A recent Gamasutra interview with Matt Findley has caused a firestorm of debate to erupt across the internet concerning the continued vitality of turn-based RPGs. Findley is an alum of the now-defunct development studio Black Isle, which produced legitimately brilliant turn-based RPGs like Fallout. So you can understand why an…
The human brain is a categorization machine. Cognition as we know it is made possible only because of this fact. By putting things into categories, we understand that those things share certain exclusive qualities. This is as true with games as it is with anything else. Game genres are categories…
As we usher in the new year, we traditionally look forward and decide how to be better people. As a game designer, I want us all to make better games. Accordingly, I want to address an unfortunate intellectual current I have seen coursing through the indie community as of late.…
It’s hard being an indie game developer. Not because of money pressures, and not because of lack of exposure, though both of these things certainly take their toll. No. I’ll tell you why it’s hard to be an indie: it’s the emotional strain of being continually subjected to the internet…
Writing nonlinear RPG dialog is a challenge. It is no simple matter to provide conversation options that simultaneously feel satisfying, are diverse enough to let the player role play, and which still fit well within the dialog tree itself.
“What are your religious beliefs?” I’ve gotten this question a few times now from a small number of people who’ve played the Telepath RPG: Servants of God demo. Some of them are just curious fans looking for hints as to the direction the game is going. Others have skin in…
Someone please enlighten me: what is with indie game designers who come out with one visually pleasing game, then decide that they are the Lords of Game Design, with the authority to insist that every game must rely on visuals to communicate its underlying message?
As a game designer, sometimes you receive news, and you’re not sure whether it’s good news or bad news. For example, Telepath: Psy Arena 2 has just received its most positive review yet! But it’s posted on a site called HarryBalls.com. Um, yeah. From the review: The care Sinister has…
This topic has been addressed before by other people, but in light of recent news, I figured I’d compile a list that takes certain, ah, new factors into account. So let’s say that you have some disposable income, and that you’re trying to decide whether to spend it on big…
I thought you might like to know that GameDevHub.com has published an interview with me about game development and Telepath RPG: Servants of God in particular. Here’s an excerpt: GDH: When you begin development of a game, what area do you start with? For example, with the Telepath games, had…
