It’s important to remember that you’re still in your early levels and there’s a lot of the tech tree you haven’t yet explored. In the ideal scenario, you’ll manage to find a job in the industry and use it to level up your skills. You’ll be able to earn…
Hi! I’m a Brazilian fan of your work, and I want to thank you for all the content you share. I often see heated discussions about the role of consulting companies in game development, and I’d love to hear your perspective. In practice, how much influence do these consultancies have on making changes to a game? Do you think they have the power to shape development in a meaningful way? Thanks for your time!
Consultants have as much power as the studio or publisher gives them. When Nintendo hires a consultant to act as the team’s executive producer/director (e.g. Masahiro Sakurai via Sora Ltd.), then that consultant will have as much power as a director of…
Summer 2025 Game Development Student Internship Roundup, Part 1
Internship recruiting season has begun for some large game publishers and developers. This means that a number of internship opportunities for summer 2025 have been posted and will be collecting applicants. Internships are a great way to earn some expe…
Another question about NPC’s I will sometimes see players just let the NPC kill enemies which usually goes with them struggling to kill them or they take a long time to even getting killed themselves. I’m assuming the same stuff you said in your last post applies to these NPC’s?
We rarely want AI allies to overshadow players — doing so will break the power fantasy. Instead, we want them to look like they’re fighting and take a while so that the player can be the hero. You should read this archive post about [why we don’t want …
Say we’ve got a live service game, and we’re at the beginning of the current content cycle. The next batch of big character class changes aren’t expected for the next year or more, although smaller tuning passes and targeted reworks might occur in the mean time. Some of the class designers will be working on those smaller tasks, and possibly some are doing exploratory design for further future changes. What do the rest of the class designers work on?
They’re either making new classes or they’re working on the next expansion’s new progression paths for the existing classes. If we have enough class designers, we’re probably doing both.[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]Got a burning q…
Hi GameDev! I’m working on a game in my spare time that I’m pretty happy with. It’s a 3d platformer with low poly graphics. I’m releasing a demo on itch tomorrow for Halloween. Would it be weird to share my game with other indies and YouTubers who do 3d platformers? I’m a nobody, but I’d love to get feedback from other people who love 3d platformers.
It would not be weird at all. I would try to get your game in front of as many people as you can, get all the feedback you can, and do what you can to improve your game. Get your friends to play it, get your family to play it, get as many people as you…
recently i was watching a youtuber play mario party against 3 other AI controlled characters and it got me thinking. when it comes to games like mario party (Or any other game where you have an AI controlled opponent like XCOM) how do developers even begin to design an AI opponent who isnt automatically faster than you in a mini game of speed, or doesnt automatically know the solution to a puzzle in a room before you do and still has to figure it out, or cant guess the correct solution to a quiz automatically, all while still making it feel like you could actually lose to the AI without it feeling overly unfair?
Whenever we design anything, we usually start from the goal and work our way backwards. Our goal for these AI players is absolutely not for them to try to win — that would actually be quite easy, as you say. If we wanted the AI to win, it would always …
Wait a minute…“indie” means you dont need a publisher, right? Wouldn’t that technically mean inhouse Nintendo games are indie? 🤔
«Indie» today primarily refers to budget size more than any relationship to a publisher. Many indie games get assistance from small publishers who provide independent studios with marketing, logistic, and funding support. A smaller-scoped game like Unr…
Hi, I want to ask is there’s any requirement to emailing feedback to developers? Or should we just fill out in game survey forms and not send mails? Thank you in advance
You shouldn’t email developers directly unless they’ve explicitly told you to do so. Game devs (especially AAA devs) aren’t interchangeable and we don’t all work on the same thing, have the same expertise, or even work within the same team. For example…
Follow up, why don’t escort NPC have a sort of reverse rubber banding, so when the NPC gets X distance ahead they become Y% slower and then match players speed when the player is close enough/in front of the NPC?
NPC Escort design has evolved since players had to escort the Defias Traitor to Sentinel Hill way back in 2004. We usually break it down based on the goal of the quest. If the goal is to protect the escorted NPC, then no real changes are necessary — th…
