Posts By Caleb J. Ross

The game-making lessons we mentioned are:

• Don’t waste the player’s time. A novel input system cannot survive on novelty alone; it MUST serve good gameplay. Otherwise, the forced input falls from delightful to frustration (Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask)
• Movement in a platformer MUST feel great above all else. If a game has secrets to find via exploration, that exploration had better not suck. (Sackboy: a Big Adventure)
• Visuals afford function. Therefore, nothing is ever only cosmetic. If a character looks tall and fat, the player expects the movement to be slow. If a character is short and thin, the player expects the movement to be quick and nimble (Sackboy: a Big Adventure)
• Is there a formula for determining the proper melee attack range for a character based on character speed and height? There should be. (Sackboy: a Big Adventure)

Listen in as we talk about our game development “ah ha” moments, including:

• The importance of commenting even as a solo dev
• Self-documenting/readable code
• The importance of having fun as part of the learning & development process
• Shaders are black magic
• Unity events are suuuuper useful
• The absolute need to LEARN THE TOOLS YOU USE and…
• DO NOT FIGHT those tools your learned to use (even if fighting the tools feels like a “neat old’ fashioned way to do it,” as Jo so eloquently states)

• Re-use of levels doesn’t have to be boring. Narrative, along with day segments, means each environment feels very different despite their repetition. (Death Loop). Mentioned: Dishonored 2 Devs Explain the Clockwork Mansion.
• Simplicity can be deceiving. Simplicity doesn’t mean boring. (Super Auto Pets).
• Difficulty doesn’t make Caleb hate a game. Rather, artificial difficulty (ie, design ignorant difficulty), is what makes Caleb hate a game. (Ori and the Blind Forest).