Today, dice remain the number one tool for making games fun and addictive. There’s a reason everything freezes on screen for that giant dice roll in Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s just fun.

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But what if your rolls always succeed?

One of the things that makes dice rolls fun is the uncertainty and tension they bring. Every roll carries the possibility that the result won’t be what you hoped for. It’s what makes us perform little rituals before rolling.

In Vantage, however, that factor doesn’t exist. No matter what you’re rolling for, you ALWAYS succeed.

Vantage, published by Stonemaier Games, is a narrative sandbox board game. At the start, our spaceship crashes on a planet, and we begin exploring it. The game is played with cards that represent our perspective. Each card shows the landscape ahead (our vantage point) and the actions we can take. Sometimes, these actions require dice rolls.

However, dice rolls don’t determine whether you succeed. They determine what it costs to succeed.

Your character has three core resources: Time, Health, and Morale. Each side of the dice represents one of these resources. For example, if you roll three dice and one shows Time while the other two show Health, that means you lose 1 Time and 2 Health. If any of these resources drops to zero, you lose the game.

Why I like this

I’m mentioning this because this dice system solves a big problem for narrative games: progress. In narrative games, failure can be frustrating because there’s no DM to turn a failed roll into a fun story moment (or, unlike BG3, no budget to add a cinematic to every possible outcome).

This system pushes the story in a single direction: forward.

Another reason I love this is that the mechanic itself is narrative. Did climbing a cliff cost 2 Time and 1 Health? Then the climb must have taken a long time, and your hands were probably scraped in the process.

Rolling forward

Another game that weaves dice into the story flow is Citizen Sleeper by Jump Over The Age.

Playing as a “sleeper” on a lawless space station, each day begins with rolling five dice (which can vary depending on your current Condition). Surviving on the station and completing tasks requires allocating your dice wisely to actions. The higher the dice value, the higher your chance of success. For example:

• 1 or 2: 50% negative, 50% neutral result

• 5: 50% positive, 50% neutral result

• 6: 100% positive result

As a sleeper, you must decide how to distribute your dice among tasks. Which tasks are you willing to risk with low dice? Which tasks demand high dice? Which tasks will you even attempt?

Some days, luck is on your side and all your dice are high. Other days, it’s the opposite, and you have to take risks even on critical tasks.

But even if you get a negative result, the story continues. Maybe you lose progress on a tracker, or maybe you lose Condition or some kind of resource; the story moves forward regardless.

Final Words

I call this: Rolling Forward. (I hope I’m the first person to come up with this.)

Rolling dice is fun. It adds tension and creates memorable moments. What’s your favorite game that uses dice?

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Me

Playing: Cairn. It’s been on my radar since it was announced, and it’s finally released. It’s difficult as hell and makes me want to throw the controller around from time to time, but still, the atmosphere, the visuals, and the environmental storytelling keep me going.

Reading: With my The Song of Ice and Fire love rekindled by the recent adaptation (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), I’m reading the series from the beginning. There is something magical about the way GRRM writes. It’s hard to put the books down once you pick them up, even though you’ve read them before and know exactly what’s going to happen.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey.

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Outward

There are so many things I can talk about Outward that I honestly don’t know where to start. I could talk about its magic system, for example. Casting spells isn’t easy in Outward. First, you have to clear a dungeon that is nothing short of a nightmare to unlock your mana. Then you need to figure out and memorize rune combinations for different spells. You have to cast runes in the correct order (and give the monster that have been chasing you relentlessly for the last ten minutes a perfect chance to finally catch you).

Or I could talk about its death system. Even though Outward is a survival game, there is no traditional “death.” Every time you die, a random scenario plays out depending on where you were or how you died.

Entering a dungeon genuinely feels dangerous, because there’s a good chance you won’t make it out alive. Casting magic makes you feel like a mage, because both learning spells and casting them require effort. Traveling from point A to point B feels like an actual adventure, because you need to prepare beforehand, and even then, you’re never sure if you’ll succeed.

All of Outward’s systems work toward a single goal: creating a challenging yet rewarding sense of adventure.

Blue Prince

In Blue Prince, you explore a mansion inherited from your grandfather and try to find the 46th room. At its core, it’s a puzzle game. The twist is that the mansion’s rooms are generated randomly each run. Every time you open a door, you’re presented with three rooms and you draft one of them. If you hit a dead end or run out of the resources you need to keep exploring the mansion, you’re sent back to the beginning. In that sense, it is also a roguelike deck-building game.

