Innovation, in computer games at least, is always good. Well, that depends on what you mean by “good”. Is an innovative game always a fun game? No. Does an innovative game always make money? No. So what’s the point? The point is that every innovative game advances knowledge in some way. Even if only one [...]

The computer game Uplink rewards you for thinking like a computer criminal.

A minor feature of Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier can fool the player into thinking of the characters as real people.

Some games feature mechanics that operate like slot machines. I think this is bad.

“Gaming” can mean many different things; for example, the American Gaming Association has, as their purpose, “Building a better understanding of casino entertainment through education and advocacy”. On this blog, of course, I mostly talk about computer games, or occasionally dice-and-pencil games like Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve been seeing some articles recently about how games [...]

Games can be thought of as tests that require physical ability, mental insight or time.

Failure is not a bad thing because it helps people learn. The problem is that sometimes people fail in such a way that you really have to question how they’re thinking; sometimes you just feel like their entire way of thinking has to be torn down and started from scratch. In this blog post I’ll go through the various ways that Braid failed, and what made me angry enough to want to punch someone.

Games involve social contracts between the designer and the player(s).

This might work as a Flash game or a console game; it requires multiplayer. The idea is that it’s an ordinary racing game, say like Burnout, Gran Turismo et al..  Or it could be a simpler top-down game like 4×4 Off Road or even RC Pro-Am way back in the NES days.  There is one [...]

Certain games allow players to customize aspects of their character or in-game situation.  Consider Cosmic Encounter; each player has a special power representing their particular alien species.  Classically these powers are randomly selected, in the form of cards dealt out to the players at the beginning of each game.  Of course, some play groups might [...]