Early video games were typically single-player games. Players had a limited number of lives, were attempting to achieve the highest score in an endless string of levels of slowly increasing difficulty. Home console games in this era were usually designed around this approach as well. The video games were tests of skill and reflexes, or…
Many years ago, a then-workmate of mine (are you reading this, Paul? We should have lunch!) put forward the conjecture that virtually any video game could at its essence be distilled down into a single meta-game; a game which he used to call “The Space Bar Game”. And no, it had nothing to do with…
One game design concept which I’ve been thinking about a lot recently is the interaction between gameplay (that is, what a player can do in a game), and the situations he finds himself in. Basic game theory tells us that in a properly designed game, there should not be a single dominant strategy which is…
I recall a print advertisement that I saw for a game, when I was young. It was for a game for the Apple ][ computer, and proclaimed that it was the ultimate game; it had spaceship flying, sidescrolling run and jump, car racing, shooting.. you name it. The ad called it “the game for everyone,”…
So the fine folks over at TIGSource have announced the start of a new competition. This latest one is the “Cockpit Competition”, focusing on games with a cockpit. Deadline is midnight on March 29th (though as there are no real prizes for winners, TIGSource competitions tend to be pretty laid-back about the enforcement of their…