Because the rooms you can draft are random, the game can feel very frustrating. Drawing a bad hand can wipe out all your effort and force you to start over from scratch. But this is also what makes Blue Prince a special puzzle game. Working around this randomness and discovering the right moves to minimize the role of luck is the puzzle itself. As you play, you begin to see the structure behind the randomness: room types, rows where certain rooms become more likely, the resources rooms provide, and so on. Over time, you start getting the most out of even unlucky draws.

Yes, even when everything is going perfectly, a single bad hand can still ruin everything and make you want to throw the controller at the screen and quit. But you don’t. In that sense, it’s like Dark Souls. You try once. Then once more. Then again. And again.

Microscope

Microscope, designed by Ben Robbins, is not a video game but a tabletop role-playing game. However, it’s not your typical RPG. You don’t create characters or try to achieve specific goals. Instead, you create an epic history.

That may not sound incredibly exciting at first, but the way Microscope turns the idea of “creating history” into game mechanics is really inspiring to me. In short, all players begin by agreeing on a theme. This theme can be anything: humanity reaching for the stars, or a small kingdom under occupation. It can be as grand or as modest as you like. Then, in turn, players create a Period, an Event, or a Scene. Periods are broader stretches of time, Events are occurrences within those periods, and Scenes represent specific moments within those events.

No one is required to focus on the same thing. One player might concentrate on a plague at the founding of the kingdom, while another creates the first contact with aliens. And whatever other players add to the timeline becomes permanent. Another player can add a scene to an event you created, and that scene becomes part of the established history.

What makes Microscope inspiring for me is this zoom-in / zoom-out mechanic and its collaborative nature. Just like a microscope, you zoom-in on a single point in the timeline and explore what happened there with your imagination. Then you zoom-out and look at the bigger picture. By the end of the game, you and the other players have created a unique history together. (It’s also very useful as a worldbuilding tool.)

TLDR

• Outward: Right amount of difficulty can create a strong sense of earned accomplishment, and randomness can create memorable moments.

• Blue Prince: Randomness can be structured to create interesting experiences.

• Microscope: Even simple rules can spark your creativity.

What is your favorite games of the year?

2025 in Review

Games I’ve Made

One of the highlights of the year for me was releasing the demo for Herald of the Mists. It was well received by players, and it helped increase the wishlist count quite a bit. As of writing this, it has 1,625 wishlists.

Around the middle of the year, I decided to pause work on HotM and focus on one of my other ideas. My goal was to finish that project by the end of the year and return to HotM in 2026 but, of course, that didn’t quite happen. I’m still working on the other idea, and I’m hoping it will reach a stage where I can announce it properly soon.

Toward the summer, I released two games for the One-Page RPG Jam 2025. The first was Journeyman, where you play a boxer nearing retirement. The second was Pillion, a calm and relaxing motorcycle road trip.

GameDev’s Journey

This wasn’t a particularly productive year for GDJ. With this issue included, I only managed to publish 8 issues in total (it was 26 last year). The biggest reason for that was limited time. Each issue is taking more and more time to write. Still, I can say that I was mostly happy with what I published this year. Here are my favourite posts:

I’d like to thank my fellow Substack writers whose quality work has been really encouraging for me:

• from

• from

• from

• from

• from

I want to thank my girlfriend as well, who reads and edits these issues.

And finally, I’d like to thank you. Thank you so much for reading, liking, and commenting. I hope you’ve had a great year. Don’t forget to share the best games you played this year with me in the comments!

Song of the Year

That’s how I think about good game design. Every element, gameplay, graphics, soundtrack, story, etc. working together toward the same intended experience.

And one of the most underappreciated ingredients of game design is fonts. Literally Every game uses them but they’re rarely a hot topic of discussion. Most of us just pick a font that feels right and move on.

But what actually makes a font feel right?

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Why fonts matter

As Sarah Hyndman explains in her book Why Fonts Matter, fonts give text its own personality and backstory. Our brains register the font before we read the words themselves, and that influences how we interpret them.

Look at this example:

Every font conveys context and tone. A well-chosen font is not only readable, but also supports the game’s mood and atmosphere. A poorly chosen one, on the other hand, can easily make us disconnect from the experience the game is trying to deliver.

