The crawling, walking, running thermostat

One of the classic tricks of Product Management and design thinking is the "crawl-walk-run" approach of breaking down a larger project in to smaller, digestible and easier-to-tackle work packages. Like a small human child, a new product isn't born immediately running, but will take time to crawl on all fours. After, the child will learn … Continue reading The crawling, walking, running thermostat →

What sucking adventure games tell product managers

I am reading a lot of blogs and papers that people write about their thought processes for the craft their good at. Not all are strictly product management, some are from similar fields. I consume a lot of adventure game content these days, and if you look at game design for adventure games, there's a … Continue reading What sucking adventure games tell product managers →

Achievements and customer engagement

One of the things that I find intriguing about modern games, coming from a 80s/90s gaming past, is that there's a few new concepts that can elevate the experience you have with a game, giving you a few more benefits for the money you put in. A concept I quite liked playing Return to Monkey … Continue reading Achievements and customer engagement →

Building communities

I have been a communities person for a long time. Not necessarily in the sports club type, but in the learn from one another, sit and discuss type. I started my professional career reading, learning and then contributing back to newsgroups. It's been technical newsgroups at first, so people would post their problems and challenges, … Continue reading Building communities →

Have users changed?

I am using this ancient machine to type away on blog drafts and other documents, when I need to focus and don't want to be distracted by other things going on on my computer. With that, I pretty much mean the internet. So I bought an Amstrad NC100 off of ebay a while ago to … Continue reading Have users changed? →

A hint system II

I have thought about what a hint system could look like for "Return to Monkey Island", and brainstormed about a few ideas for designs here. Now that I have played Return to Monkey Island a bit, trying the new hint system, I think I have a few more opinions. If you're interested, read on, there … Continue reading A hint system II →

Hint systems in point-n-click adventures

If you remember the fun of late 80s and early 90s point-and-click adventure games, you may remember that the internet wasn't a thing back then. When you ran into a puzzle that you couldn't solve right away, you had to try things out. Or power down and come back later … when you thought hard … Continue reading Hint systems in point-n-click adventures →

Operational TCO of your product

I keep four chickens that keep the slope on the side of our property under control. They do the weeding, I do the feeding, they produce eggs. Clearly there's a few tools that I need to clean their chicken house, fences that need maintaining so they don't escape or foxes that break in. I tore … Continue reading Operational TCO of your product →

Avoiding your monkey wrench moment

Building up my excitement for Return to Monkey Island, I read the interview with the development and designer crew the other day: Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman reveal their one Monkey Island regret | Eurogamer.net. I knew about the puzzle they are talking about in the article, and that it was a huge challenge to … Continue reading Avoiding your monkey wrench moment →

If you had a rough day…

How satisfying 🙂 https://youtu.be/ARefBpL1Ylk works best with sound on. Or for individual, single blopps: https://youtu.be/2gBF15357Mk