• eBook,  The Lazy Designer

    How to be a Lead Designer

    The final book in the Lazy Designer game design series is now available. This standalone volume in the Lazy Designer series provides insights on becoming an effective lead designer or creative director. Learn to manage large teams of specialized designers, improve your decision making process, and write clear and usable documentation. http://www.amazon.com/Lead-Designer-Lazy-Game-Design-ebook/dp/B00JUYRB18/ I know I mentioned this last week as part of another post, but every other book has received its own post, and I want to be fair :) And the excerpt for my Amazon Breakthrough Novel quarter finalist, “The Pool”, is still available to read here. I don’t know if reviews/downloads matter much at this point in the…

  • The Lazy Designer,  Writing Resources

    The OTHER Solution in Game Design

    The Other Solution For the most part throughout my Lazy Designer series I focus on what I believe is the right way to implement particular design tasks. Based on my experience I have a recipe book, so to speak, of design solutions to specific problems. Throughout the books I make reference to these. The other day I was wondering if there was a different way to go about solving problems. What if you selected a random, or rather bizarre, solution? (Admittedly I hadn’t slept much the night before). Low Morale Some early RPG games (including Baldur’s Gate 1) allowed enemies to flee once their morale broke. The players basically kick…

  • Writing Resources

    Amazon Quarterfinals

    Last week I mentioned my novels “The Pool” had made it to the quarterfinals in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Contest. Now the excerpt I submitted is available for anybody to read and review, for free. If you are interested, I’d appreciate you taking a look at it. http://www.amazon.com/The-Pool-2014-ABNA-Entry-ebook/dp/B00JOU2GBI The editors from Publishers Weekly make the decision of who advances and I do not think feedback on the excerpts, negative or positive, influence the decision at this stage. But I noticed that several of the other entries have started to receive customer reviews (on their excerpt) and figured I should at least mention this… (p.s., A big thanks to the Amazon reviewers…

  • The Lazy Designer,  Writing Resources

    Story Review and an Amazon Update

    SOME WE EAT I stumbled across the following review for my story “Some We Eat and Some We Keep” which appeared in the second issue of Robots and Rayguns: “And Brent Knowles unique style was also awesome….reminded me of Blade Runner for some reason, which is great! I can see Philip K. Dick in him for sure.” I was very pleased to see that! I am always grateful when somebody enjoys something you wrote enough to take the time to write a comment about it. You can read the full review here: http://www.amazon.com/Robot-Raygun-2-Brent-Knowles-ebook/dp/B00J3519O4 (And as an aside, this particular story was written as an experiment. I wanted to try to…

  • The Lazy Designer

    Back In Province

    We had to make a quick trip out of province, but are finally back home. I don’t have much to say, still busy catching up on late tasks, but I’ll provide a quick update and if you have any questions throw them into the comments and I’ll be sure to reply. Lazy Designer — The Design Manager The final book in the Lazy Designer series is almost ready to go. I anticipate by the end of April, it will be available on Amazon. At that point I’ll start editing the variety of bonus materials I’ve written for those who have bought copies directly from me. My Unity Game Meanwhile I’m…