(Absolute) Basics of fonts

If you’d like go in depth on the matter, check out this free course by Envato, it’s great. But I know, you don’t have time for it, so here are my notes from the video:

• Typeface vs. Font: What I’ve been calling a “font” so far is technically a “typeface”. A typeface is a family of fonts (like Times New Roman), while a font is a variation within that family (such as bold, italic, or light).

• Type Classifications:

  • Serif & Sans Serif: A serif is the small line or stroke at the ends of letters. Sans means “without,” so sans serif fonts are fonts without those strokes. Serif fonts look more traditional and formal, while sans serif fonts feel clean and modern.

  • Monospace: Every character takes up the same amount of horizontal space. These are generally used in sci-fi and tech-themed games.

  • Gothic (Blackletter): Old-style fonts often used in medieval themed games.

• File Types: The most common formats are TTF (TrueType Font) and OTF (OpenType Font). TTF is the oldest modern format, and OTF is its successor. There are also variable fonts, a modern kind of font that can change its thickness and width smoothly inside one single file. Game engines usully work with TTF.

• Readability:

  • Line Spacing (Leading): The vertical space between lines. Make sure it’s not too tight or too loose.

  • Column Width: If it’s too narrow, you’ll get too many hyphenated words; too wide, and the text becomes tiring to read. A good rule of thumb is around 45–60 characters per line.

  • Color and Contrast: Add a shadow or a semi-transparent backdrop behind the text to increase the readability.

  • Kerning and Tracking: Kerning adjusts the space between specific letter pairs; tracking adjusts spacing across an entire word or paragraph.

Creative use of fonts in games

Fonts in games take on an entirely different dimension since they don’t have to be static. Letters can move, grow, shrink, change colors, and have unique sound effects as they appear on screen. This gives us more tools to convey emotions and context, and some games cleverly take advantage of this.

In Pentiment, for instance, different typefaces are used to reflect NPC’s education and class. Nobles and monks speak in more fancy and elegant typefaces while peasents speak in a rough, casual-feeling typeface. The genious part, however, is not use of different fonts but the way game uses them. Each font has accompanied by unique animation and sound. Peasants frequently make spelling mistakes in dialogue (like me in these posts). Sometimes they even notice it, cross out the word, and rewrite it. Nobles, on the other hand, do far fewer mistakes.

The majority of Pentiment revolves around reading dialogue with no voice acting. So this clever use of fonts helps us distinguish the contrast between different backgrounds of NPCs, as well as adding depth to the characters and to the historical period the game takes place in.

Another game I should mention is Undertale. It’s almost impossible to talk about fonts in games without bringing it up since its characters are literally named after fonts. Each character embodies the personality of their font. Sans is cool and laid-back, just like the Comic Sans typeface, while his brother Papyrus is loud and full of energy.

Where to get fonts

Just like any other form of art, fonts come with different types of licenses for different use cases. But unlike any other form of art, these licenses are not that straightforward. Requirements and prices depend on how the font will be used. These prices can be quite high so always make sure you paid for the license or the font is licensed under Open Font License (OFL). This license allows you to use font in your commercial project for free. Here are common sources for fonts:

• Google Fonts: Allows you to filter fonts by their feeling and appearance, which is really helpful.

• Font Squirrel: Hand-selected free typefaces.

• Fontesk: Allow you to filter by many different tags.

• Dafont: Huge selection for fonts but make sure to confirm the license.

Game Font Library

Game Font Library showcases games and fonts they use. It’s a great resource if you like to see what fonts other games use to get some inspiration.

Final Words

Long story short:

• Typography is an important ingredient of game development, and it might leave bad taste if not done well.

• Make sure it’s readable and conveys the tone and atmosphere of the game.

• In games, we’re not limited to just bold or italic text. Letters can animate, and that opens up a whole new set of possibilities.

How do you use fonts in your game?

Me

Sorry for going silent for couple of months; I was distracted by life and work. Herald of the Mists is collecting dust on the shelf, waiting for me to get back to it. Meanwhile I’m working on a small game which I want to talk about more soon.

