A numerical game design approach for progression and fairness — While playing games, players strive for victory through goals and objectives, which are determined by many factors. Skills, motivation, resources, practice, and, more important, power play a crucial role in this process. The comparison between these elements is an important game design activity to achieve a fair gameplay experience. For…

A game design tool based on in-game morals — There has been an on-going discussion for years on the influence of games on society. One side protests that video games stimulate aggressive behavior and normalize violence (Grossman and DeGaetano, 2014). According to this line of thought, killing (human) beings in a video game should trigger a negative reaction from…

Empowerment, deadlocks, and a small mathematical analysis — A game's economy is an internal system within a game responsible for all the mechanisms related to the game's resources [1]. In the game’s economy, the term resource is very open and comprises concepts from collectible items (such as coins) to the player’s journey itself. In general, a resource is…

How narrative theory can be used to improve game design — Final Fantasy IX is a JRPG released in July of 2000 by Squaresoft. It marks a return to the first Final Fantasy games' medieval style, which had been changed to a more futurist setting in Final Fantasy VII and VIII and then became dominant from Final Fantasy X onwards. Final…

Concept, production, playtesting, and motivation — This piece discusses the main lessons I have learned from my experience joining Game Jams, especially the latest edition of the Global Game Jam (GGJ 2023), as a follow-up to my previous article on how to prepare for it. More specifically, this article discusses points and takeaways on how my…

Basic principles for managing and making games under 48 hours — The Global Game Jam is a game development event that happens every year at the end of January and the beginning of February. Its latest versions were mostly done online due to the pandemic, but the good days of jamming on-site are gladly back. I have participated in the Global…

A 4-Act Story of How Humanity Defeated Artificial Intelligence — 0 — Protocol: Prologue Technology has always been a complex topic. As scientific advances developed in the form of hardware and software, advertisement and education were designed to convince us of their needs. To assure us why our households urge for vacuum cleaners, shampoos, and magnificent octopi-shaped candelabrums. As envisioned by experts and futurologists…