Knowledge is Power - Learn Digital Design

If you are familiar with gaming at all, you have probably seen this term in the ‘options’ of some games’ graphics settings. Usually either turning it on or off or choosing different intensity levels. It sounds like a fancy term, but it really isn’t that mysterious. As far as I’m concerned, it is a setting […]

Hyper Casual Games 101 While it may not seem like it, Hyper Casual (HC), is a genre that’s starting to stand in its own right and while it may be a bit confusing to find the line between HCs and Casual games, that’s exactly what we’ll attempt to do. For the most part, HC games […]

Building your own game engine means designing the core systems that make a game run—rendering, physics, input, and more. It’s a complex but valuable way to learn how games really work, from the ground up. For example, I started my first engine as a weekend experiment. Within weeks I had a window, a textured triangle, […]

Do you find yourself staying up late at night trying to beat a game? You put countless hours into beating it: collecting items, maxing out stats, and finding all the secrets it has to offer. Soon after, you beat the game. However, maybe the ending isn’t satisfying, or you crave more gameplay and content. What […]

Back in 2008, a young man named Adam Poots was awaiting jury duty. Like most jury duty experiences, it was dragging through the day, with no guarantee of even being picked in the end. To pass the time, he perused a manual for a role-playing game. He was struck with an idea while reading: not […]

I will be the first person to admit that I am addicted to Words with Friends. It really isn’t healthy: I will stare at my game board on my phone for long periods of time trying to get the very best word out of my 7 letters to grind my opponent into dust. After inevitably […]

I remember days gone by at elementary school when we would all file into the computer lab. We would all get a computer and boot up educational games like Math Blaster and Oregon Trail. Although these were very primitive titles, with the educational aspect, (in my view), taking the backseat to the fun, they still […]

In a world of snap decisions, first impressions, and endless visual stimuli vying for our attention, there had to be a way for game devs to quickly grab your attention. One solution: the game icon. Game icons show up on all kinds of platforms: They’re on your computer desktop or menu bar, representing the games […]

How familiar are you with game theory? If you’ve never heard of it before, the term can be quite misleading. Game theory has no official ties to the games we think of, which is pretty counterintuitive. According to a definition provided by the trusty Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a “game” is an “activity engaged in for […]

Designing Characters Character Design–Conceptualizing Tutorial This tutorial walks you through how one artist developed his concept for a “crossbow archer.” He starts with his idea, he shows his sketches, and he walks you through everything from form to color palette, to putting it all together at the end. If you want to see how another […]

We’ve all been there. Struggling to unwrap the cellophane casing, fingers not finding any purchase. Pulling again and again at the tape holding the box shut. Waiting for the crisp “pop” of the game case’s premiere opening. Smelling faint adhesive residue. Admiring the glimmering, shining object within. A new game. Few things beat the excitement […]

We are reader-supported. Purchases made through links on our site may earn us a commission. Learn More. Game design documents have been an industry standard for a long time. More recently, arguments against the game design document have begun to surface. “It becomes obsolete immediately after it’s published.” “No one on the team likes using […]

Have you ever seen a real-life giant? If you’re a long-time wrestling fan or an avid viewer of The Princess Bride, you probably know about Andre the Giant (or Fezzik, in The Princess Bride). And if you don’t know about Andre the Giant, well… all you really need to know is that he was a […]

The great plot challenge. Plot is the kind of thing that can ruin your game. Or take it to the next level. For a game like Angry birds, the plot is….eh, not really there. Birds fighting pigs, kamikaze-style? Ok… but we don’t really know why. And there isn’t much of a story. There’s nothing telling […]

Developing a Pong knockoff might sound like a piece of cake to you and your 2D design skills. But pop that into a third dimension, and all of a sudden we’re looking at some pretty complex stuff! 3D game design can be daunting, especially if you’re a beginner or planning an ambitious project. The good […]

Newton! Aristotle! Galileo! Descartes! Newton’s Laws! These might be some of the exciting thoughts that popped into your head when we brought up physics. Apples! Gravity! Ok, that’s probably good for now. Feel free to shout ‘em out if any more come to you. The forces and energy behind physics have always impacted our world […]

A question as old as games themselves (well, maybe the question wasn’t always asked…). Easy, Medium, Hard, Extreme, Nightmare–many games present players with a sliding scale of difficulty. The designers give players the choice over their level of challenge. Sometimes adjusting difficulty isn’t an option. In online multiplayer games, for example, the difficulty is largely […]

A whole new world! Don’t you dare close your eyes…. Any Aladdin fans out there? No? What’s the latest Disney focus–live-action Beauty and the Beast? We’re out of touch. Out of touch is not where you want to be when you’re designing levels. Luckily for you, we’ve decided to compile a list of tutorials that […]

Character creation is your chance to let your imagination run wild. If you already have ideas, it’s easy to hit the ground running. If you don’t have ideas….well…. That can be a different story. We’ve put together a brief beginner’s guide to tutorials that will help you create characters. Some offer ideas for finding inspiration, […]

We are reader-supported. Purchases made through links on our site may earn us a commission. Learn More. When game developers and software programmers talk about their favorite programming languages, it isn’t long before the rapid use of C++ in gaming. It’s played a huge role in the coding of countless games, and has been among […]

We are reader-supported. Purchases made through links on our site may earn us a commission. Learn More. If you’re familiar with the Unreal Engine, developed by Epic Games, you know that puppy can pack a real punch. The Gears of War franchise, most recently added to Gears of War 4 back in October, takes advantage […]

History The Blender game engine was released in 2000, developed by Erwin Coumans and Gino van den Bergen, part of the Dutch company, Blender Foundation. It was designed to bring a more natural way of developing games and animation to people who otherwise wouldn’t have learned how to. After 18 years, in April of 2018, […]

Mobile games are all the rage! On February 8th, 2017, Game of War: Fire Age, made $1,919,237. That number might not sound like much in the grand scheme of game sales… But then you realize that the figure we quoted is from a single day of sales. Fire Age came out in July of 2013. […]

We are reader-supported. Purchases made through links on our site may earn us a commission. Learn More. Python is a simple language to start with, and if you’re looking for a quick win in your quest to master all coding languages (the Ultimate Quest!), Python is a good place to start. To get any value […]

Coming up with a story is a deceptively complex challenge. You’re developing a game and your game needs a story. Ok, you’ll just go ahead and whip up a story then! Sounds easy, right? If only the task was that simple… Creating a story people will enjoy is no small feat, but we’ve put together […]