Game Developer’s Post

💡 Did you know that the concept of procedural generation, which is widely used in game development today, was pioneered by the game "Rogue" in the early 1980s? This technique involves the creation of data algorithmically rather than manually, allowing for the generation of large and complex game worlds with minimal pre-designed assets. "Rogue" utilized procedural generation to create unique dungeon layouts each time a player started a new game, significantly enhancing replayability. This methodology has since been adopted and expanded upon in many other games, such as "Minecraft" and "No Man's Sky," which use it to generate vast, explorable universes. The adoption of procedural generation has revolutionized game design, allowing developers to create more expansive and diverse gaming experiences without the need for extensive manual asset creation.

This week's article on Design and Games is out! ✨ Last week we talked briefly about at least 3 of the 5 elements that fairly explain how our brain works to store new information. These 3 were perception, memory and attention. Now we’ll explore motivation and emotion. But first, let’s recall a few things about attention: unless a task has our undivided attention, it is quite hard to process information and learn efficiently from it. Imagine you’re talking to someone and at the same time you just got a message on your phone and you’re trying to read it while still listening to the other person. That can be challenging. And depending on which one of these is the most important to you at that given moment, you might be more or less motivated to pick and choose one over the other to be granted a relevant percentage of your attention. On that, Hodent (2020) tells us about two types of motivation: the extrinsic one and the intrinsic one. The extrinsic motivation relies on what’s called the operant conditioning (the behavior is influenced by... _______________________________________________________________________________________ To read the full article, please access the link :) #games #gaming #design #uxuigames #brain #UXUIforgames #uxdesign #userinterfacedesign #UXR #userresearch #uxdesign #userexperienceresearch #uxresearch

Today's discussion delves into Game Design Theory, specifically focusing on Loot Drop Algorithms. These algorithms play a crucial role in determining rewards for players, aiming to create a balanced and engaging experience that encourages players to explore the game world. By calculating item probabilities, developers can increase player excitement and involvement. For example, in role-playing games, Loot Drop Algorithms influence the chances of discovering rare items after defeating enemies, adding a mix of strategy and luck to the gameplay. Well-crafted algorithms have a significant impact on player satisfaction and retention rates, as fair rewards motivate players to invest more time and effort into the game. Understanding and implementing Loot Drop Algorithms are fundamental in crafting captivating gameplay experiences.

𝗜𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿, 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 Recently two high-profile games that heavily marketed themselves “next-gen”, Cities: Skylines II and Lords of the Fallen, landed in a bad shape on PC. Deep dives into performance issues suggest while sloppiness indeed played a part, the devs were far from being technically inept. In Cities: Skylines II case, they opted to use Unity’s DOTS (a tech based around writing highly parallelized/optimized gameplay code to make the most of your CPU) and were faced with writing a custom rendering pipeline from scratch. "𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘜𝘌5 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘛𝘚 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦?" "𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 new 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺'𝘴 𝘋𝘖𝘛𝘚?" Well, this is why. I opine: 1. Don’t over-hype your games. Most folks don’t give a damn if your game is quote-unquote “next-gen”, as long as it plays good and runs well. 2. Don't give in to the hype. Newer tech may indeed offer fancier stuff, but there’s a buttload of issues you have to deal with - speaking as someone who still has PTSD from working on such a project. 3. Don’t flip the coin on crucial projects. Buy into newer/untested tech only if you can afford to fail or are fully prepared to deal with unforeseen challenges for longer-term benefits.

Explore the captivating world of 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 and uncover the secrets behind crafting compelling and memorable characters that breathe life into 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬. Discover this article to know more. https://lnkd.in/dt7vTBQ6 #2dcharacter #2dcharacterdesign #3dcharacter #3dcharacterdesign #gamecharacter #gamecharacterdesign #characterdesign #characterdesigning #technology #design #gamedesign #gamecharacter #characterdesigns #technologythesedays Dev.to

Procedural vs Modular environment in games https://lnkd.in/dYubC_AA

My dashboard design challenge is still ongoing for another week. This design is for a gaming website that I named STARZE. The aim is to design a fun dashboard that will encourage gamers to come back to the site while satisfying user needs. This dashboard design provides the user with a : - friends panel - an achievement and leadership board - a video panel - a side menu Below is the link to my prototype :https://lnkd.in/dqvG4akx #dashboarddesign

Heyyyooo, Yesterday, while playing games on itch.io, one of them inspired me to think about a new game. I wrote down some crucial mechanics, then started prototyping to see how it would go. It took 4 hours to complete. It might not work flawlessly, but it showed me that it can be developed further in terms of game design. Let's talk a bit about the game. We have a ball and a goal point which the ball must never collide with. There are green tiles; you can build new tiles to prevent the sphere from reaching the goal point. That's it. The game should offer more variety to the player since sometimes it can get stuck where the ball is repeating the same movement. We can manipulate the playground by adding new objects to make the sphere collide and change its pattern. That's it for now. I have hope for this game. That is why I've added thinking sessions about this game to my calendar. Let's see what time brings.

Cocoon is a near-perfect puzzle game that everyone should play https://ift.tt/cjUC2Tb A beetle protagonist emerges into a beautiful, lonely world. There’s no preamble, no text overlays; not even a hint of what you’re meant to do next. So, you walk. After finding your way to a small staircase, you descend, and the steps disappear into the ground — a silent cue that you’re on the right path. A few paces further, you discover a purple pad, and as you stand on it, your iridescent wings begin to quiver. Without thinking about it, you press a button on your controller, the pad turns green, and a nearby rock transforms into a new staircase. Progress! After solving a couple of rudimentary puzzles, you’ll encounter an orb — these are the heart (and the body) of this game. You carry them on your beetle back, initially using them as keys to open doors and solve puzzles, before discovering that inside every orb is a new world of puzzles and challenges to overcome. Cocoon is the first game from Geometric Interactive, a studio founded in 2016 by Jeppe Carlsen and Jakob Schmid. Both are alums of Playdead, the Danish studio behind Limbo and Inside, for which Carlsen worked as lead gameplay designer. If you’ve played either of those games, Cocoon’s quietly impressive intro may sound familiar. Both were side-scrolling puzzle-platformers that used their environments and challenges to simultaneously tell a story and guide their players. The story is much the same here, but Cocoon’s structure of layered, interconnected worlds showcases another level of maturity and artistry. The game actually opens inside the orange orb, a gorgeous desert world, and expands out from there. Each world is protected by a guardian, which needs to be defeated in order to fully unlock the orb’s power outside of that world. Unlocking the orange orb, for example, allows you to walk on hidden paths while carrying it. Each orb grants its own powers, and all are critical to progression. Annapurna Interactive The guardians are the game’s “boss fights.” Though there is no traditional combat, each guardian is certainly combative, and there is a degree of skill and timing required to best them. One of the later encounters did actually trip me up a few times, which is as good a time as any to mention that Cocoon has absolutely no fail state. Getting tagged by a guardian doesn’t hurt, they merely throw you outside of their orb — hop back in and you’ll return to the encounter within a couple of seconds. Likewise, you can’t mess a puzzle up to the point that you need to reload. In isolation, the guardians are probably the game’s weakest moments, but they do provide a nice break from the puzzle-solving alongside a bit of visual spectacle. This is broadly a beautiful game to see and hear, full of bright pastel hues and beds of synth pads, and in places it’s surprisingly gross. What starts as a tranquil walk through so...