Local Internet-lands have recently been abuzz with stories of a game called Legends of Echo. It’s a bit of good ol’ South African produce which uses the local Grid network to create a mobile, location-based MMO. The “mobile” bit means that it can be played on a cellphone (though models seem limited to Nokia and [...]

Although it may be little more than a myth to some, the lesser spotted ludus modus singulus — also known as the “single switch game” in day-to-day discourse — is a very real and fairly common kind of game. It operates on just one rule: input must be limited to a single keystroke. No arrow [...]

Arguably one of the most difficult skills that a game designer can learn is the ability to duly cut something from a game. This isn’t simply about minimalism, or dropping features due to time constraints: no, this is all about hunting down and removing a piece of your own hard work from a project because [...]

Anyone who has ever tried to make a game (or write a book / draw a comic series / insert long-term creative project here) is probably aware of just how gosh-darn difficult it is to keep going at it. Sure, that initial burst of creativity can fuel a working spree of a few hours, days, [...]

People tend to roll their eyes at the idea of making design documents for small-scale game projects. Fair enough: screwing around for a few hours to make a generic platformer doesn’t require the care, precision and co-ordination of, say, an Army of Two co-op snipe — it tends to be a more casual exercise with [...]

Over the years, I’ve often expressed my deep and profound respect for the casual gaming industry: a branch of game development that is so often vilified because it supposedly appeals to stupid and unappreciative gamers. Aside from numerous write-ups in places like Dev.Mag, I also tend to explain my stance when chatting to friends and [...]

There have been a lot of things attributed to game development, but normality probably isn’t one of them. In fact, it’s been scientifically proven that the concepts of “regular” and “game developer” are mutually exclusive, and even addressing someone as “a normal game developer” brings the entire universe that much closer to a divide-by-zero implosion. [...]

Sometimes a game relies on the element of surprise to keep players on their toes and generate tense or action-filled moments. Horror titles do this a lot — sometimes a monster will leap out of the closet, or your in-game avatar will be shocked to find that dinner is actually a bowl of cabbage soup [...]

People who know me well enough are usually aware of my obsession with a Rogue-like game called Crawl. It’s said to be one of the most fiendishly difficult offerings from an already fiendishly difficult genre (victory is a mixed bag of “holy crap, I’ve finally won!” and “holy crap, what have I just wasted years [...]

The annual Independent Games Festival has featured on these pages before, lauded as one of the biggest events on the average indie developer’s calendar. From a pool of more than 300 entrants, a new batch of indie game finalists for the 2010 event has already been selected, dusted off, and presented to us while we [...]

There are many game development styles out there. Some people prefer building game worlds, some focus on rules and systems, and others prefer starting out with player/verb frameworks. These categories are nebulous at best, and even attempting to define them warrants an article of its own, but most people agree on the existence of at [...]

As an aspiring game developer, you may envision yourself one day taking a course, obtaining a qualification, and slotting yourself into Gigantic Megacorps to make awesome games forever with a team of six million people. But have you ever given serious thought to how you’re going to work with them? The size and scope of [...]

We’ve mentioned the Experimental Gameplay Project on NAG before, namely for its focus on rapid game development. With a mandatory “one week only” rule for game creation, this project gives developers from all over the chance to explore and ever-so-slightly flesh out a lot of really cool game concepts. The Experimental Gameplay Project (henceforth known [...]

It’s rare to find a game where concepts like space and territory don’t play a pretty gosh-darn important role, but often people get too caught up on rules, enemies, and fun explosions to pay attention to some good ol’ level design. It is by no means something that’s easily mastered, but here are a few [...]

I usually reserve these pages for tools aimed at beginners or game designers who are more interested in results than nice tech. Of course, when you have two astounding game engines leaping at your face and screaming, “I’m free! I’m free!” it’s generally time to sit up and take notice. Prepare to meet the Unreal [...]

Modding is still a bit of a bastard child when it comes to game development. Despite the presence of many incredibly fun and carefully constructed game mods out there, some people still don’t pay it any heed. One can’t really pinpoint who these “some people” are, but they’re, well, around. You know. Watching us and [...]

Traditionally, game development is focused on building up a system, releasing one or two demos for feedback, and eventually coming out with a complete project. In this case, “eventually” usually means months or years down the line. But what if that could be different? What if a developer decides to generate the complete product first, [...]

I used to think that the concept of a simple, straightforward game was rather icky. Things like classic sidescrolling shooters or run-and-jump platformers were, at best, mere paving stones on a path leading to the “good stuff”. Oh, how naïve I was! The truth of the matter is that many good games out there are [...]

Klik & Play is one of those mysterious game creation tools that should, by all rights, be long dead. I was personally introduced to it as a wide-eyed, schoolgoing youth back in a time when accessible game creation was still rare. Countless hours, days, and even weeks were poured into dozens of small projects that [...]