People talk about the depth of games a lot, but it’s tricky to figure out exactly what that means. I’ve been thinking about a new way to measure the depth of games. It’s the Skill Ceiling. The skill ceiling is … Continue reading
My hobby now is, apparently, editing Star Trek episodes for humorous effect.
So I decided to practice my video editing a bit. The horrifying result:
The word “game” is starting to get outdated. It doesn’t fit us any more, to the point where it is holding us back. When people started calling them games, that’s what they were. Simple sets of action-reaction rules and mechanics. … Continue reading
Quicktime Event (n) A gameplay mechanic in which players are instructed to push buttons exactly as they are displayed on the screen. Frequently accompanies a cinematic-like sequence of the player character doing something cool but outside the game’s control schemes. … Continue reading
Verb (n) An action the player can use to interact with the game or game world. Verbs include shooting, running, jumping, pushing buttons, insulting people, and eating food. Usage: We never properly trained the chicken-kicking verb, so how can we … Continue reading
Joe Six-Pack (n) A proverbial average player who is not interested in thought-provoking game experiences and has a low tolerance for complex rules that he needs to learn. Usage: The mind reading hamburger character an interesting concept, but do you … Continue reading
Parse (v) To absorb and understand information presented by the game. Usage: The menu screen threw so much information at the player that it was impossible to parse. Comment: Parseability is extremely important. It’s one of the main reasons (if … Continue reading
The best thing about the old tabletop role-playing games is the Dungeon Master concept. The Dungeon Master is a person who creates and presents challenges to the other players. Since the DM can essentially do anything that a fictional world … Continue reading
Technology doesn’t just mean physical devices. The word also refers to techniques. In game design, we develop technology that has nothing to do with CPUs or game engines. We develop design technologies. This is my list of the most important … Continue reading