As I work through a continuous game of Dawn of Discovery, I’m finding it a little hard to get into the whole spirit of a master builder. The game is allegedly about making grand cities and trading with exotic outposts. You establish your own resource colonies (with just enough citizens to keep the budget in […]
Entries Tagged as 'Design'
Game AI Discussion
July 13th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Blogs, Design
Soren Johnson has published the email exchange he had with his GDC co-panelists before the conference. It’s a very interesting discussion with some heavyweight minds, including Ubisoft’s Josh Mosqueira, the designer of Relic’s Company of Heroes. Now, whether to keep or axe a feature based on how well the AI can use it… that’s a […]
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Three Moves Ahead Episode 20
July 7th, 2009 · 21 Comments · Design, Podcast, Three Moves Ahead
The panel returns to game design territory with a discussion of the problem of runaway winners in strategy games. Can you design around it? Should you? How do you keep a game interesting for everyone? Also, a progress report on our Dominions 3 game. Listen here. RSS here. Subscribe on iTunes.
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One More Map Thing
June 15th, 2009 · Comments Off on One More Map Thing · Design
Rob Zacny has written a thoughtful analysis of the map in AGEOD’s great wargame Birth of America. I’ve written about the map in Birth of America before, just not for my series, so I’m glad that Zacny has picked up the slack.
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Re-Entering the Cave
June 14th, 2009 · 18 Comments · City Builder, Design
I am on the edge of returning to Dwarf Fortress. I know it will be a big mistake, though. Here’s the thing. Dwarf Fortress is probably the most compelling city builder in many years. Like the best city builders, you can guide the development of your habitat but your citizens have wants and needs of […]
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Well Played 1.0
May 21st, 2009 · Comments Off on Well Played 1.0 · Design
Well Played 1.0 is a nice series of essays published under the Creative Commons license and available via Lulu. So, it’s free, and you can read it all. It’s about games and their meaning. For my purposes, there is an essay from Kurt Squire about some boys who play Civilization IV multiplayer and the meaning […]
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