Designhead Dungeon

One of my favorites: “Level Design: In Pursuit of Better Levels”
t.co/MwvsXEjd95

YouTube video by Indie Game Clinic Prototypes, Hunches, and Short-Cuts

@indiegameclinic.bsky.social on prototyping, feasibility testing, and game design intuition:
#gamedev
#gamedesign

YouTube video by gamedev cuts Jonathan Blow on Designing Game Mechanics

Jonathan Blow on filling the emergent space created by interacting game mechanics:
#gamedev
#gamedesign

"We cough up a chunk of our soul": 32 game devs, from Doom's John Romero to Helldivers 2 and Palworld leads, explain what people get wrong about games Sam Barlow, Metaphor: ReFantazio leads, ConcernedApe's business head, indie legends, and many more weigh in

Game devs on what people get wrong about game dev:
#gamedev
#gamedesign

Today I'm musing about the importance of escalation in adventure stories & ttrpg sessions. Trying to come up with a list of possible ways to escalate. Mostly interested in the broad categories. In the following posts you can find what I came up with so far. Let me know what I am missing. #gamedev

Pixelblog - 23 - Parallax Scrolling — SLYNYRD How to make stand alone parallax animation loops with pixel perfect motion

@slynyrd.bsky.social on pixel perfect parallax:
#gamedev
#gamedesign

Space is not a wall: toward a less architectural level design Maybe video game level design theory needs less focus on architecture? And maybe I'm part of the problem? My bad.

new blog post: turned my gdc 2025 level design theory talk into a blog post www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2025/05/spac...

Reservoir Sampling, a technique for selecting a fair random sample when you don't know the size of the set you're sampling from samwho.dev/reservoir-sa...

#gamedev #gamedevelopment #indiedev

few things are as good as a proper shader. i love this shit.

YouTube video by Tom Francis Blue Prince and its awkward relationship with hunches (minimal spoilers)

The discourse around the design of Blue Prince has been fascinating, but I wanted to hit room 46 before weighing in. Minimal spoilers!
youtu.be/BItfjfaqW2Y

Also: how it fares as an information game, and how it overlaps with our next game idea.

Announcing my next game!🤘

"Deedlee Doo! Carkour!"🔥

-A game where you do parkour with a car using explosions
🚗💥
-Everything in the game is made out of clay in real life🎨
-The sound effects and music are all mouth sounds👄

Wishlist it now on Steam, out on May 12th, 2025!🎸

MEGANAUT Demo on Steam A 3rd person narrative horror game with modernized retro 3D graphics, and unique floating mechanics. Travel past The Habitat walls into the deep megastructure in search of your missing friend Seija, a...

Dropping a little teaser demo soon.
Keep an eye on Keymailer (and inboxes)
:)

store.steampowered.com/app/3708790/...

YouTube video by Indie Game Clinic Game Genres - a Design Perspective

Today’s video turned out a bit of a monster; some reflections on genre, mode and mood in games, and how certain ways of categorising games can be confusing or unhelpful in the design process. youtu.be/3KJbYdNP5js?... #gamedev #gamedesign #indiedev

Developing 'Metaphor: ReFantazio' and the Potential of RPG Command Battle Systems How has the genre of command battle RPGs, often ridiculed as old-fashioned, been updated into the latest titles? This presentation will cover the twists and turns, decisions made to realize the direct...

Atlus's Kenichi Goto on designing turn-based combat for Metaphor: ReFantazio:
#gamedev
#gamedesign

🚨NEW DOC ALERT🕹️

In the forth episode of our Dwarf Fortress Series we revisit the brothers two years after launch to explore the ways in which their lives have changed forever, and the ways in which they've stayed the same.

WATCH: www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5zg...

Will you wishlist Replicube?
“Signs point to yes”
s.team/a/3401490

Pixelblog - 55 - Top Down Character Animation — SLYNYRD Intro Offering the perfect combination of function and aesthetic, the top down perspective is one of the most popular vantage points to employ in pixel art games. Specifically, I refer to the 3/4 top...

