If you liked 2010’s excellent, emotional action RPG Bastion, then listen to Amir Rao—co-founder of dev studio Supergiant Games—talk about the art of level design on the Critical Path Project.
An Incredibly In-Depth Look At The Making Of Skyrim
Skyrim was a ridiculously large game, and so it makes sense that a comprehensive look at how developer Bethesda built it would be equally large. And lo, it is—this massive breakdown posted by Bethesda senior designer Joel Burgess goes deeper than the deepest crypt and farther afield than the farthest… field.
The Girl Scouts Might Be Getting A Gaming Badge As Well
Only a month after the Boy Scouts brought in a badge for "Games Design"
How Disneyland Helps Make Better Video Games
Video games and theme parks have quite a bit in common—they're both engineered areas that encourage people to explore, even while controlling the overall experience.
The Ten Commandments Of Video Game Menus: Sinners And Saints
For lo, we did climb to the top of Video Game Mountain. We spoke with the burning GameCube, and we did return with The Ten Commandments of Video Game Menus
The Ten Commandments Of Video Game Menus
A good video game menu is like a good roadie: It stays out of the way. But still, far too many menus waste far too much of our time. People want to play games, not mess around in menus!
Help Fund This Documentary Series about Video Game Design and You’ll…
Most crowdfunding projects for video games work one way: you front some cash and get a game that someone else makes. Sure, you get warm fuzzies from helping achieve their dream and you might get a shout-out in the credits but it doesn't get you closer to bringing your own game idea to life if that's something you want …
What Makes Video Game Combat Feel So Good
The first time you dove into a gang of thugs in Batman: Arkham Asylum or lobbed a few grenades then switched to a Needler against the Covenant in Halo: Combat Evolved, you knew. You knew that something about the fighting mechanics of the game felt so good that you were hooked. But what exactly was the secret formula…
Why Video Game Characters Say Such Ridiculous Things
If you've played a video game, you've probably heard a bark. And not just in Nintendogs—I'm talking about an "enemy bark," which is the term for the adaptive lines of chatter that enemy characters utter throughout the game.
Two Ways to Make Horror Games Better? More Build-Up, Less Combat
If you ask Frictional Games' developers, horror games haven't evolved much since the genre's late 1990s/early 2000s heyday where Silent Hill and Fatal Frame showed off just how scary a video game experience could be. Sure, titles like Dead Space and Frictional's own Amnesia capture new glory for the horror category…
