game-design.md

Game Design

• "But How Do I Actually Start?" Making Games on Your Own as an Engineer

  • Design -> Development tips

• Game design is simple, actually 2025

  • Great breakdown of the high level mechanics of any game
  • Feedback, complexity, progression

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/06/22/deus-ex-at-20-the-oral-history-of-a-pivotal-pc-game/

flappy birds

Sequelitis - Mega Man Classic vs. Mega Man X The Making of Lemmings

Thief vs. AAA Gaming Warning - motion sickness

Game Design Curriculum Riot Games

• What Games Are Like For Someone Who Doesn't Play Games
  • Gamers know a lot of patterns that enable them to engage with games
  • Analysis of observations of a non gamer
  • Games are frustrating and not as cool as people think they are
  • Messaging is sometimes not clear

X-Com: Enemy Unknown The story

• 700,000 lines of code, 20 years, and one developer: How Dwarf Fortress is built

Turn based Survival Where Time Stood Still Neo Scavenger

• soldat.pl

  • One of the most addictive and fast-paced online multiplayer experiences ever created.

  • Free, Open Source, Multiplatform
  • github.com/Soldat/

• Factorio

  • The game has fascinated people with a model of capitalism and programming
  • Functorio - Bartosz Milewski's Programming Cafe 2021
    • Factorio IS [functional] programming
  • The Antagonism of Human and Nature in Factorio

    • If the game had explored how these organisms live and survive, coexistence would be possible. Both species could interact, exchange and support each other.

• The UX of video game tutorials - What decisions a designer will run into while designing learning experiences.

  • [ux]

• A Bestiary of Functions for Systems Designers

  • Mathematical functions for game systems

• Will Wright on Designing User Interfaces to Simulation Games (1996) (2017 Video Update)

  • Dive into the interface of SimCity though to The Sims.
  • Game design, simulation, fun, education
  • [UI]

• How To Make Good Small Games

  • Two paths:
    1. bang your head against an engine for 5+ years until you're able to make your dream game.
    2. change your perspective

  • Scope small, and try your best with the resources you have access to. Enjoy the process. Make little things you're proud of. That should be enough.