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Monster AI
The Cesspit. - Home of the fool (on a hill) — I had promised myself I wouldn't waste more of my time writing about game design but today goes like this and I want to stop that itch. Lum on monster AI: This is not an experience people will pay for. Game design, in many ways, is convincing players that they won a struggle against imposing odds. It does not mean actually creating imposing odds. Also, I have seen metrics prove conclusively, time and time and time and time again, that in a game that *does* have monsters with decent AI and that use strategies that require some thought to ...

Imposing Odds
Mobhunter.com — Lum recently made the best quote about game design I’ve heard in a long time: Game design, in many ways, is convincing players that they won a struggle against imposing odds. It does not mean actually creating imposing odds. Scott’s responses to #2 and #5 in particular are spot on. I admit I sometimes build dev rage when browsing some of the more insular, entrenched message boards because they tend to be hangouts for posters who are personally tired of some of ...

Watch Where You're Aiming Those Incentives!
Player Versus Developer — ... is arguing that companies literally cannot afford the dev time to "finish" their games before releasing them. Perhaps he's right, but these incentive design curves are one area that can't wait, especially in the your game's core mechanic - the main feature that's going to hold your subscriber base. ...

Scott Jennings puts a cap on the whole "Fixing MMOs" thing
Massively — ... puts a cap on it all. In this case, Tom Chick pointed out five things that are broken with MMOs (interesting because he doesn't really like MMOs). Scott Jennings responded by saying not all MMOs are WoW. Tim Dean then supported Tom's original statements, offering ten ways to... Scott Jennings puts a cap on the whole "Fixing MMOs" thing originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.   Read | Permalink | Email this |  ...