@slynyrd.bsky.social on the pixel design of the dreaded 8-direction 3/4 top down projection character:
#gamedev
#gamedesign

‘An Overwhelmingly Negative And Demoralizing Force’: What It’s Like Working For A Company That’s Forcing AI On Its Developers - Aftermath 'I have had conversations about AI in a professional context that make me want to walk into the sea'

This is exactly the kind of reporting I was hoping for when I subscribed to Aftermath aftermath.site/ai-video-gam...

YouTube video by AI and Games Conference Designing Flying and Swimming AI for Horizon Forbidden West | AI and Games Conference 2024

Building AI behaviors for flying/swimming machines in Horizon Forbidden West. David Speck (Guerrilla) breaks down Waterwing combat, movement & nav across air and water. Go watch the video—this one’s packed.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dgH...

Procedural animation: inverse kinematics blog.littlepolygon.com/posts/twobone/

#gaamedev #gamedevelopment #indiedev #cpp

[EARLY ACCESS] The Story of Dwarf Fortress - Episode Four | Noclip Get more from Noclip on Patreon

Watch the fourth and final episode of our Dwarf Fortress series right now on Patreon.

A massive thanks to the hundreds of new members who have signed up to support us during the run of this series. As an independent team doing fairly niche work, every penny counts.

www.patreon.com/posts/125850...

Post by @smerp 💬 0  🔁 2  ❤️ 4 · Notes from DS Design Works Interview · Just a few excerpts from the interview section in the Dark Souls Design Works (English edition) art book interviews. ... This post has extr…

Hidetaka Miyazaki on design direction for Dark Souls:
#gamedev
#gamedesign

It’s dangerous, of course, to stand up to such a powerful entity as The Player — usually, The Player is the closest thing to a god in these little realities. The game does what they expect it to do. Whether the core loop is building a farm or shooting bad guys, most commercial games are different flavors of escapist fantasies. Even when power and domination don’t play an active part in that fantasy, players like to feel in control. Most of the time, our job as game designer is to make sure input is carefully related to output in a way that creates the impression that the player can predict the outcome of their various decisions and actions.

Check out this new article by @tanyaxshort.bsky.social on Disobedient Game Design, a short summary of the findings from the Polaris Game Design Retreat.

📃 Read on the Kitfox Medium account: kitfoxgames.medium.com/5245fbc0b774

YouTube video by Mason Miller Consider The Loop In Outer Wilds

New video on Outer Wilds. I examine the game from a design and philosophical perspective, attempting to place it among similar games (Majora’s Mask). It is also a meditation on loops, liminal spaces, and the distances we travel to arrive where we are meant to be.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISm6...

Creator’s Voice blog: Hidetaka Miyazaki on The Duskbloods (part 1) - News - Nintendo Official Site Get the inside scoop on The Duskbloods in this interview with the director, Hidetaka Miyazaki of FromSoftware. Check out the rest of the blog Part 2: Superhuman abilities and opportunistic behaviors P...

Hidetaka Miyazaki on game design decisions behind the Bloodborne spiritual successor Duskbloods:
#gamedev
#gamedesign

How Civilization VII's powerful narrative system helps players experience unique parts of history Using player agency to help engage with history, both real and fictitious.

missed our talk on civ vii’s narrative system? saw it but want to relive the magic before it gets added to the vault? well you are in luck! www.gamedeveloper.com/design/how-c...

Cozy farming sim where your family saves a failing village, but your touch is instant death to all forms of life.

A low poly screenshot of an in-game environment that was the very start of the game TUNIC, with a screenshot from the final game below it. Text overlayed says "How TUNIC started vs How it ended." The two screenshots look incredibly different.

How TUNIC started as an original concept versus how it ended 👌🦊
#indiedev #tunic #tunicgame

🚨NEW DOC ALERT🕹️

In the second episode of our Dwarf Fortress series we tell the story of how this free ASCII game survived 16 years of development thanks to a remarkable community.

And the circumstances which pushed the creators to commercialize it.

youtube.com/watch?v=PiNe...

Through Mist, Light, and Darkness The fading line between artistry and necessity

"It's not about what the fog is obscuring, but why it's obscuring it at all."

Story by @brandonrchinn.bsky.social.

#Art #GameDesign #GameDev #RetroGaming #ArtDesign