I’ve lost count of how often I hear people respond to a design problem with, “just design it better”. One example is the detective vision mode in the Batman Arkham series, which has been used in many similar titles, entering a special vision mode that shows you the items you can interact with more clearly […]

Remaking Magic is back with a great fan-made card to analyze and a wickedly interesting discussion of how player archetypes actually work in game design. We also tackle the controversial censorship of a major magic site by the wizards that live along the coast themselves. Youc can check it out here.

Why are enemies we breezed past in the first level so hard here?! No more waiting around, in this stage you’ve got to MOVE to survive. Today we dive into the ingenious design of Castlevania’s first momentum-based stage.  

Yes, I really did spend a year and over 100 adventures, each with about 5-7 hours of content, testing and experimenting with combat desing principles. We kicked things off last episode, now click here for the conclusion. Speaking of experimenting, I decided to try a much shorter format to see if I could still deliver […]

It seems a lot of RPGs are trying to avoid the classic low level enemies. I’ve heard even Richard Garriott has a sign in his office that reads, “No rat killing”. Games like Guild Wars 2 try to blow players away with an awe-inspiring giant boss battle in the tutorial. While this approach has advantages, […]

Hey everyone, episode 2 of Intelligent Design is ready and waiting. Thanks for everyone’s supportive messages, likes, comments and subscriptions through my various channels. The training wheels come off today as Castlevania starts throwing some of its legendary nastiness at us. Hunchbacks? Ravens? STAIRS?! Let’s dive back into some truly intelligent design.

A lot of people have been asking for a transcript of the Dungeon Master’s Guide 4. You know, the one posted right below this one that you can click right now. Over a year’s worth of experiments and experience, and the knowledge gleaned from them, just a click away. How can you resist? It seems […]

Why does D&D’s own Creative Manager include “Throw out what the rulebooks say about building encounters” in his advice to new DMs? Because the rulebooks have been leading us wrong for years. Tune in to find out how you can shake things up and make your players scream. Whether it’s in delight or terror is up […]

About half a year ago I had a chance to record a design stream with my good friend Alex. We chose to analyze the opening sections of my favorite platformer ever: An Untitled Story. If you liked episode one of Intelligent Design, you should enjoy this too.  

Episode 45 of Remaking Magic is up! In this episode of the podcast all about game design and Magic the Gathering, we take a look at one of the most interesting set of spoilers we’ve ever seen. The sixth color?! Or something even more intriguing? Want to find out?  You can listen to it here.