dq2 Steamy Bees -- Defender's Quest 2 Progress: September 2019 Let's talk about angry intelligent bees in Defender's Quest 2 in this month's progress report!
design Wash your game's windows Ever played one of those games where you have no clue what any of the mechanics actually do and you just kind of muddle through? Playing this kind of game is like peering through a dirty, smudged window. What a game like this needs is some Windex.
dq MAKING A VIDEOGAME COVER THAT DOESN'T SUCK We just made a new cover for our game's upcoming console release, and that got us thinking about making covers in general. Ooooooh so shiny! There are many ways to design a videogame cover. Most of them suck. We stumbled across one that didn't. Here it is. Hi, my name's
games Oil It or Spoil It "Juice" is probably a game design term you've heard before. By Agricultural Research Service Public Domain It was first coined in the seminal article How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days: “Juice” was our wet little term for constant and bountiful user feedback. A juicy game
defender's quest Optimizing Tower Defense for FOCUS and THINKING - Defender's Quest The design philosophy for Defender's Quest boils down to two guiding principles that play to the Tower Defense (TD) genre's strengths: Let the player FOCUS Test the player's THINKING Note the verbs. We don't want to TEST the player's focus (ie assault them with strobe lights and dancing kitens and
defender's quest The Quest to Upscale Pixel Art Hey everyone! So, we are currently looking very seriously at a console release for Defender's Quest II. Of course, PC is our top priority, and don't take this as an official statement of specific platform choices or anything just yet, we still have a lot of details to work out.
design On Procedural Death Labyrinths A few weeks ago Tanya X. Short said, "Never Say Roguelike."I usually shy away from vocabulary fights and let smarter people than me hash it out, so I was pleasantly surprised when her argument not only convinced me, but inspired me.Shortly afterwards I posted the following
design Tourette Quest - Media, Magic, and Nostrils! The reaction to my super-dinky "Tourette's Quest" prototype has completely floored me. For those of you just joining us, a few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about a new game project of mine, where I explore what it's like to have Tourette's Syndrome through the lens
design Tourette's Quest Ever since we launched Defender's Quest on Steam, GOG, and other fine stores two weeks ago, I've been doing nothing but support and patches. My brain is about to melt and if I don't carve out some time to do something different every once in a while, I'll explode.So
business Freeloadable content - an alternative to paid DLC Cross-posted on gamasutra.comA lot of developers/publishers sell expansion packs and other discrete add-ons to their games as "downloadable content," or "paid DLC." This model has problems, for both players and developers. The problems for players have been covered exhaustively, so let's leave that aside for the
steam The Holy Grail of Digital Distribution Cross-posted on Gamasutra. Twitter handle: @larsiusprimeThe challenge of being an independent developer is that so much of your game's success is out of your control. There's no Department of Internet Money where you can present your neatly wrapped Cool New Thing and be justly rewarded with crisp thousand-dollar bills.
business Pay What You Want and the Four Currencies Cross-posted on gamasutraToday I'd like to apply my "four currencies" model to the "pay what you want" phenomenon. Like piracy, this is a case where the results we observe don't match what conventional wisdom says should happen, and I use my "four currencies" theory to explain the discrepancy.
business Piracy and the four currencies, part 2 Cross-posted on gamasutra.My previous article, piracy and the four currencies seems to have caused a bit of a stir, so I'm going to make this a series. Welcome to part two!For those of you just joining the conversation, go read the original article. Don't worry, it's pretty short
defender's quest Defender's Quest Deployment Strategy We just launched our new game, Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten, for PC/Mac/Linux, a few days ago, and have been pretty surprised at our initial success. Only time will tell if that trend continues, but for now we've seen both brisk sales and some great critical reviews.
defender's quest A Status Effect Stacking Algorithm (Cross-posted on my Gamasutra blog, which usually gets more comments)Status effects are a cool way to add strategic depth to both Tower Defense games and RPG's, and since our upcoming title Defender's Quest is a hybrid of both, it's chock full of 'em, and unlike some RPG's,
design Designing an Anti-Incest Algorithm (Cross-posted on gamasutra.com)Once upon a time I was designing a game called Trondheim. In Trondheim, you would guide a small group of nomadic fairy-folk, the "Tronds," through a great and harrowing migration towards the mythical promised land called "Trondheim" (Norwegian for "Home of
defender's quest RPG's, challenge, and grinding. Cross-posted on gamasutra.As part of an ongoing series on our upcoming tactical RPG Defender's Quest, I'd like to talk about RPG's, challenge, and "grinding." Let's start with accessibility.AccessibilityAccessibility is about expanding your game's audience by removing barriers.The word "accessibility" immediately brings disabilities to mind,
defender's quest RPG's and Suckage (Cross-posted on gamasutra.com)As part of our ongoing series on our new game Defender's Quest, I'd like to talk about suckage.When you say "This SUCKS!" you're usually not saying "I hate this." There's a little more to it than that.Here's how it usually goes down:You are
defender's quest Upgrades, Equipment, and Skill Trees Cross-posted on gamasutra.As part of my continuing series on the design of our new tactical tower defense / RPG hybrid Defender's Quest, I'm going to talk a little bit about upgrade systems, equipment, and skill trees.Before we get started, let's ask ourselves a simple question: what's the point of
design Don't mess with RPG's Cross-posted on gamasutra.comSo, based on the great responses from the last article over at gamasutra, people care a lot about RPGs. I've always known this, but the response really drove it home for me. The most important lesson I learned is this:We all have our own personal definition
defender's quest Rebooting the RPG Cross-posted on gamasutra.comIn the BeginningMany indie game developers start with RPG’s, and thirteen years ago, I was no exception. With hundreds of hours of classic RPG playing experience and RPG Toolkit 2.0 freshly installed on my Compaq Presario, I sat down to create my answer to
