Game design is simple, actually

Designing Games to Learn

As I've been writing this series of newsletters on learning and video games, there's been a spectre lurking in the background. Video games and education. Edutainment.

“The Door Problem”

Game design is one of those nebulous terms to people outside the game industry that’s about as clear as the “astrophysicist” job title is to me. It’s also my job, so I find myself explaining what game design means to a lot of people from different backgrounds, some of whom don’t know anything about games.

Game UI by Example: A Crash Course in the Good and the Bad

How easy is it for your player to put their intention into action, or to understand what's going on in your game? In this tutorial, you'll learn how to build a better game UI by examining both...

Building games that can be understood at a glance

Building games that can be understood at a glance - Zach Gage, GDC 2018

Game Programming Patterns

I’m here to help! Game Programming Patterns is a collection of patterns I found in games that make code cleaner, easier to understand, and faster.

The Level Design Book

The Level Design Book gathers level design knowledge for 3D video games in an approachable, up-to-date, and critical way. It is for designers of all experience levels and game engines.

The Fun Theory Sequence — LessWrong

(A shorter gloss of Fun Theory is "31 Laws of Fun", which summarizes the advice of Fun Theory to would-be Eutopian authors and futurists.) …

Designing Imaginative Environments by Nathan Fowkes

Join industry veteran Nathan Fowkes on a deep dive into the hows and whys of designing environments for entertainment. From creating mood with color and light, to exploring different biomes and weather, to crafting architecture and props, he will teach you how to design amazing environments that make your work stand out from the crowd.

4-Layers, A Narrative Design Approach

Introduction This blog post will be about a new way to approach narrative design in games - the 4 Layers Approach. It is based on a GDC ...

The NOexistenceN of you AND me

Use "game" as a medium to showcase the world of "you/girl". Explore the truth of "you/girl/world" through the form of a "visual novel".

ATmosphere Games - (definitions for eligibility and interop)

As the number of games using rpg.actor increased, we realized a need for something that could declare what records a game requires, and how they could be verified. We wanted to build an Experiences Portal that could showcase games using the .sprite or .stats lexicons, and make clear how other games required or used the interoperable records from different games and projects. For example, how Clun’s Cannon uses the Jet Pack item from protoimsg.app, or how chaos.soccer verifies the Clown Shoes ...

The Math of Idle Games, Part I

Originally published October 4, 2016 I’ve given a few talks in the past about the appeal and general mechanics of idle games, but what if you actually wanted to make one? Theory and patterns are nice, but there’s some complicated math running behind it. And how on earth

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From Gamer To Game Maker Create Your Own Games & Learn Computational Thinking No Code: Powerful Visual Programming Share With Your Friends & Publish To App Stores Learn more about GameSalad: Classroom Learn@Home Developers From Gamer To Game Maker Create Your Own Games & Learn Computational Thinking No Code: Powerful Visual Programming Share With Your […]

Design Spells · Design details that feel like magic

Discover micro-interactions, easter eggs, and other seemingly extra design details that infuse life, personality, and fun back into the web.

Neal.fun

Games, visualizations, interactives and other weird stuff.