Civilization IV designer Soren Johnson talked to us about his new 4X game Ten Crowns and the future of 4X
Docprof Says: A quick but interesting look at the fundamentals of 4X games, how they've evolved, and how they might evolve further, with an emphasis on the Civilization series.
Open worlds and sandboxes are big, scary places for narrative designers. Whatever your mechanics may be, and however your tale is told, adhering to these four basic but essential mantras will help players better engage with and understand your story.
Docprof Says: A clear and actionable rundown of the most important rules to live by for story design in open world games.
Dragon Quest Builders succeeds where Minecraft and LEGO Worlds have failed. It's the first video game in the "building" genre to create a system of interesti...
Docprof Says: A look at how the mechanical design of Dragon Quest Builders incentivizes the act of building in ways that no other building game does.
Games are networking the world. Titles like 'PokemonGO' are showing the industry how the world can be an MMO. Hardware coming from major companies is promising…
Docprof Says: Raph Koster's fascinating and chilling GDC 2017 talk about the responsibilities of designers and maintainers of virtual and social spaces. Modern games and services from Facebook to Pokémon GO are ignoring the many lessons learned in the early days of shared online worlds, and you don't even have to be a player or user to be affected by the fallout.
I was chatting on Twitter with someone about narrative games, and What Remains of Edith Finch came up. It was my favorite game of last year, and I had written this little bit on it for a forum disc…
Docprof Says: Raph Koster explains why everyone made such a big deal about What Remains of Edith Finch - it's because it was a brilliant showcase of conveying story and emotion through gameplay.
One of my favorite things about human psychology is how a punishment can be turned into a reward just by changing the way it’s framed. A few years ago a friend of mine was serving on the boar…
Docprof Says: One of the more famous psychology lessons from World of Warcraft - framing is everything. Players hated the "rest" system when it was seen as a penalty for playing too long; they loved it when it was seen as a reward for spending time not playing.
This video started out as a review for Star Wars Battlefront II, but as I researched the commercials behind it, I began to uncover a consistent pattern from ...
Docprof Says: Skill Up illuminates the history of the loot box from its surprising origin in a side mode in a soccer game to where we are today with the Star Wars Battlefront II backlash, as well as discussion of potential legal regulation of loot boxes as a form of gambling and why this is an existential threat to EA.
"The humor of a Yakuza game is a fine line to walk," says localization producer Scott Strichart in this in-depth chat about localization, the Yakuza games, and the ins and outs of Japanese humor.
Docprof Says: A look at the challenges of localizing the Yakuza series of games for the West and the strategies Atlus has developed to overcome them (in particular working with both editors and translators together). I was intrigued by how important it is to have editors with strong understanding of the characters.
Egoraptor analyses the intricacies of video games and their sequels, and also hopefully makes you bust a gut laughing.
Docprof Says: Arin Hanson's short but brilliant series on design evolution in game sequels. His insights are valuable and delivered entertainingly - in particular, he provides the definitive examination of the finely-crafted opening level of Mega Man X.
I. One time I was hanging out with a friend while she was streaming Dark Souls. She was in Sen’s Fortress, and there were these weird boulders rolling around the level. When she got outside, …
Docprof Says: Cameron Kunzelman points out the strange assumptions inherent in the discussion around whether Dark Souls should have an Easy Mode and explains why the common objections seem to lack merit. There's some good discussion in the comments as well.