It’s always hard to decide where to begin with a new blog, and although I have ideas for topics I’d like to discuss in the first few posts, I think it makes sense to begin by introducing the blog itself. The blog on the old site was more or less “about” whatever I felt like from one moment to the next, ending up a hodge-podge of game reviews, musings, reports on my own projects, strategy guides, art tutorials, and more.
The intention here is to be a lot more focused on theoretical and practical aspects of game design and, by extension, game playing, since the two are inextricably linked. Although I will certainly discuss specific games, both my own and others’, the focus will be on breaking down and analyzing mechanics, rather than reviewing from a “should you buy this game?” perspective.
The topics I intend to cover, in general terms, are:
- The state of the industry and trends in game design
- Practical advice about designing games
- Deconstruction and analysis of specific games
- Post-mortems of my own games
- Discussions about specific mechanics or genres
The first real posts of the blog are upcoming shortly, and will cover the unique characteristics of games for two-players, for three or four players, and for larger groups, and how different group sizes present different challenges for game designers.