Playing: I finally gave Pacific Drive a try. I’d been wanting to play it for a while but had avoided because of its tense atmosphere. It was fun gradually transforming my car into a monster. I found myself looting relentlessly for certain upgrades. That said repeatedly looting the same things did get a bit boring after the first 10 hours.

Reading: I’ve recently finished the second book of the Sun Eater series, Howling Dark. I was ready to DNF it in the first half, but the second half hit me hard, and I couldn’t put it down. Can’t wait to read the third entry, which is everybody’s favourite in the series.

Note: Remember the Game Dev Resources Database I shared via Notion ages ago? I’ve moved it to Google Sheets since I stopped using Notion. Here’s the new link. It’s in a rough shape and needs a lot of tidying up. I’ll get to it eventually.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey.

Last week, I decided to do something I’d never done before: join a jam.

Not a video game jam (I’m still not brave enough for that), but the One-Page RPG Jam 2025, where the only rule is to create an RPG that fits on a single page. I joined because it sounded easy enough (it wasn’t), and I thought I could wrap it up in two days (I couldn’t).

So I created Journeyman, a solo narrative boxing RPG.

It took five days to make and release, and in this issue, I’ll share how I went about it.

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What is a One-Page RPG?

Before we begin, let me briefly explain what one-page RPGs are. As the name suggests, the goal is to create a tabletop RPG whose rules fit on a single page. How you use that page is entirely up to you: some people go with a landscape layout and use just the front side; others divide it into sections and turn it into a tiny zine. Some well-known examples include:

• Lasers & Feelings

• Dave Ex Machina

• There and Back Again

Day 1: Brainstorming & Playtesting

The idea of a boxer trying to pay off his debt had come to me the night before. My brain was exhausted, but instead of going to sleep, it decided to keep generating random ideas. By the time I fell asleep, I had a rough pitch and a general flow of the game in mind.

I spent the first day mapping those ideas out. The overall structure and dice system were inspired by Home, a game by Nick Gralewicz. Home is a map-making game where you play as a mech pilot. What inspired me most was the game’s cinematic feel and the way its mechanics supported that.

I also wanted Journeyman to have story-generating mechanics and a clear structure. The game has two phases: training camp and fight. During training camp, you build the dice pool you’ll use in the fight. The dice represent how well different parts of your training (sparring, cutting weight, etc.) go. You have a few moves that can affect the pool. For example, Train Harder: spend 2 Will to add 1 die to your pool.

Fights last 8 rounds. In each round, you and your opponent roll all dice in your pools, and you narrate the scene based on the result.

Another thing I definitely wanted to include was a clear goal for the player, and this turned out to be the hardest part. My first idea was a simple one: “pay off your debt.” But as I tested it, I realized it was kind of boring. Since the game is dice-based, whether you pay it off or not depends entirely on RNG. If luck was on your side, you could clear your debt easily; if not, it just felt frustrating.

So I added a second, optional goal: becoming a champion. Paying off your debt still isn’t too hard: winning just three of your ten fights is usually enough. But if you want to become a champion, you’ll need to take risks and spend your winnings (and hope your luck holds).

So the question becomes: is paying off your debt enough for you, or will you risk everything to go for the title?

Day 2: Writing & Layout

I opened a blank Obsidian note and started writing the rules as briefly as I could. Around the halfway point, I realized something that might be considered important: there was no way this would all fit on a single page.

So I stopped writing in Obsidian, opened a blank Canva project, and decided to do the writing and layout at the same time. I chose Canva for the layout because I’m already familiar with it and most of its features are free. (As far as I know, it’s not the most recommended tool for this kind of work, but for a small project like this, it worked just fine.)

My idea was to make a foldable pamphlet, which meant I had six panels to work with. One would be the cover, one the character sheet, and one reserved for oracles, which left me with three panels for the actual rules. I split those into Setup, Fight Camp, and Fight, and crammed in as many mechanics as I could.

There were a few sections I wanted to give their own dedicated space, but I had to remove them or trim them down to a single sentence. By the end of the day, about 80% of the layout was done, but since I had cut so many rules, I had to test the game all over again.

Day 3: More Layout

I finished the remaining 20% of the layout and tested the game again with the updated rules.

For small visuals in the PDF, I used Canva’s free image library. My girlfriend drew a few illustrations too (free labor, hehe). By the end of the day, the first version of the game was almost done.

