherent Game World [Blog - 03/19/2013 - 10:26]
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Yeah, that fair: a light-hearted ... Yeah, that fair: a light-hearted parody RPG like CStW largely gets a pass here. It was just the first good example of a picture prominently showing a nonsensical assortment of jRPG enemies I could find. The reason the parody works, of course, is that it 's exactly what happens in ... |
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Comment In: Official Statement by the YetiZen CEO on the YetiZen IGDA GDC party [Blog - 03/30/2013 - 11:52]
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Further coincidence: it just so ... Further coincidence: it just so happens that all of those video game-loving models were women It 's sad the way female models love video games so much more than male models do a curse on the modeling industry, really. It makes one wonder: what can we do to get men ... |
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