As part of my job, I do a lot of testing and “quality control” for the games or products that we make at CMM. Our general audience, at least for the projects I’ve been on so far, are for little tykes–mainly preschoolers or “pre-readers” as we distinguish them. There are some little quirks to making … Continue reading »
Feb
27
Aug
24
A Game By Any Other Name
Before the thirteenth iteration of the venerable FINAL FANTASY series was released stateside, I’d heard some murmurings from the internet that the Japanese populace were a tad displeased with the title. I just recently finished and will have to say I really enjoyed it (A- grade, I think). I will give the upset people this: … Continue reading »
Apr
04
Pokémon: The Real World Social Game?
More than 10 years ago, Nintendo created a new phenomenon focused around the idea of kids using monsters to do battle: Pokémon (or Pocket Monsters as it was called in Japan). Aside from being a different kind of RPG and a brilliant marketing scheme, Pokémon as a brand, I have found, is a social game. … Continue reading »
Mar
24
Design Trend: The “Anymore” Clause
Games have obviously evolved over the years, generations, decades, and, naturally, this has required that game design evolve along with the games. The consumers are a different breed now than they were 10 years ago and the technology that developers have at their disposal is increasingly different now as well. So, this begins the question, … Continue reading »
Feb
21
Innovating Spawning Systems
It’s a necessary and standard mechanic. When an actor needs to be placed into an environment, the actor has to be spawned there. When I player dies, his character has to be respawned somewhere, typically a set location, a check point, a save spot, or a safe zone. You don’t want to die so that … Continue reading »