Day 4-5: More Playtesting, Final Touches & Release

On the fourth day, I did the final layout touches, changed the color palette for the tenth time, and created the Itch page. On the fifth day, after a final round of checks, I suppressed the urge to spend another month polishing everything, and hit publish.

It’s not a perfect game, and it definitely needs more playtesting. But it’s fun, and overall, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

It feels good to release something.

If you get a chance to play it, don’t forget to share your thoughts with me!

Final Thoughts and Four Things I Learned

While I was writing this issue, I hadn’t received much feedback apart from a couple of nice comments from people who played the game. So honestly, I still don’t know if the game is good or bad, or even if it’s fun. But it was a great game design exercise for me, and I really enjoyed making it.

Here are a few small notes from what I learned during the process:

• Even a small game with light rules needs a lot of playtesting, and it’s really hard to know if it’s balanced until others try it.

• Creating a single-page RPG is an excellent game design exercise, because you don’t have to worry about coding, music, rendering, performance, or any of that. All your focus is on the game itself.

• Canva is great for this kind of small project, though it can be a bit tricky to figure out at first. Its font and image libraries were more than enough for my needs. (That said, the only other layout tool I’ve used is a (very) old version of Quark, which I could only access by connecting to another (very) old computer via TeamViewer. It was a nightmare.)

• Sleepless nights are ideal for brainstorming.

The jam runs until August 18th. Let me know if you're participating!

(If you're interested but don’t know where to start, check out One-Page RPG Jam helpful resources written by .)

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• How did my demo launch go? (Spoilers: Not well)

• 3 Narrative Design Lessons from Clair Obscur’s Prologue

• Game Development is Series of Rolling the Dice

Me

Playing:

Though The Alters has a really intriguing story, its mechanics started to feel quite repetitive after a while. By the time I reached Act 3, I realized I didn’t want to go through the same motions I had in the previous acts, so I ended up quitting. Still, I think it’s a solid game that offers good value for its price. The story, dialogue, and atmosphere make for a worthwhile experience. It’s just longer than it needs to be, and the mechanics get old. (And those anomalies… they were the main reason I dropped the game so close to the end.) Up next: Avowed.

Reading:

I finally started The Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio, which had been sitting on my list for ages. It feels like the child of The Name of the Wind and Dune. I really enjoy detailed writing style so far.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

The game quickly caught attention thanks to its innovative JRPG-style combat, as well as its compelling story and soundtrack. I’m not usually a fan of turn-based JRPG combat, so I wasn’t initially interested. But after seeing the praise it was receiving, my curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to give it a try.

There’s a lot to say about this game, but in this issue, I want to focus on the prologue. Because in just 20–30 minutes, the game manages to draw you in, spark your curiosity for what’s to come, and help you form an emotional connection with the characters. How? Let’s dive in!

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SPOILER WARNING

The prologue covers roughly the first half hour of the game. So while nothing I’m about to discuss is a major spoiler, if you haven’t played it yet and plan to, now’s a good time to stop reading and experience it for yourself. (But don’t forget to like this post first!)

1. Active Worldbuilding

The world as we know it has shattered. Reality is twisted, and only a small remnant of humanity remains. Every year, a giant being known as the Paintress performs a countdown ritual, and anyone whose age matches the announced number dies on that day. This event is called the Gommage.

But the game doesn’t explain this in a clumsy info dump, like I just did; it makes you experience it.

In his video, Videogames Have Terrible Worldbuilding, Adam Millard calls this Active Worldbuilding. Instead of telling us about the world, the game lets us discover it on our own. It invites us to play an active role in understanding its rules and mysteries about the setting.

2. Hit the Player Hard and Fast

According to Adam, the best way to make players care about a game world is to hit them with a powerful, emotional scene early on. So that they’re instantly pulled in and curious to see more.

Clair Obscur opens shortly before the Gommage. We start as Gustave, heading to visit our ex-girlfriend, Sophie. Even though we as players don’t know much about their past, the meaningful glances and dialogue between the two give us glimpses of their emotions and tough decisions they had to make.

Together, we walk through the city, talk to people, and head to the harbor, where we get a clear view of the Paintress. We hold hands. The Paintress erases the number 34 from its towering column and replaces it with 33. Then, slowly, the people around us begin to die. Including Sophie.

Combined with Lorien Testard’s emotional score, the game opens with a gut-punch that pulls you in immediately.

