A game development log where I share the hardest game design problems, and share thoughts on the games I'm playing. My name is John Rudolph Drexler and you can find my games at catacombian.com
Recommended Episode
2: Kill your darlings
When you love something, but it's confusing as heck.
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9: Managing the player's cognitive load
How do you communicate complex rules to players? It's worth thinking about what kind of complexity you're communicating, how you communicate it, and when you communica...
8: AI is horrible at game design
LLMs excel at churning out sugar free vanilla paste. That's great when you're writing code. And it's awful when you're doing creative work.
7: Escape the mind palace
A game is only a game if it is playable. It is so hard for me to resist the temptation to retreat to the "mind palace" where my game devolves from a playable, testable...
6: Letting players decide the victory condition
My white whale (one of them, at least) is to let players decide how they want to win, and even decide whether it's a cooperative or competitive game. I haven't cracked...
5: Suspension of disbelief is a skill
There are two voices in your head. You don't know which is correct, but you do know that one is more useful.
