Archive for the ‘ Systems Design ’ Category
Zynga has been long know for being run by spreadsheet people and not game people (see video “Monetizing like Zynga“). It seems now that in addition to spreadsheets, they are masters of cognitive biases. A new paper by Juho Hamari details who social games have taken Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking, Fast and Slow and implemented [ READ MORE ]
Zynga has finally hit the big time, if you define big time as a perfectly timed IPO. For a company that was founded only in 2007 on by copying a poker site, they have come a long way. Or have they? When Mark Pincus started the company in 2007, he took a big gamble by [ READ MORE ]
Riftforge is finally open for a limited public playtest. You can start playing immediately by entering this secret passcode – SOFIA. eu.riftforge.com Playtest objectives Riftforge playtest objectives are two and we expect your feedback on both: Collect balancing data on the RPG classes Improve the interface and overall interaction with the game Playtest feature list [ READ MORE ]
As a big fan of tactical RPGs, I often browse GOG for old games that have stood the test of time. I have re-played Icewind Dale a few times through the years but I wanted something a bit different, yet D&D. So I reviewed the comments and found that at with the Christmas promotion, you [ READ MORE ]
Another Blizzcon post, this time dealing with WoW’s new talent system. Or rather, lack of talent system: Today’s Blizzcon announced many exciting things, including the removal of one of vanilla WoW’s crown jewels, the talent tree system. Completely gone. You now pick a “spec” and then get to pick one talent every 15 levels. No [ READ MORE ]
Google+ Board games could be pretty near, according to Bat in the Attic. So what kind of features do we need in order to play a roleplaying game like AD&D online? My list would be: Party Character sheets Dice rolling Battle maps Campaign map NPC interactions (portraits, descriptions) Dungeon Master tools Whiteboard/blackboard for free drawing [ READ MORE ]
Winning Civilization 5 on Deity difficulty is a serious test for one’s sanity. It’s not a strategy game, it becomes a fantasy RPG, where you play the kid that rolled 7′s and 8′s for all his attributes: weak, stupid, and poor. In my latest game, Persia has conquered all three nations but me (still friends) [ READ MORE ]
I recently complained that Facebook web games are too expensive. A tractor was going for $25 but it seems that even Zynga decided that’s too much. In their new game, you can get an F-35 Lightning for a real bargain price – $10. Of course, tractors are a lot more useful as they cut your [ READ MORE ]
Despite what “academic” game designers say, rock-paper-scissors is a valid approach to balancing classes. When done right, it is highly intuitive (though I never felt that paper beating rock makes sense conceptually). Case in point: we have assassin units in Riftforge. Based on WoW and many other RPGs, people who play assassins expect that: They [ READ MORE ]
This isn’t a post about Tigers, Panthers or Leopards. It’s about classic RPG archetypes – namely the TANK. What trigged it is a recent game I’ve played where I played Rammus and raked in 8 kills, one of the reasons the enemy team surrendered at 20 minutes. Shut down! So what are the characteristics of [ READ MORE ]
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