Category Archives: Game Design Theory
A Design Theory Question
Over the last couple of years I’ve expounded on the theme of game design theory a number of times. Several people have been kind enough to say that these posts have been helpful to them in their own design work, which … Continue reading
Hero Experience In Dungeon Sagas
As I mentioned yesterday, the experience system is linked to the rest of the Downtime process. I’ll explain how in a moment, but first a handful of points that came up in the comments from yesterday’s post and which I should probably stress … Continue reading
Dungeon Sagas Development
Obviously, the end of the Kickstarter is just the beginning of the Saga. Though we’ve only got a few hours left I’ll still be posting up development notes over the next few weeks and I’ll be very happy to hear … Continue reading
Random Dungeon Sagas
As you may have seen on the (huge) Kickstarter update 40, random dungeons are in, and they look like being a lot of fun. The random element can really capture the whole exploring the unknown feeling, with the potential for nasty surprises … Continue reading
What’s The Difference Between Core And Advanced DS?
Dungeon Sagas is more than a game: it’s at least two games¹. The boxed set is divided into a Core game and an Advanced game. We’ve mentioned this distinction before, and those of you who came along to the seminars … Continue reading
Why Co-Op And I Don’t Get On
Co-operative play is rather fashionable in game designs at the moment. It comes in a few distinct flavours, and although they can be quite different they all tend to get lumped together into “co-op”. Personally, I like some types and can’t get … Continue reading
Deadzone Points Values
Of all the games I’ve worked on, Deadzone is probably the most awkward to balance in terms of points. There are all the usual reasons for points systems not working, though in the case of DZ it’s more than that. … Continue reading
Playtesting Questions
I was asked the other day about playtesting. Over on the Games Design page John said the following: “I’ve been developing a game with a few friends for a while, could you maybe provide some insight into what kinds of … Continue reading
Game Design Theory: Playtest In Parts
In general there is a tendency to think of playtesting as simply playing the game lots of times. This is an important part of the process, but I think it’s only part of the story. Playtesting is a complicated subject … Continue reading
Mars Attacks – The Design Challenge
Every game has its own combination of tricky bits to get right, and one of the most important things to do as a designer is work out what these are as early as possible so you get more time to … Continue reading
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