Interesting Game Design Articles

[Marco Roy]

This post use to present a list of interesting game design articles, but as it grew longer, it eventually reached the length limit of the forums; therefore, the list has been moved here.

[Marco Roy]

See post above.

[Protector one]

Man, that '20 mysterious games' article is awesome! Thanks for compiling this list!

[Marco Roy]

For Game Developer Magazine readers:

Part 1 (May 2004 – December 2006)

May 2004 issue:
• Inside Everquest, p. 18
• Postmortem: The Game Design of Surreal’s The Suffering, p. 36
• The Flow Channel, p. 52A

June-July 2004 issue:
• Implementing Real-World Control Systems, p. 18
• Doing Mushrooms, Miyamoto-Style, p. 24
• Postmortem: EA Sports Fight Night 2004, p. 28
• Serious Fun, p. 47

August 2004 issue:
• Postmortem: The Cinematic Effect of Zombie Studios’ Shadow Ops: Red Mercury, p. 34
• Pitch – Not Design, p. 48

September 2004 issue:
• Manhunt to Mortal Kombat – The use and future use of violence in games, p. 12
• Postmortem: The Swinging System of Treyarch’s Spider-Man 2 game, p. 26
• Brainstorming, p. 47

October 2004 issue:
• Postmortem: The Mobile Multiplayer of Blue Ridge’s Momentum, p. 25
• Recursive Fleas, p. 35

November 2004 issue:
• Postmortem: Two Timing: Timegate Studios’ Kohan II and Axis & Allies, p. 34
• Paradigm Shifts, p. 47

December 2004 issue:
• Ethics of Game Design, p. 14
• Postmortem: The Singular Design of Katamari Damacy, p. 34
• A Matter of Life and Death, p. 48

January 2005 issue:
• Postmortem: Avoiding Sequelitis in The Sims 2, p. 38
• What Trumps Fun, p. 54

February 2005 issue:
• Increasing the Bottom Line: Winning the Women’s Market Share, p. 16
• Postmortem: Up You Arsenal: On and Offline in Ratchet & Clank, p. 28
• Question Your Assumptions, p. 55

March 2005 issue:
• Buena Vista’s Good View, p. 31
• Postmortem: What’s Inside the Room? The Horrors of Silent Hill 4 Investigated, p. 34
• In the Beginning, p. 64

April 2005 issue:
• Everything You Need to MMO, p. 18
• Postmortem: Jedi Mind Trick: Choice and Consequence in KOTOR II, p. 30
• Sleeping Dogs do it, p. 46

May 2005 issue:
• Intelligent Solutions for Ambiguous Player Controls, p. 19
• Postmortem: Indie Power! Riding the FBI with Alien Hominid, p. 28
• The Wright Stuff, p. 48

June-July 2005 issue:
• Playing Smart with IP, p. 17
• Postmortem: A Collective Backbone: Foundation 9’ Development Dream, p. 24
• Familiar, Yet Different, p. 40

August 2005 issue:
• Postmortem: Head Games: Double Fine’s Psychonautic Break, p. 30
• The Right to Bare Arms, p. 46

September 2005 issue:
• State of the Industry: Mobile Games, p. 11
• Mobilizing Content: Porting Games for Mobile Devices, p. 23
• Postmortem: Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, p. 28
• Don’t Cell Out, p. 40

October 2005 issue:
• Postmortem: The Graphical Styling of Resident Evil 4, p. 26
• Negative Feedback, p. 41

November 2005 issue:
• What Games Have to Teach Us, p. 9
• Scaling the Cabal: Valve’s Design Process for Creating Half-Life 2, p. 20
• Stealth Education, p. 40

December 2005 issue:
• Postmortem: Designing Pac-Man, p. 26
• Rules of Interest, p. 39

January 2006 issue:
• Postmortem: Chomping at the Bit: Wideload Games’ Studio Experiment Bites Back with Stubbs, p. 24
• Schafer on Creativity, p. 41

February 2006 issue:
• State of the Industry: Casual Games, p. 9
• Postmortem: The Buzz on Hamonix’s Guitar Hero, p. 24
• When the Hunter Becomes the Hunted, p. 38

March 2006 issue:
• Postmortem: Gun: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, p. 34
• The Judo Rule, p. 62

April 2006 issue:
• Urban Development, p. 19
• Postmortem: Ubisoft’s Peter Jackson’s King Kong, p. 28
• Interview: The Wright Stuff, p. 38
• Emergent Complexity, p. 54

May 2006 issue:
• The Art of Self-Promotion, p. 13
• Postmortem: Konami’s Metal Gear: Playing the 3D Card, p. 28
• Interview: Cliff Bleszinski: At War with Complacency, p. 39
• 112 Down, 288 to go: The State of The 400 Project, p. 53

June-July 2006 issue:
• Postmortem: Indigo Prophecy – The Nightmare of the Original Concept, p. 24
• Better Living through Games, p. 38

August 2006 issue:
• The Power of Pacing – Designing Games for Lasting Impact, p. 13
• Postmortem: Reestablishing an Icon: The Peaks and Pitfalls of Tomb Raider: Legend, p. 24
• Interview: Masaya Matsuura, p. 31
• Fair Play, p. 40

September 2006 issue:
• Interview: Alexey Pajitnov, Master of Shapes, p. 10
• State of the Industry: PC Games, p. 19
• Postmortem: Gamevil’s NOM, p. 25
• 51 Ways to Die: An Interview with Goichi Suda, p. 31
• Invisible Monsters: Tales from the Uncanny Valley, p. 45

