C&C – AI progression over time

When we look at the progression of AI, specifically in the Command and Conquer franchise, we can see that across very few years a lot has happened to make the computer-based opponents more intelligent and more challenging, to better equip them with faster, strategic unit production, tactical attack waves and base building. All such that … Continue reading C&C – AI progression over time →

Difficulty in games – and how Breath of the wild does it well

Designing your game for the right difficulty level is a challenge. We've all been at the point where we've played a game that was either too easy or too difficult. And especially in the beginning, when we don't know what to expect from a game and when we haven't grasped all the dynamics and mechanics … Continue reading Difficulty in games – and how Breath of the wild does it well →

Savegames III – Zelda

If we are looking at games and how they implement the savegame mechanic to support their immersion and their creation of the game world, we need to talk about the first part in the Zelda series that was released on the NES console. In 1986, the first Zelda game was released on the then Famicom … Continue reading Savegames III – Zelda →

The savegame mechanic in Resident Evil

In the earlier blog post about how the save game mechanic and influences the immersion and the gameplay, we had dissected various save game implementations. If we are looking at the Resident Evil implementation of saving and loading games, we will realize that the development team found a very interesting way of incorporating the save … Continue reading The savegame mechanic in Resident Evil →

Larry and the telemetry treasure

I am looking into how feedback and quality control happened in our beloved games in the 80s and 90s and came across something I learned that I want to share. As I research the subject space, it becomes apparent that especially in the 80s, structured testing and feedback gathering wasn't necessarily a very structured task … Continue reading Larry and the telemetry treasure →