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Game Design Level Design Narrative Design Personal Favorites

The Dawn of The Metal Age: Part 1

So, I guess we’re doing this. Join me as I continue where we left off and play through Thief II: The Metal Age. It’s my favourite of the series, but I’m sure I’ll find something to complain about. The first shot of the intro isn’t quite a match for the last shot of The Dark […]

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Game Design Level Design Narrative Design Personal Favorites

Journey through the Dark Project: Part 4

[]   Journey through The Dark Project: Part 3 “Return to the Cathedral”: “Return to the Haunted Cathedral” is up next, I’m deep into the levels I’ve never played before. All I know about this one is: “Fuck. Fuck! Argh…” Objectives for “Return to the Cathedral” (I keep inserting the word Haunted) seem pretty straightforward… […]

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Game Design Level Design Narrative Design Personal Favorites

Journey through The Dark Project: Part 3

Journey through The Dark Project: Part 2 So… Constantine hired Garrett to steal a sword from Constantine’s own mansion to prove that Garrett was the right person to steal The Eye from the abandoned Hammer Cathedral. Unfortunately, the Keepers sealed the Cathedral after an undead uprising. Now in order to gain access to the Cathedral […]

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Game Design Level Design Narrative Design Personal Favorites

Journey through The Dark Project: Part 2

Journey through The Dark Project: Part 1 I obviously love this series for its level and systems design, yet I think I might actually love the way it handles narrative design even more. It manages to be incredibly rich with such economy; nothing serves only one purpose. Somewhat pretentious, but – film noir influences aside – […]

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Game Design Level Design Narrative Design Personal Favorites

Journey through The Dark Project: Part 1

So, it’s about time I finally did it. Join me as I play Thief: The Dark Project; I’ve never got further than The Sword before. Thanks to the No Spiders mod from Andy Durdin I hope to actually finish it this time. I’ll be playing Thief Gold, I have multiple copies of The Dark Project […]

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Game Design Game Mechanics Narrative Design

Reading Netrunner: Factions.

Note: With this series I’m specifically interested in the way Netrunner expresses fiction through the interactions of its rules. These articles are not intended as analysis of cards in terms of their utility in competitive play. Now we have an understanding of the rules we can explore another elements important to the expression of fiction in Netrunner, […]

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Game Design Personal Favorites

Preying On My Mind.

Playing the PlayStation 4 demo of Prey resulted in me quitting in anger, hurling my controller at the floor, and deleting the demo. Getting around to playing it on the PC, I have reached a point seventeen hours in where I encountered a bug that, though it didn’t prevent my progress, would result in a bunch of […]

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Game Design Game Mechanics

A trip down the Skill Rating rabbit hole.

I really like Overwatch, probably too much for my actual level of skill. I watch professional games, like the recent OGN APEX Season 2, and discuss the character selections and tactics used. I’ve used videos, articles, and podcasts to try and improve my game. I also  just like talking about Overwatch, from its convoluted and occasionally contradictory […]

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Game Design Game Mechanics Narrative Design

Reading Netrunner: Introduction.

Note: With this series I’m specifically interested in the way Netrunner expresses fiction through the interactions of its rules. These articles are not intended as analysis of cards in terms of their utility in competitive play. Netrunner is a two player competitive card game that takes place within the Android universe, a fictional setting created by Fantasy Flight Games […]

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Design By Example Game Design Game Mechanics

Design By Example: Reactive Takedowns in Dishonored 2.

Stealth play exists on the tenuous edge between concealment and conflict. Between avoiding NPCs and actively confronting them. When the player is detected most stealth games shift into a different style of play, one focused on either combat or rapid disengagement. Multiple styles of play with skill sets that don’t overlap cleanly, forced to exist […]