3. Spinach in the Smoothie

Kids hate spinach. But they love smoothies. So what if we sneak some spinach into the smoothie?

Brandon Sanderson uses this as a metaphor for good exposition. Instead of dumping all of our carefully crafted lore onto the player, we should blend it into fun mechanics and compelling characters so players absorb it effortlessly.

Clair Obscur nails this. It teaches you the basics of its fun combat while introducing important characters like Gustave, Maelle, and Sophie. This makes it easy for us to get comfortable with the world without feeling overwhelmed.

Final Words

The prologue isn’t the only thing Clair Obscur does well. Act 1, where you start exploring the world and come across more mysteries, is also quite strong. Acts 2 and 3 didn’t quite meet my expectations, to be honest. Still, the game never stopped being intriguing or fun to play.

To sum up:

1. Active Worldbuilding: Let the player uncover the world through experience.

2. Hit the Player Hard and Fast: Open with a strong hook.

3. Spinach in the Smoothie: Hide your lore inside the fun.

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• 5 Worst Ways to Start Your Game

• The Game Dev’s Guide to Save Systems

• 5 Core Pillars That Make Turn-Based Combat Fun

Me

I’ve been spending my time job hunting and working on my side project. Herald of the Mists has taken a backseat for now. Before I return to it, I want to see if this small side project can actually go somewhere.

Playing: I’ve started playing The Alters, which I’ve had my eye on for a while. Like Clair, it kicks off with a really strong prologue, and I’m loving the atmosphere so far. It feels like a new GotY contender is releasing every other week this year…

Reading: I read Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers. It had some valuable lessons (maybe I’ll write an article about them), but overall it felt either too broad or too specific. Still, definitely worth reading.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

I didn’t, at least not until I released a demo. And the first major update I made to that demo? Changing the save system.

It’s something that directly shapes the player’s experience. Let them save anytime, and they won’t feel the tension of losing progress. Make it restrictive, and they’ll think twice before entering a dungeon.

As Dan and Mike say in their video essay on save systems, “The right save system with the right game can create a new genre.”

Yet, I feel like save systems don’t get nearly enough attention in game design discussions. So in this issue, let’s dive into some common save systems and see how they shape player behavior. Let’s go!

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Common Save Systems and Their Effect on Player Behavior

From saving by using the toilet to letting players place their own save points, there are many creative save mechanics out there. While it’s impossible to cover them all in a single post, we can explore some of the most fundamental and widely used ones.

1. Freeform Save

Many games let you save whenever you want. Some may restrict this during critical moments, but others, like Divinity, even allow saving in the middle of combat.

This is ideal for narrative-focused games like Mass Effect, because let’s face it, none of us enjoy watching the same cutscenes over and over. There’s no real fear of loss in this system, so players tend to explore every corner and try more experimental strategies. Planted a bunch of barrels around the boss and accidentally blew yourself up too? No problem! Just reload and try again.

The flip side, of course, is how easily this system can be exploited. If you can save at any time, there’s no need to deal with the consequences of your actions. While this fits well with games like Divinity, which reward experimentation, in other genres it can completely erase any sense of challenge.

That’s why developers often design their way around it. In Pathologic 2, each time the player dies, they receive a permanent penalty like reduced max health or increased hunger. Reloading doesn’t help because the game alters all save files. Other games find the solution in allowing a single save file in hard modes.

2. Designated Save Points

Another common save system is saving only at specific points. The most well-known examples are Souls-like games and the Resident Evil series. These safe zones not only let you save your game but also manage your inventory, upgrade skills, and perform other tasks.

This increases the tension created by exploration. Taking risks becomes harder the farther you are from the last save point. At the same time, players start peeking into every corner, hoping to find the next one.

Placement of these save points is crucial. if they’re too close to each other, they lose their meaning; too far apart, and the difficulty can spike. Either way, this system is great at encouraging exploration.

One of the most creative uses of this system is in Alien: Isolation. You can only save at limited, fixed points, and the fun is that saving takes an annoyingly long time. Meanwhile, the Alien is still hunting you. So you can die while trying to save.

3. Consumable Resource

In some games, saving requires you to use a specific resource. For example, in the early Resident Evil titles, you need an Ink Ribbon item to save. Another well-known example is Kingdom Come: Deliverance, where saving requires the Savior Schnapps potion.

