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Category Archives: games

The Video Game Industry Will Crash in 2013

By Jeff | Published: May 22, 2013

The video game industry is heading for a crash. It’s been coming for a long time. Yesterday’s announcement of the Xbox One has confirmed to me that nothing is left to stop it. Here’s what I’m looking at.

Also posted in technology | 2 Comments

The New Black

By Jeff | Published: May 21, 2013

As soon as I saw the new Xbox One I thought, “That reminds me of something.” Took me a while to figure out what. Then I remembered the Atari 800 XL. I’m thinking: is to as is to The move from pale off-white to glossy black and silver never fails to say “Not the same [...]

Also posted in technology | 1 Comment

SimCity to License Blizzard’s LocalServer™ Technology

By Jeff | Published: March 22, 2013

Electronic Arts announced today that it intends to license Blizzard Software’s LocalServer™ technology as soon as it becomes available. EA has taken a beating in recent weeks over its decision to make SimCity—an essentially single-player game—require online access as a condition for play. The decision mirrors the approach taken by Blizzard in the development of [...]

Also posted in programming, technology | 2 Comments

When Game Development Stinks

By Jeff | Published: March 22, 2013

I discovered a simply awesome indie game on Steam this week, Ultratron by Puppy Games. It is a retro shooter, an homage to the classic Robotron 2084, a visual lollipop of swirling color that leaves your eyes sparkling and pixelated for hours, and a game I can’t stay away from for more than a few [...]

Also posted in programming | 16 Comments

In Praise of Modern Board Games

By Jeff | Published: January 9, 2013

How would you like to discover an activity that will: entertain you and your family for hours each week? pull your kids off of the “screens”—TV, iPad, computer, and phones? create “face time” in your family, with all of you looking across a table at each other, talking, discussing, and laughing? build your kids’ brain [...]

Also posted in board games | 6 Comments

Hitting a Dead End with FlasCC

By Jeff | Published: January 1, 2013

I’ve been looking long and hard for a solution to the problem of creating high-performance games that are broadly portable across desktop, mobile, and in-browser platforms. Adobe Flash looks to be the closest solution to what I want, but FlasCC falls far short of offering the performance benefits it promises.

Also posted in programming, technology | 5 Comments

Suitors: A new, free card game for 2 to 4 players

By Jeff | Published: November 26, 2012

I recently took a break from my day job—designing video games—to create Suitors, an original card game for 2 to 4 players. It uses regular playing cards. It’s simple enough that just about anyone can play, but deep enough that adults will find it competitive. A game lasts just a few minutes. Give it a [...]

Also posted in board games | 7 Comments

The Sorry State of Game Portability

By Jeff | Published: October 24, 2012

Never has it been more desirable to widely port your game. A game created for iPhone and iPad has every reason to move to Android as well. These platforms have the the same form, the same touch interface, roughly the same performance characteristics, and the same graphics system (OpenGL ES 2.0). But why stop with [...]

Also posted in programming | Tagged games, programming | 6 Comments

Come Play House of Shadows!

By Jeff | Published: October 4, 2012

House of Shadows is a spooky, silly, and eye-popping sneaking game that I developed with a small team over the past 11 months. It arrives today on the iOS App Store, so go get it. In the coming weeks I’ll be posting articles about its design and development. Play the game. Then we’ll talk.

Also posted in House of Shadows | 1 Comment

Elvis in Wonderland: An Example Game Pitch Document

By Jeff | Published: August 24, 2012

Never bother trying to sell your game idea to a game company. If you do ever get the chance to pitch your game to someone, however, here’s an example of how to do it. I wrote this pitch document for Gearbox Software several years ago. Gearbox was thinking through new game ideas at the time [...]

Posted in games | 4 Comments

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