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Joshua McDonald's Blog
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Currently working as an SDET at Microsoft Game Studios with writing and game development as my primary hobbies.
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Expert Blogs
Common anti-patterns in MMORPG design  |
| Posted by Joshua McDonald on Fri, 28 Dec 2012 04:22:00 EST in
Console/PC,
Design
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| Though MMOs have come far, they have often repeated the same mistakes as their predecessors. Here are a few that often plague even the successful ones. |
| Read More... | 6 Comments |
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What MMOs can learn from Monster Rancher |
| Posted by Joshua McDonald on Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:57:00 EST in
Design,
Console/PC,
Social/Online
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| Though it never made it much beyond a cult hit, the Monster Rancher series uses an interesting design approach that would make an excellent fit for most MMOs. |
| Read More... | 5 Comments |
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What the current RPG can learn from Diablo 1 |
| Posted by Joshua McDonald on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:45:00 EST in
Design,
Console/PC
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| Though outdated in many ways, Diablo has many valuable lessons for the more recent RPGs. |
| Read More... | 11 Comments |
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Standard MMO Character Roles: The Good and the Bad |
| Posted by Joshua McDonald on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:02:00 EDT in
Design
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| Tank, healer, DPS: What do designers gain from this? What do they lose? |
| Read More... | 3 Comments |
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The Value of Good Bots |
| Posted by Joshua McDonald on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:39:00 EDT in
Design
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| One of the best ways to broaden your audience is to appeal to players who prefer multiplayer-style games but would rather fight against bots than people. Here's why. |
| Read More... | 10 Comments |
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Why Shooter Survival Modes are so Successful |
| Posted by Joshua McDonald on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 11:54:00 EDT in
Design
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| What makes people enjoy shooter survival modes so much? More importantly, how can these principles be applied to other genres? |
| Read More... | 19 Comments |
[More Joshua McDonald Blogs]
Joshua McDonald's Comments
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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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Good article on improving a ... Good article on improving a genre with a lot of unrealized potential. I especially second the multiple objectives point, as I like it to go beyond a binary you win or lose system. r n r nI think one of the greatest things you can do for tactical RPGs is ... |
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Comment In: Common anti-patterns in MMORPG design [Blog - 12/28/2012 - 04:22]
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@Brion. Try to imagine that ... @Brion. Try to imagine that you are one of the millions of people who currently play one of these MMOs. Do you believe that they are all thinking, Man, this game is lame and stagnant, but I 'm playing it tons anyway. They may not want a complete reformulation: They ... |
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Comment In: DPS and the Decline of Complexity in RPGs [Blog - 12/10/2012 - 10:45]
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I agree with Jonathon. r ... I agree with Jonathon. r n r nA little extra detail: Eric kind of addressed this point, but if the fights are longer than a few seconds, mathematically, it will boil down to DPS 30 hits at a flat 50 or at 20-80 damage will come out to pretty similar ... |
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Comment In: Sometimes it feels good to fail [Blog - 10/29/2012 - 02:18]
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What wasn 't entirely clear ... What wasn 't entirely clear was whether this was basically a Fire Emblem/Chaos Gate system i.e. if a character dies, he and any benefits that could be gained from him are gone forever but the game otherwise moves on or if there was some other more interesting mechanic i.e. a ... |
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Comment In: Inquisitor: The Sins of Old-School Design [Blog - 09/16/2012 - 10:55]
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In response to your response: ... In response to your response: r n r n1. The work of varied tutorials doesn 't have to be great. It can just be set up to skip part of it i.e. most RTS tutorials start by teaching you how to move around and select stuff, then move into the ... |
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Comment In: Seeing Red: The Pitfalls of Regenerating Health [Blog - 09/02/2012 - 10:04]
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Great article. I had thought ... Great article. I had thought a lot about this, but the way it changes level design is one of the things I hadn 't considered. r n r nOn a different note, one of the biggest things that easily regenerating health or lack thereof affects is the way players handle ... |
[More Joshua McDonald Comments]
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