Ever wonder what a Game Designer thinks when he plays games? Today we look at the gameplay of AirMech and offer some ideas on how to improve the game overall.
Game Design Video Tutorial: Geometric Progression, Unity and Turn Based Tool Kit (TBTK).
In this video
Look over my shoulder as I craft a Geometric Progression system for YOUR game in excel. This is not a clean perfect replication, it’s a raw look at how I actually work. Then we’ll jump into Unity and actually implment our design using the Turn Based Tool Kit. An affordable plugin that let’s non-developers (aka Designers) make their own turn based hex map tactical warfare game. It’s a really great framework so check it out.
For more information about Progression systems in game design look at my previous posts –Game Design: Creating A System Formula – 101- and You are a Game Designer – So what do you do
Missing from the video:
So this video was a tutorial on HOW to do things and not necessarily a video on WHY to do things. So let’s talk about the Why for a little bit. So one thing you may notice in the video is making a Dark Knight and a whole new geometric progression system to make it better than the Knight unit we already have, is well… extraneous!? I mean we could have just plucked those numbers out of thin air and it would have done the job and been so much faster. That’s because we were only looking at 1 entry, a 50 point Dark Knight whose design goal was to be >Knight.
When we make progression systems we’re creating system guidelines. All (or a lot) of our units should be based on this system. So we should have a “Base unit system” or “knight system” or “soldiers and knights system” and simply modify the results from that list to create our unique units such as the Dark Knight.
For example we could have a “Soldier” system that gives the soldier 7.75 hit points for every 5 points in cost. He has light armor, he moves 3 spaces a turn etc. Then when we want to create a Knight we think about our design goals “Ok I want a big armored unit that moves slower but deals more damage and has more HP or Armor than a regular soldier”. So we would create a Geometric System that modifies those base stats. It would take the Soldiers stats and multiply HP by 1.25 (or some number) and the damage by 1.15. And that wasn’t made clear in the video. But I did show everyone how to make a geometric progression in excel, how to create a unit in TBTK. So general mission accomplished.
Thanks for watching, thanks for reading
Bud Leiser
Game Designer
Game Design: Geometrics vs Fibonacci!
So I was on a phone interview for a cool company the other day. And towards the end and off the cuff, almost like a last parting thought as we’re about to finish up the interviewer says “Oh btw I was on your blog and wanted to find out why do you like Fibonacci for progression instead of say Geometrics.”
And it really caught me off guard, not because I had never thought of it before, I actually had, I just couldn’t remember what that reason was when asked out of blue so suddenly. So I thought this would be an excellent follow up to my previous Game Design posts You are a Game Designer – So what do you do? and Game Design: Creating A System Formula – 101
Today’s Find: Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling
Facebook game dev group lead me to a great find for game designers. I however didn’t like the pictures associated with it (source at bottom) I felt it was a distraction from the messages. So here it is in a text only format for your perusal. Plus archived for your safety.
There is a bunch of information to take in below. Comment below to let me know what was inspiring to you. Any you disagree with?
Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling
#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
Oculus Rift – First Experience
At Noisebridge, a Hacker Space in the Mission Distract of San Francisco, Justin brought in an Oculus Rift device for everyone to play around with. He’s going to use some of the space to build an omni-directional treadmill! Initial thoughts: (more…)
Game Design: Creating A System Formula – 101
In my last article “You are a Game Designer – So what do you do” I dropped a piece of information saying people should learn about the Fibonacci series, but I didn’t reveal it or why it mattered. The idea of course is that people who didn’t know it already would go look it up on their own, that is, if they were serious about game design.
So for those not familiar with it the series is basically:
You are a Game Designer – So what do you do?
Is being a Game Designer the most mysterious job in the universe?
I have the wonderful pleasure of introducing myself as a Game Designer. But then comes the follow up question. “What does a game designer do”? Surprisingly that’s a very hard questions to answer. And if I can’t answer it, if it confuses me sometimes, how can I expect anyone else to get it?
Well, at least that is not as bad as these responses:
- Oh so you are an artist? (Not really…)
- So you are a programmer? (Not really…)
- What programs do you use to do game design? (Because they look positively shocked when I answer “Mostly excel”)
- Can you fix my computer? (Sadly yes… I probably can. But I don’t want to.)
So what do I do?
In a short sentence “I create systems”. That doesn’t really tell the listener (Or HR Manager) anything he can use or wrap his head around though. So I usually have to go deeper and give some examples. You have played (Insert game) right?
Lots of articles relating to style/art guides for video games.
I just found this site, it seems like a collector of other articles/websites that discuss art styles for video games. I will have to look it over later because there seems like so much there I can’t just take a quick peek and decide how good it is without delving deeper.
http://www.gameartoutsourcing.com/
I recently attended a IGDA Lecture with 3 of the people who made Tomb Raider: Reborn
The most interesting was Remi’s camera talk. Camera angle, follow, zoom, focus and movement play a huge role in setting the tone of a scene. This article “Storyboarding the Simpsons Way ” does a great job of covering these Hollywood tricks, but specifically for the story boarder. Great read.
Casual Connect 2013
A picture Gallery from Casual Connect 2013 San Francisco!
Be forewarned: I never take enough pictures. This post is very boring. ENJOY!
