My Thoughts on Convergence Station

There’s a reason video games build what’s called a ‘vertical slice’. If you’re not familiar, a vertical slice is a single playable area, with all mechanics, final art, vfx, sfx, music, etc. Basically, a little piece of exactly how the finished game will look and feel and play. The vertical slice is what game developers […] Source

I know a lot about guns. I’ve never held a gun. I’ve seen guns only on store walls and on the hips of officers. I’m not interested in guns. Still, I know a lot about guns because guns play a big role in many of the videogames I love. As a game designer specializing in […] Source

The first chapter of Glenn Parsons’ “The Philosophy of Design” is dedicated to the definition of the word ‘design’.* Parsons goes through many iterations, finally arriving at “Design is the intentional solution of a problem by the creation of plans for a new sort of thing…” I liked this definition at first, but began to […] Source

Allow me to start by saying that I mean no disrespect to Dialogue Trees.  I don’t think dialogue trees can or should be replaced.  They are an art form of their own — a perfect compromise among the competing forces game developers require from such a system: Easy to predict, to implement, to hook into other […] Source

First off, I acknowledge that this is the wrong question to ask.  The better question is: “How can I determine how many mechanics my game should have?”  This essay gives my own opinion on that question. However, just so we’re all on the same page, this is the definition of “game mechanic” I’m thinking of. […] Source