• Game Reviews,  The Lazy Designer

    Table of Contents: Lazy Designer Book 3 – Exploration and Gameplay

    I’m sure the crafty reader has figured out my plan, in regards to releasing the Table of Contents for the past books and there is no surprise that today, I reveal the contents of the third book in the Lazy Designer series. Here’s the blurb: Brent Knowles continues his Lazy Designer series with a look at exploration and gameplay. This book covers exploration, environment design, creatures, items, economies, rule system design, and progression systems. Table of Contents Chapter 9 Exploration Exploring Environments Game Types Summary Chapter 10 Creatures Exploring Creatures Game Types Summary Chapter 11 Items Items Finding Items Crafting Improving Items Item Descriptions Extending the Item System Game Types…

  • My Life,  The Lazy Designer,  Writing Resources

    Just Like Old Times…

    Lazy Designer Book 3 is almost ready to go. I’m just reviewing the uploaded copy on the Kindle Previewer. I’m treating this much like I would treat the release of a game. As I go through the near-final draft I’m spot-fixing any poorly worded phrases I encounter, in the source material, but unless I encounter a major error, this will be the text that is uploaded. *If* I do hit major error then I’ll regenerate the book and start the review process over. Glad to be nearing the end of this. I cut a lot of words during editing but it still sits at over 70 000 words, almost twice…

  • My Life,  The Lazy Designer,  Writing Resources

    Lazy Designer Book 3 Exploration and Gameplay Is…

    Not finished yet. I am working on it. It is just that it has so much more content than the previous two volume combined, that it’s more akin to finishing one of my novels. Which means, it takes time. That said, I have finally finished my giant grammar pass through all the sections and have trimmed several thousand words. What remains is a reread of the entire thing and I have to create some of the images needed to accompany the text (and the cover). Then I’ll start preparing it for publication. There’s no legitimate reason for me not to have it online before end of May. Part of the…

  • The Lazy Designer

    Doors (Lazy Designer #3 Excerpt)

    I realize I have not been posting much game design related information to this blog, so here’s a snippet from the rough copy of the next Lazy Designer book. This excerpt is from the systems chapter of Lazy Designer #3 : Designing Gameplay (now available on Amazon). Doors Doors seem simple, at least in our real world (unless you’ve ever had to install them) but they can cause numerous headaches in a videogame, unless well designed. The rules governing their behavior must be mapped out, from how they interact with visiblity, to how player controlled creatures and NPCs use them. Perception The most logical use of a door is to…

  • My Life,  The Lazy Designer

    Features – Hidden versus Growing

    Changing the User Interface This section is most applicable to point-and-click adventure games but has some relevance for related types of games In a point-and-click adventure game the player is able to click on certain hotspots on a painted map (i.e., click on a bucket to pour water). By clicking in different locations outcomes can be triggered to help progress the adventure forward. Or not. A fun indie game called Samorost 2 (play C1 online for free) is a great example of this system. In that game you play a man searching for a dog that aliens have kidnapped. You click on various locations to progress across beautifully painted maps.…