#game-design

#game-design

Although one could argue that Demon's Souls was first, it was its multiplatform sequel that really introduced players to the genre's pillars that have persisted in the near two decades since. While this is sometimes reduced to just difficulty in some cases, what makes a Soulslike is far more than that, pulling in aspects of exploration, narrative structure, character progressions, and more to create a wholly distinct experience that can cater to a variety of different players depending on what parts are more heavily emphasized.

The best co-op horror games know when to scare you senseless and when to let you experience triumph as a team over whatever spooky peril is waiting around each corner. Shadows that move when they shouldn't, distant footsteps drawing ever closer, and the dread of confronting something unknown--it's all better with company. Instead of facing your fears alone, you're able (although, sometimes forced) to rely on others: sharing resources, comparing clues, calling out directions, and of course screaming over each other when everything goes wrong.

Bluey embodies the talent, heart and character of Australia's creative industries. But unfortunately, until now, the beloved franchise's video games had a track record spottier than her friend Chloe the dalmatian. Some parents treated Budge Studios' 2023 mobile game Bluey: Let's Play! with caution, with its $9.99 monthly subscription and persistent adverts for Budge's other licensed games. Later that same year, Artax Games' Bluey: The Videogame was widely criticised on release for its barely two-hour run time, technical problems and $60 price tag.

In 2023, Final Fantasy Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida indicated his distaste for the term JRPG, saying that Square Enix doesn't go into its games trying to make a JRPG. "We go into them thinking we're going to create RPGs," he explained. Before this, Nintendo producer Hitoshi Yamagami, who worked with MonolithSoft on Xenoblade Chronicles X, echoed similar sentiments, saying, "I feel like we just make RPGs, I don't need anyone to add the 'J', personally."

I was afraid to learn the answer. The odds that it was what I wanted to hear were not in my favor. What I wanted is practically unheard of in Western-style action role-playing games. But there were encouraging signs from the first dozen or so hours of my initial playthrough that this time might be a rare exception. I'd made it through Paradise Island, the game's first open area, without sparing a thought about how much loot I was carrying. I couldn't find the genre-typical "infinite home base storage chest" anywhere on my ship. I scoured the game's inventory menu for tiny numbers I might have missed with a more casual glance. Nothing.

I think what underpins our success is the pillars of scale, immersion, and authenticity. The tenants that we develop all our games by, and that level of authenticity we instill. It provides an experience that, for me, is unmatched,

In an interview from his New Zealand home, though, Gilbert noted that his catalog also includes some reflex-based games- Humungous Entertainment's Backyard Sports titles and 2010's Deathspank, for instance. And Gilbert said his return to action-oriented game design today stemmed from his love for modern classics like Binding of Isaac, Nuclear Throne, and Dead Cells. "I mean, I'm certainly mostly known for adventure games, and I have done other stuff, [but] it probably is a little bit of a departure for me," he told Ars. "While I do enjoy playing narrative games as well, it's not the only thing I enjoy, and just the idea of making one of these kind started out as a whim."

Katsura Hashino is the mind behind beloved cult classics like Shin Megami Tensei III, Trauma Center, and , but he's best known as the director of and, which redefined the franchise's identity and pushed the entire genre forward. Now, it seems Hashino isn't content to just keep doing the same thing. The creator has said he wants to fundamentally change the genre's "structure and presentation," and create "JRPG 3.0."

Veteran RPG developer and Fallout co-creator Tim Cain argues that modern games have forgotten some lessons of history--a point he made in a recent YouTube video--you can watch the full video below--responding to a viewer's question about whether older titles contain any supposed lost wisdom. Cain's answer--"Yes, there is. Good question." Looking back at his own early years in the industry, he describes an era with only programmers and some artists, but no narrative designers, and far fewer competing priorities.

Mario Kart is stability - it's that aunt and uncle who live down the street. You have dinner at their house every week, and know you can call them for anything you might need. But Kirby Air Riders is that bizarre uncle that you only see at holidays, who's always got some crazy story about when he went to Burning Man, or a souvenir from his trip to Australia. You don't know him very well, but you always have a good time seeing him.

Nell's Diner, Phasmophobia art director Corey Dixon told me, is full of unique assets, many more interaction points than a typical map in the game, and several Easter eggs. Back when the game was developed by a single person, Daniel Knight, his expertise was in programming, not things like art direction, which is why today Phasmophobia still mostly uses some generic assets for things like furnishings, vehicles, and even the feared ghosts themselves.