October 2006 issue:
• Ranking and Matchmaking: Grouping Online Players for Competitive Gaming, p. 25
• Postmortem: Iron Lore’s Titan Quest, p. 36
• Interview: Michiru Yamane, p. 43
• Publisher Compatriots: What game designers need from their sugar mommas, p. 47

November 2006 issue:
• Getting Lucky: The ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Creator’s Stance on Chance, p. 11
• Postmortem: Creeping Death: Designing the DeathWalk System in Prey, p. 31
• Changing Brains, p. 42

December 2006 issue:
• Postmortem: Detonating Introversion’s DEFCON, p. 26
• Designer Genes, p. 35

[Marco Roy]

For Game Developer Magazine readers:

Part 2 (January 2007 – August 2008)

January 2007 issue:
• Postmortem: Not Your Typical Grind: Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam for Wii, p.30
• Do, Don’t Show, p.42

February 2007 issue:
• Scrum Rising: Agile Development Could Save your Studio, p.21
• Postmortem: Resistance: Fall of Man, p.28
• All for Games: An Interview With Warren Spector, p.39
• Believing the Impossible, p.51

March 2007 issue:
• State of the Industry: Digital Distribution, p.11
• Postmortem: Sam & Max: A Journey Through Episodic Gaming, p.26
• Interview: Gamelab’s Peter Lee, p.35
• Interview: Ralph Baer, p.38
• Casual Starters, p.52

April 2007 issue:
• Postmortem: Advent of Advergaming: Blitz Games’ Burger King Games, p.20
• Software Toys, p.35

May 2007 issue:
• Moving On Up: Advancing your Career in the Game Industry, p.7
• Going Freelance,p.15
• Postmortem: Konami’s Elebits, p.28

June-July 2007 issue:
• For Better or Worse: A Quality of Life Update, p.7
• Postmortem: Big Huge Games’ Catan for Xbox Live Arcade, p.20
• Reflexes and Reflection, p.29

August 2007 issue:
• Postmortem: Final Fantasy XII, p.23
• Hybrid Vigor, p.43

September 2007 issue:
• Saving the Day: Save Systems in Games, p.7
• The Subversion Game: An Interview with Harvey Smith, p.33
• Postmortem: Infinite Interactive’s Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, p.43
• Status Symbols: Why human psychology should influence game designers, p.50

October 2007 issue:
• Postmortem: Realtime Worlds’ Crackdown, p.26
• Hal and Mycroft: A Tale of Two Computers, p.41

November 2007 issue:
• Scaling Small, p.7
• Postmortem: 2K Games’ Bioshock, p.20
• Fishy Rules, p.38

December 2007 issue:
• Purchasing Power: Item-based payment models in Korean games, p.9
• Textual Healing: What Graphical MMOs Can Learn From Their Text-Based Ancestors, p.16
• Postmortem: 5th Cell’s Drawn to Life, p.23
• Interview: Akira Yamaoka, p.31
• When Tales Wag the Dog, p.41

January 2008 issue:
• Thinking with Portals: Creating Valve’s New IP, p.7
• Postmortem: Midway Games’ Stranglehold, p.32
• Orange Box, Gold Star, p.51

February 2008 issue:
• Difficulty is Difficult: Designing for Hard Modes in Games, p.6
• Postmortem: Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, p.32
• Creating Halo 3’s Legendary Mode, p.42
• Multiple Variations on a Single Theme, p.63

March 2008 issue:
• Postmortem: Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4, p.24
• Coming of Age, p.48

April 2008 issue:
• Ode to Short Dialog: Reconsidering the Sound Bite, p.17
• Postmortem: Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, p.24
• The Player’s Handbook: Picking your role in The Game Industry™, p.40
• Seven Deadly Strategy Sins, p.44
• A Call for Standardized Job Titles, p.56

May 2008 issue:
• Engines of Creation, p.7
• The Game Developer Market, p.17
• Idea Synthesis, p.25
• Interview: Mike Zak, p.30
• Postmortem: Harmonix’s Rock Band, p.36

June-July 2008 issue:
• Land of the Free: The Rise of the Tiny MMO, p.7
• Intelligent Brawling: Analyzing the Genre to Build a Better Beat ’Em Up, p.15
• Postmortem: Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, p.34
• Interview: Masafumi Takada, p.42
• 2D vs 3D: Choosing the Right Camera System for your Game, p.55

August 2008 issue:
• Game Brains: A Survey of AI Middleware, p.7
• Interview: Hirokazu Tasuhara, p.18
• Postmortem: Penny Arcade Adventures, p.28
• Humor Me, p.48

[Marco Roy]

Recently added articles: The Tao of Game Design, Invisible Walls, The Systems Approach, Game Design Psychology: The Full Hirokazu Yasuhara Interview, Defining Boundaries: Creating Credible Obstacles In Games, Part 2, The Megatrends of Game Design, Part 1

[jshockley]

Man I'm going to have to read one of these a day; but thanks for doing it now I don't have worry if I missed one on Gamasutra.

[toyoka]

Very interesting articles! I must find time to read these *sneaks onto the internet at school*

[Adrir]

I can barely keep up with reading all of Gamasutra's features ! Thanks for sharing the links!

[Marco Roy]

New articles: Difficulty is Difficult, Documents of Newly Published Xbox Live Game Made Public, Are Video Games Bad for Comics?, Design Language: Designer Derivations