• The Lazy Designer

    The Next Game

    Yes, “The Next Game” is the title of my second Lazy Designer book but today I actually want to talk about the next Unity prototype-game that I am actually working on. While building a technical framework to help me get Unity projects up and running faster I also started to think about what might be a fun game concept to explore for my next prototype. I decided upon a simple grid-based area editor. While this does not sound overly exciting it has been an interesting challenge. I’ve gotten it to the point where I can place buildings from an list and rotate them. It ensures no buildings overlap and all…

  • Video Game Design

    Game Hauler Version 4 (Part 5 / ?)

    If you want to play the latest build before reading the commentary then scroll down to the end of this post. PROTOTYPE 4 (BUILD# 0.0.5.0) This time around I’m lumping a couple releases and discussing them together. In the previous post I highlighted a few issues that I wanted to address next. These included a better feedback system for picking up and depositing energy and improved level design. However, as I hinted in that post, I changed my mind (though I partly address the latter issue still). Mainly, I ended up increasing the number of players from two to four and putting in the rudiments of a proper “player/control” selection…

  • The Lazy Designer,  Video Game Design

    Game Hauler Version 3 (Part 4 / ?) “The Big Design Change”

    Note: This post has previously appeared on Gamasutra and via my newsletter. Jump to Part 1 (if you have not read it previously). (If you want to play the latest build before reading the commentary then scroll down to the end of this post.) PROTOTYPE 3 (BUILD# 0.0.4.0) When I started building my prototype I had a general idea of where I wanted to go with it. Unfortunately my initial ideas didn’t pan out into anything I thought I could make fun. With this prototype I began the process of developing a rather different sort of core gameplay. The components of the game remain similar to the previous prototype (placeholder-art…

  • My Life

    Evil Snow

    We survived our first major snowfall with the only major casualty in our household being our garage door opener, so now I thought I’d give another brief update. Yes, I’m still preparing another post, which will give you more of a glimpse into some new opportunities I am considering, but it is not ready yet. This November I competed in my second Nanowrimo. If you aren’t familiar with it, Nanowrimo requires participants to write 50K words in November. I participated a couple years ago and managed it, but I wasn’t able to make my schedule work in subsequent years. This year, even though I still wasn’t finished another novel, I…

  • The Lazy Designer,  Video Game Design

    State of Things

    Okay, I haven’t been around much. Here’s a quick update! What’s Am I Doing? I’m finishing novel #7 (8? I’m starting to forget how many I’ve written). I wanted to participate in Nanowrimo this year so I’m ALSO working on another novel at the same time. Yes, writing two novels at the same time is very silly. I’m very silly. (This novel is my first attempt at writing fiction geared towards children, specifically middle-grade readers. We’ll see how it goes. I didn’t have time to complete a full plan, like I normally do, so I have a cast of oddball characters and a weird situation and I’m just letting it…

  • The Lazy Designer

    Making Monsters

    Overview A while ago I discussed designing areas. As with areas it is vital to understand the purpose of the creatures you are designing. What will they will do, how they will be used, and why they are needed? Not only do artists and audio and animation need to have the time and resources to build the required creatures but the game engine needs to be capable of rendering and using the creatures in the way you intend. A boss monster that players fight once in a grand, blood-splattering final battle has significantly different cost than the lowly goblin they’ll fight horde after horde of. Even Monsters Have a Reason…