Jamie Griesemer: “Design in Detail: Changing the Time Between Shots for the Sniper Rifle from 0.5 to 0.7 Seconds for Halo 3”

Reflection on a talk by Jaime Griesemer: “Design in Detail: Changing the Time Between Shots for the Sniper Rifle from 0.5 to 0.7 Seconds for Halo 3.”

The Little Things

I was recently introduced to some interesting studies, looking at features I’d never noticed in a couple of games that I know very well. These are features that are essential to the feel of these games. Does anyone know of other clever game features that you don’t usually notice?

Anthony Burch: “Rev Rant: Snakes, Plants, and Difficulty”

Reflection on an article by Anthony Burch: “Rev Rant: Snakes, Plants, and Difficulty.”

Raph Koster: “Do auction houses suck?”

Reflection on a blog post by Raph Koster: “Do auction houses suck?”

Pascal Luban: “Designing and Integrating Puzzles”

Reflection on an article by Pascal Luban: “Designing and Integrating Puzzles”

Raph Koster: “Narrative is not a game mechanic”

Reflection on an article by Raph Koster: “Narrative is not a game mechanic”

Dave Grossman: “A Journey Across the Main Stream: Games for My Mother-in-Law”

Reflection on an article by Dave Grossman: “A Journey Across the Main Stream: Games for My Mother-in-Law”

Richard Garfield: “The Design Evolution of Magic: The Gathering”

Reflection on an article by Richard Garfield: “The Design Evolution of Magic: The Gathering”

My First GM Experience

Yesterday, I ran my first tabletop RPG.

My only previous experience with tabletop storygames was one abstract GM-less game (like Polaris) that was fun, but nontraditional. Now in my game design class I’ve been assigned to create and run an adventure module using light, D&Dish rules. The goal is to tell a strong interactive story with a good interest curve. Remember, I’ve never played D&D before, much less run it.

I’d say the session was a surprising success!

I’ll upload my full postmortem when it’s complete. For now I’ll summarize by saying that things started slow but picked up well, and the best moments were when the players surprised me with their ingenuity. At one point they devised a plot worthy of any TV show that I hadn’t planned for at all. Thanks to Dave, Kai and Jimmy for playing!

Greg Costikyan: “Randomness: Blight or Bane?”

Reflection on an article by Greg Costikyan: “Randomness: Blight or Bane?”