Category Archives: Design

[This post was written about month ago when STO was first launched. I tried to age it like a fine wine ... which didn't work. So I might as well post it before it spoils completely! But anyway, the server … Continue reading →

Side Note: Turbine Games Still Need More Polish What’s Turbine been doing the past year? Nothing too exciting, it seems… even though DDO went free-to-play and is apparently making lots of cash, it still has only a skeleton crew working … Continue reading →

I read Scott Jenning’s blog post about how terrible the year was for MMOs, and I had to agree that it wasn’t a fun year for MMO companies. “But still,” I thought to myself, “If I had my own blog, … Continue reading →

I know how easy it is for a game to die early in its life. Asheron’s Call 2 had a promising career as a small but profitable MMO, but that was dashed very early because the game’s chat system broke … Continue reading →

“Learn to think like a designer, not a player.” You’ll hear this a lot from game developers giving advice to would-be designers. And it’s not wrong … but taken at face value, it leads to being a sub-par designer. There’s … Continue reading →

All game designers should take a few courses in psychology. This will help a lot more than you think, especially if you’re aiming to be a systems designer (as opposed to a level or content designer). Game design is an … Continue reading →

Do you remember this part from the Wizard of Oz movie? It’s my favorite part: GLINDA You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas. DOROTHY I have? SCARECROW Then why … Continue reading →

Learning Is Fun … Have you read Raph Koster’s book, Theory of Fun for Game Design? It’s one of those books that people are always telling game designers to read. But I hate it. I hate Raph Koster’s book because … Continue reading →