dq2 Distilling Skills -- DQ2 Progress Report for December 2021 Instead of stringing out skill point bonuses, it's way more fun if we concentrate the benefits.
dq2 Stoking Rivalry -- DQ2 Progress Report for November 2021 By merging both parties together, the White Hat leader was at risk of being overshadowed. Let's lean into that for both story and gameplay purposes.
dq2 Taking Hostages -- DQ2 Progress Report for October 2021 We mix things up in four new levels during which the White Hats and Black Hats briefly trade party members
Powering through -- DQ2 Progress Report for September 2021 Everyone's been sick for over a month but somehow I managed to get some work done anyway
dq2 Overcoming "Level Designer's" Block -- DQ2 Progress Report for August 2021 Our north star is making sure that each character's identity is established as solidly and clearly as possible before moving on. The player should instantly be able to grasp, "this is what this character is for."
business Degraded Blockchains The minute you connect your blockchain to an app frontend you now have a degraded blockchain, one that cannot even in principle guarantee immutability, trustlessness, and decentralization – at least not for assets that the app's customers actually care about.
Flow and Feedback -- DQ2 Progress Report for July 2021 This month's progress report is all about feedback, in both senses of the word: 1. Communications we've gotten from our community and playtesters, and 2. the way the game itself communicates pertinent info back to the player.
defenders-quest The Rule of Firsts in Game Testing -- DQ2 Progress Report for June 2021 The first thing you tell a player to do in your game will become the default way they expect to interact with everything, and this pattern repeats fractally through every one of your game's sub-systems
roblox So You Want to Compete with Roblox My inbox is stuffed with pitches from start-ups wanting to compete with Roblox, that plucky Lego-ish multiplayer game-creation platform currently valued at 41 billion dollars. They shouldn't try, but here's how to maybe not fail if they insist anyways.
fnf The Future of Games is an Instant Flash to the past The success of an open source browser game called Friday Night Funkin tells us where "instant games" might go. Hint: we've been here before.
dq2 Elements and Leeches: DQ2 progress report for May 2021 The presence of a leech in a battle gives the player a choice: 1) Dedicate defender(s) to killing the leech, taking them off the front lines? 2) Focus on the battle lanes and let the leech steal half your juice?
dq2 Balancing Defender's Quest 2's "minion" classes We just added 8 new characters to Defender's Quest 2. How do we keep all this stuff balanced?
defender's quest Parade of Parasites: DQ2 progress report for March 2021 Howdy Defender's Quest fans! Today we have a progress report and a new build up on Steam for Windows/Linux. As we covered in March of the Machines, each of the two parties
gamedatacrunch We don't actually know when many Steam games were first released One of the most unreliable fields on a Steam's store page is the release date field.
dq Tanking Texas Temperatures: DQ2 progress report for February 2021 It got really cold and scary in Texas for a bit but somehow I actually got a few things done!
defender's quest March of the Machines: DQ2 progress report for December 2020 + January 2021 In the December/January progress report we talk about three new "machine minion" characters that help fill out the party.
defenders-quest Defender's Quest 2 Progress Report for November 2020 This month we talk all about level design!
dq2 Reflecting and recharging - October 2020 This past October I did something I haven't done in over 6 years – took a vacation with my family. After I got back I took some time to reorganize some things in my life, and a plan for DQ2's continued development.
dq2 Collecting Details: Defender's Quest 2 Progress for September 2020 September's progress report includes changes to item design, status effect display, defender placement, and lots of other details.
gamedatacrunch GameDataCrunch: my facts-first game metrics website I'm working on a new website called GameDataCrunch.com, a new way to understand the game industry by looking at metrics and slicing them up in a bunch of different ways.
dq2 Defender's Quest 2 Progress for August 2020: Electric Four Square Once again emphasizing visual communication: - Energy shields - Show buff zones more clearly - Ultimate is now a 2x2 sized unit
defenders-quest Fun vs. Balance: Defender's Quest 2 Progress for July 2020 In previous months we've talked about how we ensure that DQ2 is balanced.Today we're going to talk about how we ensure that DQ2 is fun.
news Independent once more: Defender's Quest 2 Progress for June 2020 Notes on ending my contract with Valve, and a progress update for June
nintendo The Evolution of Game Genres: NES, Gameboy, and SNES Ever wonder where game genres came from? Let's look at how Nintendo's usage of them evolved over time.
dq2 Back in the Saddle: Defender's Quest 2 / my life progress report for May 2020 Time for an extremely overdue update on everything going on with Defender's Quest 2 development and my life in general.
