The Clockwork Game Design Podcast

Today we have another episode with Frank Lantz, game designer, writer, and Director of the NYU Game Center. Today’s show involved two major topics: execution, and my seemingly crazy idea about how single-player should probably be the “default” number of players for a strategy game (something I’m going to be writing an article about soon). … Continue reading "CGD Podcast Episode 24 – Execution and Single-Player Games, with Frank Lantz"

This week I had a great conversation with NYU Game Center director Frank Lantz about randomness and general game design philosophy. We meant to get to three other topics – execution, reading and improvisation, but not all-that-surprisingly, we never got there in the 70+ minutes of this episode. Mentioned in this episode: Frank’s “Against Design” … Continue reading "CGD Podcast Episode 23 – “On Games At the Games”, A Conversation with Frank Lantz"

What does it mean for a game to involve a lot of “mind games”? Can you really make “reads” off of an opponent and predict what he’s going to do? What’s the difference between “reading the opponent” and “a lucky guess”? This episode explores these questions, discussing games like Poker, Street Fighter, Rock Paper Scissors, … Continue reading "CGD Podcast Episode 22: Mind Games and Reading the Opponent"

What does it mean when something is a “classic”? I think there’s actually a huge problem here that needs to be explored. New work is created using new cultural and scientific understandings, and it’s universally better in almost every case. We need to understand and appreciate this fact, and stop glorifying things just because they’re … Continue reading "CGD Podcast Episode 21: The “Classics” Problem"

In this episode – our 20th! –  I talk about the idea of “optional game rules” and why they are to be avoided. I also go into detail on some experiences designing abilities for Auro. Enjoy!  

In this episode I talk about my process of five major stages in game design. I also talk about how game design is not a guaranteed thing. We tend to think of game design in terms of “designing lots of games”, sort of “churning them out”, when in fact, we should be thinking of it … Continue reading "CGD Podcast Episode #19: The Process, and Designing Games Like Applications"

Today I talked about how and why games work best with a 50% winrate (even single player games). That’s because learning in games is extremely hard due to their inherently complex and ambiguous nature. Getting a loss when you had a 10% chance to win doesn’t necessarily tell you much about your choices in that … Continue reading "CGD Podcast Episode 18: Single/Multi-player and 50% Win Rates"

I don’t mean “bar” as in “pub”, I mean it as in like a resource bar. In this episode, I talk about Rogue-like games in detail, why it isn’t really a genre, and what the future of these games are. What can we do with single-player strategy games? Must they all be “managing highly random … Continue reading "CGD Podcast Episode 17: Rogue-likes and Other “Bar Games”"

I had a conversation with the main developers at Black Shell Games – Daniel Doan, Raghav Mathur, and Thomas Espinoza – on the topic of Rogue-likes, a design pattern that has appealed to both of us. In the episode, we cover topics like the relationship between Rogue-likes and gambling, grinding, difficulty, replay value, and other … Continue reading "CGD Podcast Episode 16: A Conversation About Rogue-likes with Black Shell Games"

In this episode, I first discuss a new article on Gamasutra that discusses Zach Gage’s new highly random (and proud of it!) game, Tharsis. For more on my positions on randomness, I would check out this article or this video. In the second half, I talk about a new, more specific definition for “elegance” as … Continue reading "CGD Podcast Episode 15: “Tharsis” Article and Redefining Elegance"

In this episode, I discuss some of my many spectacular game design failures! I tried about 30 times at least to create a simple yet deep 2 player “fighting card game”. Something I didn’t even get into in the podcast was the fact that the “fighting” theme is probably part of the issue. I know … Continue reading "CGD Podcast Episode 14: Failed “Fighting Card Game” Prototypes"

Today’s episode addresses consumerism (or hyperconsumerism) in the world of videogames. Videogames are, for the most part, the most fun they’ll ever be at the moment of purchase, or perhaps while you’re installing the game and leafing through the manual. I talk about “hype” and how being immersed in an atmosphere of advertisements affects our … Continue reading "CGD Podcast Episode 13: Videogame Consumerism"

In this episode, I really talk about three things: I wanted to address some comments I got about last episode and whether I really agreed with much of what Charles Pratt said, as I seemed to to some listeners This idea of “verificationism” Goals – what makes a good goal, and what should we avoid … Continue reading "The Clockwork Game Design Podcast: Episode 12 – Verificationism and Goals"

Today’s episode features an hour-long discussion with game designer at NYU Game Center teacher Charles Pratt. Charles and I met at the Practice conference and had some good discussions, and I think our perspectives live at that rare place where they’re not too different so that we can’t communicate, but they’re also not so similar … Continue reading "The Clockwork Game Design Podcast: Episode 11 – Good Formalism with Charles Pratt"

In today’s (short) episode I talk about design as the most consistent way to create value. I also talk about how yes, it is wonderful that we’re all special snowflakes and we should be expressing our individuality, but the idea that we do that best by creating “one draft” of our work is a myth. … Continue reading "The Clockwork Game Design Podcast: Episode 10 – Design, Improvisation, and Individuality"