Vertical Slice

(Good to Great first aired as Episode 17 on February 20, 2017.) In games, as in any creative discipline, it’s relatively easy to find good creative products, but much harder to find truly great ones. What is it that separates great creative work — and the people who do it — from the rest? In … Continue reading "Episode 50: Good to Great (Classic)"

In game design as in life, it’s tough to reach an ideal outcome without taking risks. Thus, if the goal is to create games that will surprise, inspire, and entertain in new ways, accepting the risk of equal dislike by some proportion of players is an important prerequisite. This detachment may sound simple in the … Continue reading "Episode 49: Love and Its Opposite"

Mobile gaming has long been a commercial powerhouse, but it hasn’t typically exerted a strong pull on the so-called “core gaming” audience of PC and console enthusiasts. Mobile’s rap has been that it’s ideal for light entertainment, but not well suited to more complex experiences. Recently though, the new mobile incarnations of Fortnite and Player … Continue reading "Episode 48: Mobile Metamorphosis"

Time is one of the most implacable risks that game development studios face. It takes time—sometimes quite a lot of it—to create a worthwhile game, and in traditional release models all of that time has to be financed up front before a game’s sales can even begin. In this context, the idea of being able … Continue reading "Episode 47: One Chapter at a Time"

In a games market that is full to bursting with interesting titles, even compelling games can easily become lost in the shuffle. In order to cut through the noise and succeed, developers need to match their work to the right audience, finding the niches where their game’s particular experience can connect with just the right … Continue reading "Episode 46: Breaking Through"

The idea of incorporating player feedback into the game design process has strong intuitive appeal. Rather than just guessing what players want, why not ask them directly? In fact, while the theory may be simple, the practice of gathering authentic, balanced, and actionable feedback can be quite challenging. How do you test a game when … Continue reading "Episode 45: All Ears"

Designing a single gameplay system is a meaningful challenge by itself, but it’s also only the first step in the design of modern games. Today’s games are built not around the single threads of individual systems, but rather around complex tapestries: multitudes of gameplay systems that overlap with and influence one other in a profusion … Continue reading "Episode 44: The Thread and the Tapestry"

The game industry exists at the intersection of two very different worlds: the world of games as pure creative expression, and the world of games as products. Superimposing these perspectives is no easy feat; how does one reconcile the unpredictable nature of the creativity journey with inflexible business concerns like schedules and budgets? Is such … Continue reading "Episode 43: The Process Paradox"

The play pattern of “grinding”, or repeatedly playing the same content in order to level a character or earn rewards, is surely one of gaming’s most curious idiosyncrasies. How can playing the same content time and time again be fun? In fact, games dating back to the classic JRPGs of the 8-bit era have shown … Continue reading "Episode 42: Grist for the Grind"

Open-world games promise the opportunity to immerse oneself in an entirely new reality, replete with characters to meet, adventures to undertake, and mysteries to solve. With a pitch like that, it’s not hard to understand why so much recent design effort has gone into applying open-world design concepts to so many different genres of games. … Continue reading "Episode 41: Open Worlds, Open Questions"

Think back on your most memorable gaming moments and there’s a good chance you’ll recognize the themes of exploration and discovery running through many fond memories. From The Legend of Zelda’s iconic secret passageways to the camouflaged nooks of today’s open worlds, hidden but discoverable content is something that savvy designers strive to create, both … Continue reading "Episode 40: The Explorer’s Journey"

The games industry, much like other creative businesses, depends on the principle of fair exchange between creators and audiences. It’s an exchange that can be enumerated in dollars and cents of course, but there is a second very important ingredient as well: respect. In a perfect world, players respect creators by offering fair financial rewards … Continue reading "Episode 39: Respecting the Player"

From action to narrative to family-friendly adventure, 2017 delivered a bumper crop of truly superb games. In fact, with such an abundance of excellent titles on offer, the discerning fan’s biggest challenge is making sure no worthwhile experiences are missed! Fortunately, Episode 38 of Vertical Slice is here to help. We’re pointing the way to … Continue reading "Episode 38: The Best Games You Almost Forgot"

Game design is a famously multifaceted pursuit, but what if you were asked to pick just one skill that most clearly distinguishes great game designers from their peers? What do you think this single powerful ability might be? On Episode 37 of Vertical Slice, we’re discussing a fascinating answer to this question brought to us … Continue reading "Episode 37: Solving the Right Problems"

Loot boxes are a potent trend in modern game design, translating powerful mechanisms of motivation and operant conditioning into a startlingly effective form of micro-transaction. Indeed, loot boxes are so efficient at monetizing player attention that they are increasingly casting off their free-to-play roots and taking up residence in the largest AAA titles. Is the … Continue reading "Episode 36: Loot Pursuit"

