For an explanation of what this series is about, go here. It’s been 25 years since Dan Bunten and EA released Seven Cities of Gold for the Atari 800, Commodore 64 and Apple II and it’s still the most influential strategy game ever made. I guess one of the Blizzard real time strategy games would […]
Entries Tagged as 'Design'
I’m Going to Keep Saying This Until People Listen
February 11th, 2009 · 28 Comments · Crispy Gamer, Design, RTS
Mostly, I hate the entire idea of dividing games by how time moves. There are better ways to understand game design than whether or not you have time to make a sandwich before you are overrun with Cossacks. But then Tom Chick writes: Real-Time Strategy Games are survived by its oldest son, Empire: Total War, […]
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Designing an Economy
January 24th, 2009 · 5 Comments · Blogs, Design
Even though our leaders have no clear idea about how a modern economy actually works, Maxis’s Soren Johnson has put a lot of thought into how to make a economy work in games. Unfortunately, the market dynamics of these games tend to repeat themselves, with prices usually bottoming out once the players’ total production overwhelms […]
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Dealing with “The Hitler Problem”
January 19th, 2009 · 21 Comments · Design, History
A writer with the name “Poisoned Sponge” has written a long post dealing with a question that I have tackled before many times. Taking the Total War games as his starting point, the writer asks about how far game designers can deal with the moral horrors of the 20th century. Creative Assembly is making an […]
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Cats: The Game
January 13th, 2009 · 16 Comments · Design, Industry, Music
I love Broadway musicals. And I still think this is the stupidest thing I’ve heard all month. But today the word has come out that Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Really Useful Group, the company responsible for handling Webber’s various projects, is currently in talks with multiple video game publishers with the goal of bringing Webber’s musicals into […]
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Why ARGs Suck
January 5th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Design, Industry
Finally someone puts to paper what I’ve been thinking about Alternate Reality Games for a while but I never really had the vocabulary or experience to make the case. I wish I had read this before my most recent book column. (Spotted at Game, Set, Watch. Simon finds the good stuff off the beaten path […]
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