Designing Routine Monsters in Our New Game

A meaningful mechanic in one game can be fluff in another. For example: Dialogue in Mass Effect = meaningful Dialogue in Pokémon = fluff Same essential mechanic. Two completely different levels of impact on the core player experience and gameplay outcomes. So what’s the real difference between meaningful mechanics and fluff mechanics, and how can you tell one from the other? In this video, Alexander analyzes mechanics from well-known classics to niche indie games to share: ▪️His framework for assessing how meaningful a mechanic is ▪️Why change is a prerequisite for meaning ▪️Why not all fluff is bad (and when it actually helps) ▪️What elevates fluff to a mechanic, and a mechanic to a meaningful one ▪️Why altering outcomes alone isn’t enough to create meaning Watch the complete video here → https://lnkd.in/e82kSVSC

Seedance 2.0 has a moderation wall. TBH you can't blame them. Hollywood had issues with copyrighted IPs, the platform overcorrected, and now the gates are tight. Hence real person faces are a hard no. But here's the workaround I found. Moderation is trained to catch photorealistic outputs. Game renders? Not so much. So I generated the character sheets in a Game Render style. Unreal Engine aesthetic. Cinematic cutscene vibes. The second it stopped looking like a real person and started looking like a gaming character asset, it passed. Took a couple of tries. But it worked. While we all wonder where this space is heading next , here's King Kohli and Hitman battling it out, Elemental anime style. 💪

Day 3: Draw Steel Draw Steel has made a point of noting that the game is made with exceptions in mind. If conflict over a ruling comes up, the exception always beats the general rule. This is done on purpose so that the characters always feel like powerful heroes. The game rounds down if required on the dice roll. A 9 halved would therefore be 4, and not 4.5. The categories of creatures and objects exist to define what is inanimate and what is alive. When referencing an object that is affected by an ability etc, the object must be an unattended object unless specified. An unattended object is something not worn, held or controlled by another creature. The game also makes use of categorising supernatural and mundane as tags to differentiate different abilities and effects in the game. Building a heroic narrative: the game is designed to act like scenes from a movie, jumping from one interesting interaction to the next and capturing the high adrenaline-filled moments. Progression for a character comes from Victories, or when the heroes achieve success in their heroic endeavours whether it be sneaking into a temple, or defeating an arch-enemy. Once the players get a respite, a full 24-hour period of rest, victories are converted into experience which levels the characters up. Heroic resources are hero-specific and are used to unlock a characters most powerful abilities. This will be explained later in the book. Heroes also have a recovery resource that allows a character to recover stamina and continue fighting. Stamina has not yet been covered, but a manoeuvre can be used during combat to use a recovery. Some abilities may also allow recoveries outside of using manoeuvres. The final part of the introductory rules close with Respite, a full 24 hour period of rest that resets all the characters recoveries and stamina and victories are converted to experience. It describes a full day to rest, eat and recuperate. If the 24 hour period is interrupted, it must be taken again.

With the newly announced Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons – Ravenloft expansion set for July 2026, game designers gain fertile ground for creative narratives. This expansion challenges players with iconic gothic threats like Count Strahd Von Zarovich. Game developers are tasked with creating compelling stories within this framework, ensuring character motivations align with new gameplay dynamics. The Headcanon Generator is a valuable tool in this aspect. It helps designers craft believable character arcs and motivations in diverse settings effectively. Get insights quickly and elevate your narrative depth here: https://lnkd.in/dAtgyX8e

WUHDUL: WEEK 2! week 2 and we’re back with some major updates to WUHDUL. in this video i talk abt some stuff you guys asked for to make the gameplay feel even better. here's whats new: - the help section - color blind mode - new custom word validation messages - ui polish (and about me section) i also added one more little thing i'm not telling you guys about; check it out and comment if you find it! try it out here 👇 https://lnkd.in/gtgNSXYx would love to know what you think keep WUHDUL-ing! <3

The game got better the moment they removed half of it. BEFORE the cut: 🔴 A one-page pitch promising “D&D meets ’70s cop-show” with combat as a core feature 🔴 13 developers with zero shipped games trying to build a traditional RPG 🔴 A scope that a team ten times their size would struggle with 🔴 Resources split between combat systems and the writing that was actually good 🔴 Heading toward another dialogue RPG with mediocre fighting that satisfies nobody AFTER the cut: 🟢 100% of a small team’s output concentrated into what they were actually good at 🟢 1 million words of branching dialogue (nearly double Lord of the Rings) 🟢 24 psychological skills that function as characters with competing agendas 🟢 A Thought Cabinet system where internalizing ideas literally changes your gameplay 🟢 Skill checks that carry real consequences, you can die in a conversation 🟢 91 Metacritic. 11 major awards. 5 million copies sold 🟢 A category with exactly one game in it Same team. Same budget. Same tools. The only difference was the decision to stop building the thing the genre demanded and start building the thing they were great at. The cut didn’t weaken the game. The cut was the precondition for everything that made it work. Full breakdown 👇 https://lnkd.in/ez6tHkHy

We recently sat down and had a chat with Benjamin Nossin Malagugini, an indie dev and founder of F(r)ictions Ludiques. In this interview, he opens up about his journey, including: - How he got started - Challenges of building Choose Your Own Alternative - The grit it takes to keep pushing as a solo dev He also shares some great advice for anyone dreaming of making their own game 🙌 Stories like Benjamin's are a big reminder of why we built our Indie Program in the first place. To make playtesting accessible and support creators who pour everything into their games. We really recommend giving his interview a read because it's inspiring, heartfelt and full of insights! https://lnkd.in/d62wjvYD

With my system, you can control every second of one or multiple videos using the controller. You can interrupt an attack, combine it with others, and do the same with dialogues. For example, in real time during gameplay, I can decide to start the fight with the wolf teleporting in. The same applies to dialogues — I decided that during combat, the characters say only one phrase. I can strike once, twice, do a combo, use only part of an attack, use the full attack, or do whatever I want. I can start directly by fighting the transformed malefic, return to the character selection menu whenever I want, as if I were creating the video live — even though it remains a video. We have total freedom that I define myself through my work

A lot of players and even some game designers don't know the difference between meaningful mechanics and fluff. We're all taught the famous rule: A game is a series of interesting choices. But knowing the rule and knowing how to apply it are two different things. Footstep sounds are nice fluff in most games. In Lethal Company, every footstep can alert a nearby enemy and get you killed. Same mechanic. Completely different weight. Fluff becomes a mechanic when it creates change. It becomes meaningful when it creates change, shows up often enough to matter, and forces the player to think or act differently. If removing it wouldn't change the player's decisions, it's fluff. 𝗜𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼, 𝗜 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻: 1) The framework for quickly separating fluff from meaningful mechanics 2) How limb dismemberment goes from cosmetic to core across Dead Space and The Surge 2 3) Why dialogue choices are fluff in Pokemon but deeply meaningful in Until Dawn 4) How angles of attack change everything in For Honor but mean nothing in The Witcher 5) Why photo mode is a core mechanic in one game and a crafting tool in another Watch it here: https://lnkd.in/edyJS4Q7

Building a Space Invaders game is the perfect test for a reasoning model. The results are in, and GPT-OSS easily outperforms the Gemma 2 latest model. It uses chain of thought reasoning to produce the code before delivering the final answer. The generated gameplay is much more accurate. It even registers