While we all have our own reasons for playing and loving games, fun generally features high on the list. Sometimes though, our desire to play games skillfully—to best our opponents or to achieve that elusive perfect play-through—can turn what is mean to be a source of enjoyment into a fount of frustration. Can game design … Continue reading "Episode 35: The Perils of Perfect"

It wasn’t so long ago that the term “single-player game” was unnecessarily descriptive, the former being implied by the technical infancy of the latter. Today though, in our world of friend lists and ubiquitous network connections, single-player experiences have started to seem a rarer breed. Are dedicated single-player games an anachronism, or are there still … Continue reading "Episode 34: Lone Wanderers"

To play games is to make decisions. From tiny implicit choices to grand and thoughtful reflections, the act of choosing a course and observing its outcome is a core loop that unifies games of all stripes. Yet though all games offer choices, only some succeed in making them meaningful. How does one make the decisions … Continue reading "Episode 33: Choice and Consequences"

Like a comet returning to our solar system after a long journey, this month marks the arrival of Destiny 2: the second installment in Bungie’s outsized shared-world shooter. While the first Destiny landed to mixed reviews, hopes are high that the sequel will deliver on many of the promises that its predecessor did not. Can … Continue reading "Episode 32: Destiny’s Call"

Any meaningful challenge requires us to move between different levels of thought: big-picture strategy flows down to tactical detail, and in-the-moment observation flows back up to refine our overall plan. As games push into ever more ambitious territory, how might we bring a similar richness to game design? On Episode 31 of Vertical Slice, we’re … Continue reading "Episode 31: Strategic Terrain"

Art is capable of inspiring the full galaxy of human emotions, so why are games so often preoccupied with darker shades of feeling? Though many of us were introduced to gaming with vibrant and cheery titles like the Super Marios of yore, the games we play today focus disproportionately on grim conflict. Is there hope … Continue reading "Episode 30: The Happy Place"

It can be easy to talk about game design as a discrete phase of game development: an initial step in the process where you firmly set down what it is that you want to build. In fact, effective game design is something that occurs continuously through game creation, with iteration, revision, and experimentation being key … Continue reading "Episode 29: Design as Discovery"

Gameplay loops are the repeatable circuits of motivation, action, and reward from which player experience arises. The best designers understand how to weave and layer these loops with great dexterity, crafting nested structures that suffuse every moment of gameplay with multiple layers of goals and challenges. What are the principles behind this kind of impressive … Continue reading "Episode 28: In the Loop"

In the parlance of game design, balance refers to the equilibrium between a game’s component parts: that carefully tuned web of relationships between goals, systems, and challenges from which fun is intended to arise. Skillfully balanced games ride the lines between challenge and frustration, investment and grind, in ways that can appear effortless, but in … Continue reading "Episode 27: Equilibrium"

E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is a marquee event on the game industry’s annual calendar, offering publishers and platform holders a lavish stage for unveiling their latest offerings. Amidst the elaborate sets, bombastic presentations, and resplendent swag it can be difficult to separate hype from reality. Which games will inspire and which will disappoint in … Continue reading "Episode 26: E3 Reverie"

Great games come in many forms, from incremental riffs on familiar genres to radical explorations of untouched design spaces. The creative tension between the poles of iteration and innovation animates much of game design, and the ability to negotiate these currents is a feature that can elevate truly inspired concepts above others. On Episode 25 … Continue reading "Episode 25: Small Steps and Giant Leaps"

Every new game comes with a learning curve: a new set of systems and mechanics that players must understand to get the most out of their play. Naturally then, the question of how to craft compelling tutorials and on-boarding experiences is an ever-present challenge in game design. On Episode 24 of Vertical Slice, we’re setting … Continue reading "Episode 24: Beginner’s Mind"

The enjoyment of collecting things we value is a feeling many of us can relate to. Modern game design has found much inspiration in this simple pleasure, and collection mechanics are now a frequent feature in games of all genres. Collectibles can be used to create lightweight metagames that widen a game’s objectives; to reveal elements … Continue reading "Episode 23: Collected Works"

Randomness in game design is a powerful double-edged sword. On the one hand, variation and surprise are cornerstone elements of fun, and carefully calibrated randomness can cultivate both of those experiences. Contrastingly, too much randomness can make a game’s underlying design feel chaotic, and alienate players through “unfair” or unforeseeable outcomes. So: how much random … Continue reading "Episode 22: Fandom of Random"

Generations of gamers have grown up with the Legend of Zelda, bonding over the decades with iconic titles like A Link to the Past, The Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess. Now a new Zelda adventure is afoot: one whose critical and commercial success has been extraordinary even by the franchise’s outsized … Continue reading "Episode 21: Where the Wild Things Are"