Dev Links: Explosive Results

“One thing lacking in game design, especially when it comes to interactive storytelling, is a proper set of terms.

Presenting players with dilemmas, nailing down a set of terms for your game and more in today’s Developer Links.

Nailing Down Terminology(Frictional Games)
“One thing lacking in game design, especially when it comes to interactive storytelling, is a proper set of terms. While I do not think having a precise terminology will directly aid in making games better, it will help us communicate better. As proper communication is crucial for progress, proper terms are indirectly an important part of making better storytelling games. Because of this, I am going to go over some terminology that I find essential, what I mean by them and why I define them in a certain manner.”

The Beautiful Dilemma(Berlin Game Design)
“One of the main goals of game design is to present the players with dilemmas. Without them, player decisions–if there are any–will seem too obvious, and the game will lack tension.”

Too ugly? Keep stirring the baby until the lumps disappear(Dejobaan Games)
“This week was B-U-S-Y! We brought the Ugly Baby team in, shackled them to their chairs, and asked everyone to crunch. The goal was to launch our next amazing build, but we wanted to give it another week to bake it to perfection. Here is how the week went… in pictures and video, ’cause words are lame-o.”

Good Morning Gato # 121 – Lawn Bag Throne(Ska Studios)
“XBLA Fans posted an in-depth article last Friday, “For indies, working with Microsoft is a horrifying mess…right?” covering multiple sides of the hot topic of what it must be like to work with Microsoft. They included our view and linked to James’ Blood of the Indies post, which was nice.”

Shooting Spirit(Electron Dance)
“Cinema and literature have shown they can weather the storm of time: The African Queen can make contemporary audiences laugh, Nosferatu is still disturbing and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice remains a favourite. But videogames are cursed. The cutting edge corrodes with frightening speed and the once-pioneering designs of yesteryear give way to frustration when compared to leaner, smarter modern work.”

Spider bait(Auntie Pixelante)
“SPIDER BAIT is a transcript of a back-and-forth email role-play between me and my luna that we wrote / played between the last time she visited me in february (around my birthday) and may (her birthday). i play two spider-queens and she plays a very unlucky girl. it’s of course totally explicit, and is mostly about tickling and fucking and spider-queens salivating over captive girl-meat. nasty & gross stuff from a couple of real perverts.”

Jack Lumber hacks his way onto the Mac App Store!(Owlchemy Labs)
“That’s right, we branched out and have sunk our roots into the Mac App Store.”

SDCC 2013 – Preview Night(The Behemoth)
“Whew! Finished up our booth 229 just in time for the Preview Night crowd last night. We had visitors come by to check out our custom built arcade cabinets, get some merchandise from the Gift Shop and even had a special visit from Hatty Hattington!”