Telegraphs 2: Post-attack vulnerability
Previous Article | Next Article My post on telegraphing enemy attacks, was about making an enemy telegraph before it attacks to ask the question: "Can you avoid my attack?" This…
Reward Schedules
Carnival games are a great example of reward schedules. Since we've now established the best way to influence player behavior is via rewards, I want to talk about the ways…
Changing Player Behavior
previous article | next article One thing I need to do a lot as a game designer is come up with ways to get players to do what I want them…
Mike’s August 2015 Patreon Q&A
Watch Mike get flustered setting up new gear. He then thinks his fancy new equipment is recording high quality audio, but the awful camera mic was recording awful audio instead.…
Episode 2 – Guest: Ryan Juckett
Theme song: Straw Fields, by RoleMusic In this episode, Mike talks with programmer Ryan Juckett about everything from being a programmer in the games industry to the challenges of creating an indie…
A Morality Tale
This week I'm going to tell the story of how I learned one of the most important things I ever learned about game design: As a designer, it is not my job…
Enemy Attacks and Telegraphing
Intro Like most things when it comes to video game design, I think of enemies in terms of: The Questions the enemy is asking players The Tools I need to…
Trinity 9 – Why I Call it Trinity
Intro This is one in a series of blog posts/articles I’m writing to describe my game design methodology. In the first article, I named the system “Trinity” – but I…
Trinity 8 – Paths
Intro This is the latest in a series of articles I’m writing to describe the way I approach game design. The last installation was on “Ramps” – essentially a tool…
Episode 1 – Guest: Tony Garcia
Theme song: Straw Fields, by RoleMusic In this first episode, Mike talks with programmer Tony Garcia about what it's like to be a programmer in the video game industry, and…