Tag Archives: Mechanics

Apr
29
2009

Game Design Design Roundtable 1: The Death of Death

Round Table Topic
There has been a slow and steady progression of the role that death plays in video games since the days of Ghouls and Ghosts and Super Mario Bros. No longer are most games tied to the old tenet of providing a player with an arbitrary number of lives, typically three for some reason, [...]

By Trent Polack | Posted in Game Design | Also tagged , , , , , , , | View Comments
Apr
16
2009

Game Design Round Table 0: No More Health

Over the last couple of months I’ve been nurturing an idea to hold a sort of casual attempt at a game design round table where I (or another organizer) would present a topic (and some basic information and potential arguments) to a group of independent or professional game designers. Everyone involved would then be let [...]

By Trent Polack | Posted in Game Design, Gaming | Also tagged , , , , , , , | View Comments
Dec
01
2008

No More Mechanics

Last week I lied a little. It is likely that there will be no more Mechanics articles in the future or, if there are some, they won’t be on the weekly basis that they have been lately. I do plan to continue writing a weekly article of sorts, but I don’t really want to limit [...]

By Trent Polack | Posted in Gaming, General, Mechanics | Also tagged , , , , , , , | View Comments
Nov
17
2008

Mechanics 7: Heart of Darkness (Far Cry 2)

I just got another mission from the unnaturally quick-speaking warlord of the African UFL — one of two warring factions in Far Cry 2 — when one of my buddies gave me a call on my cell phone telling me to meet them if I wanted to make my mission take twice as long as [...]

By Trent Polack | Posted in Mechanics | Also tagged , , , , , , , | View Comments
Nov
13
2008

Mechanics 6b: Unnecessary Vehicle Segments

I hate them.

By Trent Polack | Posted in Gaming, Mechanics | Also tagged , , , , , , , | View Comments
Nov
10
2008

Mechanics 6: You’re the Hero Now, Dog

Ruff, ruff!
This quote comes from one of the only, if not the only (aside from Half-Life 2’s Alyx Vance), video game companion that never becomes annoying or troublesome to gamers. One of the most recurring problems in any video game is that of trying to create a companion in a video game that can tag [...]

By Trent Polack | Posted in Mechanics | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | View Comments
Nov
03
2008

Mechanics 5: Vault-Tech Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.)

With the development of Fallout 3, Bethesda Softworks faced a dilemma: they had to make a first-person RPG engine that was typically used for high-fantasy RPG/adventure games handle the intensity, gore, and statistical probability of the gunplay in Black Isle’s cult-legend Fallout and Fallout 2 in such a way as to not annoy either first-person [...]

By Trent Polack | Posted in Gaming, General, Mechanics | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | View Comments