Game Design reports and market data
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I made HALF-LIFE... but it's 2D
This analysis outlines an efficient workflow for creating 2D game environments and character assets, using a reimagining of the Half-Life 2 setting, City 17, as a practical case study.
- Maintain visual cohesion in 2D environments by applying consistent lighting rules, specifically using 45-degree highlights and lowlights across all assets.
- Establish atmosphere and contrast by prioritizing foreground elements, which are essential for grounding the player's perspective and setting the mood in darker game environments.
- Increase asset creation efficiency by using custom brushes, stamps, and foundational shapes from resources like the Noun Project to build complex cityscapes.
Paint It Black: The Art of 'Sea of Solitude'
Sea of Solitude functions as a deeply personal exploration of human loneliness and mental health, utilizing a surreal, metaphorical landscape to externalize the protagonist’s internal struggles.
- The game's core design philosophy centers on 'turning the inside out,' where the protagonist's internal emotional state directly dictates environmental factors like water levels and weather patterns.
- To achieve a unique visual style, the team implemented custom Unity tools that allowed for precise control over shadow and ambient occlusion coloring, preventing the environment from appearing blunt or flat.
- The developers manipulated the specular component of materials by applying subtle color gradients, creating a dynamic, living world that reacts to player movement without being overtly noticeable.
How to Make Difficult Decisions (Philosophy Friday #8)
Effective decision-making serves as a fundamental driver of organizational velocity and operational efficiency within the games industry.
- Organizations should replace consensus-based, democratic decision-making with structured frameworks like the Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) model to increase operational velocity and reduce production friction.
- Distinguishing between reversible (two-way) and irreversible (one-way) decisions allows teams to act autonomously on low-risk tasks while reserving leadership escalation for high-stakes commitments.
- Pushing decision-making authority to the lowest possible level fosters autonomy and speed, provided staff operate within clear guidelines rather than rigid, bureaucratic rules.
Creating Inclusive Content In the Metaverse and Beyond
The development of inclusive metaverse experiences necessitates a fundamental shift from traditional, hierarchical game design toward models that prioritize equity, empathy, and authentic representation.
- Inclusive metaverse development requires moving away from traditional, military-centric, and hierarchical design models toward structures that prioritize equity and authentic representation.
- Development teams should implement inclusive recruitment practices, such as anonymized resumes and flexible work environments, to integrate diverse cultural and neurodivergent perspectives.
- Creative abrasion—the practice of challenging conventional tropes through vulnerable, play-based communication—should be used as a tool to embed inclusivity into the organizational culture.
Fireside Chat: Amir Rao and Kelly Wallick on 'Hades'
Supergiant Games achieved significant success with Hades by shifting from a philosophy of constant reinvention to one of synthesis, combining successful mechanics from their previous titles, Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre.
- Supergiant Games utilized Early Access as a core development strategy for Hades, allowing the team to iterate based on player feedback and manage complex, overlapping game systems that would have been difficult to test in isolation.
- Before the 2018 Early Access launch, the studio conducted three one-month 'rehearsal' updates to test their internal production pipeline and determine the optimal cadence for content delivery.
- The team transitioned from a four-week update cycle to an eight-to-ten-week cycle during Early Access to better accommodate the needs of development and content integration.
I made Squid Game into a 2D GAME!
The development of a 2D, 8-bit adaptation of the Squid Game television series serves as a practical demonstration of game design principles and technical implementation.
- The project demonstrates that complex, high-stakes narrative concepts can be effectively translated into accessible 2D formats by focusing on core gameplay loops and atmospheric design.
- Visual fidelity in retro-style games is achieved through nearest-neighbor image interpolation for crisp pixel edges and posterization to convert high-resolution assets into pixel-art avatars.
- The MC Escher-inspired maze stairs utilize a three-color gradient technique to simulate depth within an 8-bit aesthetic.
Pokemon Go Was Just The Beginning - Our Augmented Reality Future - Extra Credits
Augmented reality (AR) represents a transformative technological shift comparable to the advent of the internet, moving beyond current smartphone-based applications toward lightweight, wearable hardware.
- Augmented reality (AR) is transitioning from smartphone-based applications like Pokémon Go and Yelp’s Monocle toward wearable hardware such as consumer-grade glasses and contact lenses.
- The technology aims to turn the physical world into a personalized interface, enabling real-time access to context-aware data like professional schematics, language translation, and navigation.
- Widespread AR adoption offers significant productivity gains across specialized sectors, including medicine, construction, and logistics, by reducing the friction between digital information and physical reality.
Design by the Numbers: Using Data for Good
This analysis explores the integration of data analytics into mobile game design, using the development of the RPG battler Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem as a primary case study.
- Designers should treat data as a core creative tool to identify friction points and optimize engagement loops, rather than delegating analytics exclusively to product managers.
- Comprehensive data logging of every player interaction—including taps, navigation, and resource spending—is essential to move beyond intuition and inform game balance decisions.
- Tracking store impressions allowed the developers of Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem to implement a three-hour free prize, which directly resulted in increased conversion rates.
Cutting Apart The Diegetic Interface of 'Hardspace: Shipbreaker'
The design of Hardspace: Shipbreaker demonstrates how diegetic interfaces can serve as a primary vehicle for both narrative depth and functional user experience.
- Blackbird Interactive utilized a diegetic UI design approach in 'Hardspace: Shipbreaker' to embed narrative and game presence directly into the player's interface, effectively turning UI elements into world-building tools.
- The redesign process was driven by four pillars of information architecture, focusing on clear hierarchy, reduced screen clutter, and contextual responsiveness to gameplay events.
- To overcome limited development resources and short release cycles of one to three months, the team integrated UX, game design, and narrative disciplines from the start to create inexpensive, immersive solutions.
Deconstructing Pokemon Unite with Hadrian Semroud and Javier Barnes
Pokémon Unite serves as a case study in the challenges of balancing accessibility with long-term engagement within the mobile MOBA genre.
- Pokémon Unite achieved 30 million downloads during its launch week but has struggled to maintain long-term player momentum in Western markets.
- The game’s design philosophy prioritizes accessibility by removing traditional MOBA complexities like minion management, which ultimately undermines the strategic depth required for long-term retention.
- A singular late-game objective often renders early-game strategic efforts irrelevant, leading to a lack of competitive variety.
A Historian's Guide to Researching Your Historical Game
Effective historical game development relies on treating history as a dynamic, subjective dialogue rather than a static collection of facts.
- Historical research should prioritize peer-reviewed sources from university presses, museums, or government agencies to ensure reliability and avoid pseudo-history.
- Developers can access primary source materials like letters, maps, and photographs through digital repositories such as the Digital Public Library of America, archive.org, and Google Books.
- When collaborating with academic experts, developers should conduct thorough background research on the scholar's work beforehand and consider engaging up-and-coming researchers who may be more accessible and current on recent findings.
I made Resident Evil 4... BUT IT'S 2D
The process of reimagining Resident Evil 4 as a 2D side-scrolling experience serves as a technical case study in game design, art direction, and rapid prototyping.
- A functional 2D prototype of Resident Evil 4 was developed in a seven-day rapid development cycle using the Unity engine.
- Core gameplay loops including exploration, combat, and inventory management were successfully translated from 3D to 2D by prioritizing atmospheric consistency and visual hierarchy.
- Environmental depth was achieved in a 2D space through the strategic use of color theory, gradient-based lighting, and trigger-based overlays for interior transitions.