Game Design is the practice of creating and balancing systems and the mechanics which the player uses to affect those systems. This is not to be used for programming questions about the "design" of features, engines, etc.
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What do you do when you are at an impasse in the design phase?
I own a small web dev shop, and in our down time, I plan on having my guys work on a game (I will be paying them anyway, right?). A few buddies and I started talking about this game, and have been ...
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526 views
Game companies - Involvement of programmers in the design process
This is a question basically to programmers with experience working in game companies.
How common is it that game coders participate in the design process of the game? Both gameplay design, and ...
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507 views
Programmers/Designers: working with artists
Expanding on this question, what information do I need to communicate my artistic goals for a game to a professional artist?
Assuming I'm an indie programmer. and I've found or hired an artist to for ...
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339 views
Usage of standardized syntaxes in gaming: yea or nay?
TL;DR: Using CSS as an element in defining rulesets in Civ-style turn-based strategy games: Madness or just plain old insanity?
Real question:
Designing ruleset parse rules is a pain. Every single ...
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273 views
How to determine an “Assists” statistic
My game is a top-down multiplayer shooter where you control a space pod with 4 different weapons that do varying damage. We have all the usual stats like Kills, Deaths, and Damage Inflicted/Taken, ...
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543 views
Keeping user's attention with tycoon style games
I'm developing a tycoon game, and with most games in the "genre", some in game things just take time. Making money, waiting for things to happen, etc. For mobile gaming (ios, android), how do I keep ...
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358 views
How do I inform the end user about cheat codes?
I have added an interface to input cheats, and of course the backend of this.
Current cheats include:
unlimited health
unlimited time
faster movement
no need to use keys (I have a door/key system)
...
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3answers
711 views
Calculating Experience Points earned after a battle
I'm developing a simple text battle game and having some issues calculating how much XP should be earned after a battle, theres a few factors that i want to consider:
1) Players should of course earn ...
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513 views
Accuracy vs distance formula
Consider a shooter and a target. My question is if there is any realistic approximation of calculating with which probability the shooter hits the target.
Neglecting the weapon and shooter skill, I ...
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432 views
Team brainstorming
I want to ask developers who work in small teams, like 5-6 people, how can brainstorming accomplish as much as possible? What does brainstorming look like on your team ? I ask, because I remember my ...
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478 views
Simultaneous game states
I think I understand the basic idea behind a Finite State Machine-based game loop. But I'm trying to write a little game in which the same object can simultaneously be in multiple, independent states. ...
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381 views
Intellectual rights to game concepts
For a client I might be making a small puzzle game about getting a item out of a puzzle. The concept will strongly resemble this game :
...
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407 views
Balancing upgraded units vs. non-upgraded ones
The essence of this question is basically this: consider a strategy, RTS or a tower defence game, where you have the choice to build a new unit or to upgrade an existing one. The upgraded unit is ...
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What should be contained in a game scene graph?
Would you help me to clarify, please, what what exactly should be contained within a game scene graph? See the following list, please:
Game Actors? (obviously yes, all the objects changing state ...
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267 views
How does one measure and reward social aspects in virtual worlds?
Well this sounds like a pretty vague question but please bear with me.
I know of how Gaiaonline gave gold to people who participated in forum posts.
I'm curious if in theory these could be applied ...
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2answers
633 views
Some theory questions about classic endless arcade games
I had read in the book "A theory of fun for game design" that once the player realizes that he cannot overpower the computer in anyway (or) the AI is unbeatable (badly designed/coded) he will leave ...
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6answers
375 views
Things that make a game more interesting for kids
What makes a game more interesting or fun to play for children ages 8 to 14+?
Does the age of the consumer play an important role in his/her interest in the game?
What can I put in a game to make it ...
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337 views
Discussion about Serious Games : Their lacks and forces
I would like to start a little discussion about serious video games. Do you think serious games DO have their place in today's world ? What kind of serious games do you think the most interesting in ...
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402 views
Collision Detection Game Design and Architecture
I've reading some articles about collision detection. My question here is about ideas on the design for it.
Baically I have a C++ game that has a main loop with entities with an update method. Based ...
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Do you fill all your game data in huge excel tables? Are there any better method?
I really want to know how many game designers prefer to work with a huge table for all items, another table for all skills, and even another table for all mobs in a MMORPG. And these tables may grow ...
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2answers
802 views
Methods for character design
When one begins the character design process, what are good starting points? Are there well known methodologies or systems to help in this process? How does the design process work in game industry, ...
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3answers
227 views
Where can I share and get feedback on my game idea?
I have read that ideas / game designs / unique mechanics are merely multipliers of execution, and that keeping them secret is just silly. But, I haven't found anywhere to share these ideas and receive ...
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2answers
301 views
Game timings and formats
There are more or less standardized TV-show/movie formats and recommended timings:
1.
By the early 1960s, television companies commonly presented half-hour long "comedy" series, or one hour long ...
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197 views
How long to display each sentence?
When creating a sequence where text advances automatically, is there a metric which will allow me to calculate a reasonable duration to display each "sentence"?
My intuition tells me that because of ...
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747 views
Level Implementation
I recently started to create a sidescroller game, for learning purposes. While creating several levels for it, i stumbled upon the question, how to implement these levels into my game. I made (and i ...
