Game Design

Tim Ruswick argues that “make small games” is bad shorthand: tiny projects still carry most of the same production overhead as larger ones. He says the real challenge is depth per system, not raw...

Game Developer reports that Marvel's Wolverine appears to omit LGBTQ content in some regional versions, with a mutant marriage going unmentioned in parts of the world. For developers, it’s another...

GamesIndustry.biz argues that AAA’s biggest problem isn’t just ballooning budgets, but the way those budgets push games toward endless rework and audience-testing. The result, it says, is safer,...

XBox Wire says Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is being framed around a “story so far” recap, signaling the next entry is being positioned as a continuation rather than a clean reboot. For developers,...

I'm Fredrik, the developer of ABCx3. What information would you want to keep visible beside the board while playing, and what would you use it for? Chat and remaining tiles are already available....

Mark Cerny and Geoff Keighley have launched Nova Games Foundation, a university-affiliated fellowship program aimed at backing emerging game designers. The initiative plans to award six-figure grants...

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Mark Cerny and Geoff Keighley have launched the Nova Games Foundation, a fellowship program backing young designers with $100,000 grants. The initiative is non-equity,...

Ars Technica reports that the White House quietly pulled a Tetris-like browser game after The Tetris Company disavowed any involvement and warned it takes copyright infringement seriously. The...

Golftacular! lands today on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC with a design built around “cheating” at mini golf. Both Good Games turned course frustrations into items like Early Stop, portals, and...

This is a follow up to the thought of making the AI face some clear cut decisions, decisions that make a sea of difference on how things playout in the end. In a blog post I presented the idea of...

Payne Robinson argues that too many indie projects play it safe, and that sameness is killing their chances on Steam. The practical takeaway for devs: a strong hook, a stranger premise, or a sharper...

Warlock: Master of the Arcane turned player choice into the core of its magic system, letting spell design bend the rules of the game itself. That approach made every build feel like a systems...

I don't under stand how fighting games are able to be made and be deterministic at the same time. For example how am I supposed to keep track of the players position without using float!? Let alone...

I don't under stand how fighting games are able to be made and be deterministic at the same time. For example how am I supposed to keep track of the players position without using float!? Let alone...

Hey! I’m working on an early fantasy MMORPG concept and I’m currently looking for one person or a few people who might be interested in helping me build the first small test location. The project is...

Hi everyone, I've been working on an open-source game engine called SM Engine, and I'd like to share it with the GameDev.net community and get some feedback. SM Engine is a desktop-based 2D/2.5D/3D...

Tim Curry, whose voice and likeness helped define several memorable game characters, has died at 80. For developers, his passing is a reminder of how much a strong performance can elevate a game’s...

I was discussing this with AI and decided to post here. Might be a stupid question but what the hell 😄 I was thinking about games like Star Citizen and No Man's Sky and the problem they run into when...

A coffee-break joke at Elegant Horse Studios turned into Driving Is Hard, a physics-heavy rage game built around a bathtub on wheels. The team briefly prototyped mouse-only steering, found it...

Game concept: Justice on Living Hell — looking for feedback on the core systems Hi everyone. I'm not a professional game developer, but I've been developing a game concept in my head for a while and...