Heavy Rain
It’s been a while over here – not that I wouldn’t have stuff to post, but been busy otherwise. Family’s expanding and all that :-)
So I got to borrow a PS3 from a friend and with it got Heavy Rain (my primary inspiration for borrowing the console) and Uncharted 2. Heavy Rain was something that made me heavily consider purchasing PS3, but the fact that multiple game platforms increase the amount of good games available which increases the amount of unfinished games in the shelf.
So in the end, I decided I wouldn’t buy the console since there’s enough for me in the XBox360 and I would just miss out on Heavy Rain if needed. Luckily, thanks to my friend, I didn’t need to.
Space Hulk 20th Anniversary Edition
This is not really a review, but more of a remembrance.
I think any proper gamer has certain classics in mind in terms of what games have stuck with them from childhood. Something that really defined a particular period of childhood and influenced drawings, writings and so on. For some, it’s the Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Ice Climber (the favorite NES game of a certain old Finnish president) or Halo. Then there’s the guys who spent countless days and nights with roleplaying games or old, incomprehensible Avalon Hill strategy boardgames. For me, it was something different…
Race for the Galaxy
Invisible Elegancy
Race for the Galaxy is another card game of recent times that has really struck a chord. Already sporting two expansions, it has been playtested and experimented on to death and even the expansions were ready before RftG was even published. It is a game of subtle elegance, which looks like a solitaire game with multiple people for the new players, but once it opens up the subtle and often important interactive elements pop up.
I didn’t like it at first, but it has grown on me, just like any other good boardgame.
Dominion – game for old MTG’ers
If you haven’t played this gem yet, go do it now. For those that require some extra convincing, here’s some. Dominion is a game of reverse deck building and making your deck eventually to be the lean, mean machine that starts getting those points before the game ends.
I got this for christmas present last year and even though it took a few games to get the gears rolling, I’m nowadays absolutely in love with the game.
It shares many qualities with MTG, most importantly the deckbuilding that you actually do on the fly and also hand-management and combos that you can hopefully generate. It’s about having a deck where each draw should be useful. Add in to the mix the fact that each game is different (since a different mix of action cards is always chosen) and it gives you plenty of playability.
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California Gold Rush
Here at Digital Chocolate, we recently released California Gold Rush for both iPhone (get it from AppStore) and Mobile and here’s some design insights into the development of the game that has already garnered some critical reviews.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
I’ve been having loads of fun with the latest Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. I’m not the most feverish fan of platformers and partly I think they’ve gone the wrong way ever since the first Jak & Daxter.
The Job #3: Crunches, Scheduling
Developing games isn’t an exact science. It requires pain and iteration to make a good game and very rarely it’s a slam dunk from the beginning. Especially with new IP, the growing pains can be immense, but should be expected.
Here’s a brief article about the bane of professional game development and some ideas that can start bringing in the remedy.
Burnout Paradise – Ultimate Box
Originally, I didn’t really pay much attention to Burnout Paradise. I tried the demo briefly and left it at that. During that time of absence, Criterion added all kinds of content to the game, making it better and when the Ultimate Box came out at a nice price, there was no reason for me not to jump in.
Team Leadership in the Game Industry
The one and currently only book about team leadership in the game industry, all the other books of the same vein will follow what Seth Spaulding did first. So how is it?
Seth definitely has the credentials to write a book about leadership. His credits date back to 1995 and he’s worked his share of Command & Conquer, Mechwarrior, Civilization etc. to name a few. Currently an Art Director at Firaxis, Seth visited Finland couple of years ago and I briefly met the guy while working at Bugbear. Unexpectedly, part of his experiences with finnish game studios has been recorded in the book, in a positive light.
MMO and Mobile Game Design
Hi there!
My name is Rafael Kuhnen and I will be collaborating with Reko on this new blog. On this post I will be talking about my experience in changing from the a more hardcore MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) Industry to the more casual Mobile Industry. Please keep in mind that all of this is a real wrapped up, over-simplified summary of my experiences. The Job is a lot more complicated then this. :)
The Beginning
As I started to work professionally as a game designer, I had to first put behind all the knowledge I previously had about being a game designer. I knew what a game designer was suppose to do, but hardly had a clue on how everything was suppose to be done. It was a harsh learning period.