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3answers
364 views
Game designer in need of career advice
I've been working in game industry as a game designer (and lately as a producer) for 5 years, with over 20 projects under the belt. However, all of the games that I've worked on we're free2play online ...
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816 views
what should the size of a flash game in Facebook be
I'm developing a flash game and i want to put it in Facebook
,My question is the Proper maximum size for it.
500 KB
1 MB ??
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2answers
1k views
I have to make a game in 9 days. AHHH!
If you just want to get to the question and skip the background, go to the next paragraph if not, keep reading. O.k., so, I'm 13 and I make games in my spare time. They've never really been shared ...
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5answers
465 views
The Thin Red Line. What to present to get interest without showing too much?
I am Dalilean and I am a gamer. There I have said it. Damn, feels like a weight is lifted from my shoulders… They say the first step is to admit the problem. Now the second step is doing something ...
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448 views
What is realism?
Beyond the obvious something that seams real, realism in games is a hard feature to hit.
In some cases, things that are completely impossible in real life are seen as realistic by gamers. For ...
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693 views
In FPS's what is the primary reason for unused ammo in a removed magazine returning to the ammo pool?
All FPS's I know of return unused ammo in a removed magazine back to the users overall ammo count.
For example, I have 3 magazines with 30 rounds in each, I fire off 25 rounds and do a magazine ...
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4answers
438 views
Set Checkpoints vs. Player Saves
I'm making a top-down action / horror game, and I'm in the process of adding a "save game" feature. However, I'm torn between having automatic checkpoints throughout the level and letting the user ...
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408 views
In a casual top-down racing game, should collisions affect the car's engine? [closed]
Is there a way to deter players from colliding with obstacles in a top-down casual racer which keeping the game fun and lighthearted and yet make player's skill matter?
Should collisions affect car ...
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Per-Frame Function Calls versus Event Driven Messaging in Game Design
The traditional game design, as I know it, uses polymorphism and virtual functions to update game objects states. In other words, the same set of virtual functions are called in regular(ex: per-frame) ...
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Do we need tutorials?
Children learn through play, which by it's core nature is subversive. In digital games we can enforce and feedback any arbitrary rules and do not require "conceptual rules" like don't step outside the ...
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419 views
Ideas for attack damage algorithm (language irrelevant)
I am working on a game and I need ideas for the damage that will be done to the enemy when your player attacks. The total amount of health that the enemy has is called enemyHealth, and has a value of ...
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564 views
Developing interesting game mechanics when not an avid gamer
I've realized that though I like playing videogames, I find it much more entertaining to actually make them. This makes me wonder, if I'm planning to develop an [X]* game, do I need to be an avid [X] ...
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Is story more important or the gameplay more important?
Read this Slate article. In particular, the following struck me:
When he looks at video games from a critical distance, Bissell is concerned mainly with their lack of narrative meaning. Games ask ...
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How can I put Google Ads in a flash game?
What I want to do is put Google Ads in my flash game.
The first question is how can I do that?
The second question is the best place to put it; while loading, after finishing the game?
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308 views
What is the line between a serious game and an application with points?
Gamification has become a buzz word lately and is being applied to everything from applications to meetings. In many cases it is being done as an afterthought and sort of game-washing.
What are the ...
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721 views
Simplest most effective way to rank and measure player skill in a multi-player environment?
I know of the Truskill algorithm, it's quite complex but effective.
My question is there other algorithms/methods to determine a players skill for accurate measuring for multi-player competitive ...
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Really simple video games, how to design games for the non-gamer market?
With the boom of mobile and social games reaching more and more people and new technologies like the wii, kinect and geolocation hardware and gadgets appealing to a bigger market than the hardcore ...
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2answers
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OpenGL ES 2.0: Using VBOs?
OpenGL VBOs (vertex buffer objects) have been developed to improve performance of OpenGL (OpenGL ES 2.0 in my case). The logic is that with the help of VBOs, the data does not need to be copied from ...
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793 views
Applications programmer - Where to start?
So far I've done web design/development and applications programming and of course video games has always been one of those things that I've wanted to take a stab at but never tried outside of a few ...
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3answers
196 views
Game Characters vs Characters in other medias
How do a characters designed for a game differ from characters made for books or movies? When a book or a movie is converted into a game, what are the differences and similarities that have to be ...
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3answers
117 views
What's a good alternative to colored tiles to account for color blindness?
I have a game with tiles. Each tile is a number, and each number is one of six colors. The color is important to the game play, and I want to make the game available to those who are color blind.
...
6
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3answers
516 views
Most Efficient way to read a Settings Configuration File
I have been working on a game for quite a while, and I am using Ogre3D for the rendering engine. It is getting to the point I need to move adjustable settings to a configuration file such as video ...
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582 views
What is the best way to render a 2d game map?
I know efficiency is key in game programming and I've had some experiences with rendering a "map" earlier but probably not in the best of ways.
For a 2D TopDown game: (simply render the ...
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2answers
738 views
Where do you search/look for game developers for an indie game startup? [closed]
I just recently saw stackoverflow had a game dev sister site so here I am, wondering if you experienced fellows know where one can search/look for game developers for an indie game startup? In other ...
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What are good, simple action games/action RPGs to emulate?
There is standard advice for game development to start off emulating simple games you know and build up from there. Which makes me wonder. What are good examples of action games or action RPGs that ...