You aren't supposed to be able to take the Warthog up to steamroll the Hunters. I intentionally placed rocks in the way so you had to fight them on foot. When you can just smash the crates out of the way it wrecks the encounters.But the worst part? They put trees in the landing...

"Bethesda introduced the radio in Fallout 3, which we didn't have in the original Fallout games, and I thought that was really cool. But most of the stuff they did, and in New Vegas, was all off-the-shelf existing music," The Outer Worlds 2 creative director Leonard Boyarsky tells Inverse, "I understand why they had to do that, because it'd be ridiculous to think you would come up with 60 songs from scratch. So even back then, it was in the back of my brain that it'd be cool to hear what music from this place would have sounded like."

According to Shawn Layden, a live-service game "isn't really a game." The former PlayStation executive said in an interview that a live-service game is better described as a "repetitive action engagement device." Then what is a game? Speaking to The Ringer, Layden said a game needs three elements. "I need a story, I need a character, and I need a world," he said.

Over the course of its 26-year history, the Silent Hill series has built up a reputation for offering deep dives into the more psychological side of the survival horror genre and giving players complex stories and experiences that often resonate more deeply than those found in the genre's action-focused contemporaries. This complexity, however, doesn't mean the series is without formula.

There was once a time when having a full-blown computer in your pocket was still a fairly novel concept, and game developers, publishers, and console-makers were all too eager to find ways to work their existing products and franchises into mobile apps. Some of these were terrible, offering cheap imitations of their big siblings and often charging exorbitant prices for microtransactions, but there were also a whole bunch that took a different approach.

After shaking up the Pokémon formula with Pokémon Legends: Arceus, its successor, Legends: Z-A, pushes things even further - and it's a very welcome change of pace. With , Nintendo and Game Freak demonstrated how much more vibrant, weird, and exciting the monster catching series could become with a few key changes to the classic formula. Arceus' historical story and open-ish world made the Pokémon universe feel like a bigger, wilder place, just as the revamped battling and catching mechanics turned the familiar process of filling out your pokédex into a completely different kind of experience.

As one of the longest-running survival horror series, has had somewhat of an identity struggle over its many years. Some entries have been more action-focused, while others prioritized the dread and horror many come to the genre for. The last entry, Resident Evil Village, arguably leaned toward the action side of the equation. But the upcoming ninth entry, Requiem, aims to double down on the series' horror elements.

The best puzzle games are ones that force you to take a moment to consider your next move, the world around you, the rules that you're being forced to operate under, and, sometimes, all of the above. They're delicately balanced experiences, carefully threading the needle between being too easy and satisfying and avoiding being too difficult and frustrating. These are experiences that ask a lot of their players, anticipating a level

You play an unnamed traveller, the latest of many, sent to gather information about a devastating outbreak that transformed the citizens of a town called New Dawn into the sort of misshapen monsters that have become the staple of sci-fi-adjacent survival horror: contorted of limb, long of fang, and ample of slobber. As you explore the stark, often beautifully devastated aftermath of the outbreak, you search for places where you can travel back through time to when all hell was breaking loose,

Loosely characterizing Donkey Kong Bananza in this manner misses the point of what makes the game so enjoyable to play. Bananza is a breeze for players because it's built on a framework that is versatile and complex yet accessible and intuitive. By giving you all the tools you need to succeed in Bananza's vast sandbox, Nintendo made a game that feels effortless to punch your way through. If you think the game is easy, then it's doing its job correctly--Nintendo wants it to feel easy.

When Neversoft released Spider-Man on the original PlayStation on August 30, 2000, the superhero video game landscape was bleak. Licensed games were churned out as quick cash-ins with clunky controls, uninspired level design, and a general sense that superheroes couldn't have a distinct feel in a medium where plumbers and hedgehogs could be heroes, too. But Neversoft, fresh off the runaway success of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, had the pedigree, the technology, and the creative freedom to change that perception.

Speaking to VGC, Itsuno explained that he ultimately wasn't that surprised that the game wasn't universally beloved, because he designed it to not be. "I made the game not like a Nintendo one to be liked by all the people, but for a certain type of audience, so it's normal if some people outside that target audience don't like the game," Itsuno said. "However, people who enjoyed the game really loved it, appreciated the details and work. I'm very proud of it."