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JikGuard
Disney Magic Kingdoms - Game Design Analysis
I wrote this from a design perspective and hope anyone can enjoy it. I start off outlining the mechanics and how the game functions, later I get into the game’s economy balancing and how the designers promoted engagement.
July 25, 2016
JikGuard
Writing Romance in (non-Romance) Games: Linear Romances
Romance subplots are tough to write even in traditional media. What special challenges do writers face bringing them into the interactive sphere? In this post, we look specifically at romances in non-branching games and how best to deploy them.
July 25, 2016
JikGuard
Simple statistics for randomly positioning gameplay elements
How to randomly position gameplay elements in a way that they make sense being influenced by external factors? With some simple statistics I will position the doors in my dungeons. The same can also be applied with monsters, looting, luck, dynamic events.
July 25, 2016
JikGuard
Can Pokemon GO Monetise?
While there is no doubt about the success of Pokemon GO in terms of installs and retention, how is the business model going to perform? Monetisation expert blogger Ramin Shokrizade goes under the hood (and does a lot of walking!) to find out.
July 25, 2016
JikGuard
Unexpected anxiety following a moderate success
When the success you experience doesn't provide you the freedom you were hoping for.
July 25, 2016
JikGuard
The Wish Fulfilment Idée Fixe
The idea of "wish fulfilment" frequently arises in game design, but what does it mean? where did the idea come from?
July 25, 2016
JikGuard
Despite radical success, Pokemon Go won't affect Nintendo's bottom line
Nintendo clarifies that its ownership stake in The Pokemon Company won't be drastically rewriting its financial bottom line.
July 22, 2016
JikGuard
Come to GDC Europe and learn how to make the industry more diverse
In a GDC Europe session titled simply "Who Needs Diversity? Everybody!" developers, journalists and academics will discuss how to make the industry a more diverse, welcoming place.
July 22, 2016
JikGuard
Heroes of the Storm player arrested for death threats against Blizzard
28-year-old Stephen Cebula was arrested last week after sending threatening messages to Blizzard Entertainment and players of its games, most notably Heroes of the Storm.
July 22, 2016
JikGuard
Trials dev tries something new: Ace the demo, get the game for free
Ubisoft and RedLynx are trying something interesting by (for a limited time) giving free copies of Trials of the Blood Dragon away for free to players who can beat the demo with 15 or fewer faults.
July 22, 2016
JikGuard
The Vanishing of Milliseconds: Optimizing the UE4 renderer for Ethan Carter VR
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, with its rich visuals and a graphics workload somewhat uncommon for Unreal Engine 4, has been a difficult case for attaining VR perf targets. This is a story of scraping off frame render time, microsecond by microsecond.
July 22, 2016
JikGuard
Assassin's Creed: Revelations and the Importance of Cutting Features
Let's examine how cutting features from a game can help make a better experience.
July 22, 2016