‘design’ Tag Archive


August 8, 2013

Yars’ Revenge as Microsport

Despite its weird sci-fi veneer, Atari 2600 shooter Yars' Revenge is one of the greatest sports videogames ever made. Sorry Pitfall, Adventure, and Defender. No offense, ...

Read More


May 12, 2013

Spatial Vectors in Videogame Design: Part IV

You know the drill: if you've landed here first, you'll likely want to read Part I (at ...

Read More


May 8, 2013

Spatial Vectors in Videogame Design: Part III

If you haven't already, please see Part I and Read More


May 7, 2013

Spatial Vectors in Videogame Design: Part II

In Part I, I introduced the concept of spatial vectors as they apply to the opening screen ...

Read More


April 28, 2013

Spatial Vectors in Videogame Design: Part I

A design study Poring over NES and Famicom games for the past year and a half has led to a lot of thinking about game design ...

Read More


April 8, 2013

“What is a role-playing game?”

An informal genre survey. Pen-and-paper roleplaying games are a fascinating genre, hovering somewhere between storytelling, board games, gambling, genre fiction, and statistics. And thanks to their ...

Read More


August 21, 2012

Sinter RPG: Phased Combat

Combat turns are tricky. My current tabletop group plays Dungeon Crawl Classics, which borrows the standard combat sequence from D&D and its kin. Once combat ...

Read More


August 7, 2012

Sinter RPG: Dice Mechanics

Though not all tabletop roleplaying games use dice, the majority do. And most players consider dice to be the lifeblood of the genre. Part ...

Read More


August 2, 2012

Sinter RPG: Trade Types and Attributes

Sinter RPG features six trade types: Archinxect, Curia, Gemyltan, Kybernan, Mallei, and Smolders. Each trade is associated one of six characters attributes: Craft, Temperance, Wit, ...

Read More


August 1, 2012

Introducing Sinter RPG

In the two-week interim between dissertation submission and defense, I've been stir crazy. For the past seven months, I wrote 6-8 hours a day, 5 ...

Read More