This makes you think twice before saving. What if a more critical moment comes later and you’re out of save items? What if you lose hours of progress? This increases tension (a lot!) and requires a balanced risk-reward system. Where and how often you place these items matters too (let’s not forget the joy of finding a new save item after a long stretch.)

This is one of the riskiest save systems out there imo. There’s a reason one of the most downloaded KCD mods is the one that lets you save anytime. No one likes losing hours of progress, and casual players usually don’t want to stress over mechanics like this.

Final Words

To conclude, a good save system reinforces other aspects of the game. It shapes how players perceive risk and make decisions.

Many games use a combination of these systems. In Herald of the Mists, for example (which I’ve heard great things about hehe), you need a specific item to save, but you can also save by camping or praying in front of a statue of the in-game deity.

How does saving work in your game? And why did you choose that approach?

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• 3 Pillars of Compelling Game Characters

• How to Create Intriguing Choices in Games

• 5 Core Pillars That Make Turn-Based Combat Fun

Me

I’ve been busy plotting the overall story of Herald of the Mists. Even though I’ve more or less figured out how it ends, I still haven’t fully worked out how to get there. At the same time, I’ve been tinkering with another small side project whenever I can find the time. I’m not sure if that one will go anywhere yet. I’ll share more details in the coming months if I stick with it.

Playing: Blue Prince. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that’s both so relaxing and so infuriating at the same time. It’s so relaxing to put on your headphones, listen to its soothing music, and explore while taking notes. On the other, one small thing can make you miss your goal entirely and start over. It’s maddening. And I love it. It’s definitely something special.

Reading: Joe Abercrombie’s new book, The Devils. I started it as soon as it came out, since he’s one of my favorite authors. This one isn’t set in the First Law universe. Instead, it takes place in an alternate Europe filled with human-eating elves and dark magic-wielding churches.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

On March 21, 2025, I released the demo of a game I’d been developing for two years. It took me blood, sweat, and lots of anxiety.

The game is neither marketable nor streamer-friendly. It’s a highly niche game that focuses on story rather than fun mechanics. It’s basically the exact opposite of everything marketing experts recommend.

So I hope the data I share will be useful for those working on similar kinds of games. Let’s go.

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What is Herald of the Mists?

Let me briefly introduce the game for those who have joined recently.

Herald of the Mists is a text-based RPG set in a dark fantasy world. It’s all about worldbuilding, atmosphere, complex characters, and intricate mysteries.

You play as the Herald of the Queen, sent to a land where loyalty to the Queen is fragile. Your task is to discover what happened to the Queen’s missing army. The entire story revolves around the mystery of the vanished forces and the choices you’re willing to make to uncover the truth.

Check out the demo on Steam or Itch and let me know what you think!

The Quick Timeline

• March 2023 - February 2024: I started the project in March 2023. My initial idea was to create a minimalist, small game focusing on a kill-loot-and kill more loop. However, over the course of a year, it gradually turned into a story-driven RPG. By February 2024, the game had just begun to find its identity.

• March 2024: I wrote the opening scene (Mountain Pass) and had my friends play it. I received positive feedback.

• May 2024: I named my game Herald of the Mists and launched a Steam page with a terrible capsule art that I created myself. In the first week, I gathered only 53 wishlists. You can read more detailed information about this part here.

• November 2024: I improved the visuals of the game and completely revamped the Steam page with a capsule image drawn by a professional artist. There was a noticeable increase in the number of wishlists. End-of-year wishlist count: 241. For more details, check this post.

• January 2025: By this time, I had discarded most of the content I had added, as I wasn’t satisfied with it, and started rewriting from scratch.

• February 2025: On the last day of February, I released an early version of the demo on Itch. My goal was to get feedback before launching it on Steam. Unfortunately, no one played it, and I didn’t receive any feedback.

• March 2025 - 1 week before demo launch: I made the Steam demo page public. Wishlists went up only a little bit. Next time, I plan to make the demo page public one month before the launch.

• March 2025 - 4 days before demo launch: I sent Steam keys to over fifty streamers, including some big names, who had played similar games. Only five streamers played it.

• March 2025 - Demo Launch: On March 21, I clicked the publish button on Steam.

Before launching the demo, I had decided that if it didn’t bring at least 1000 wishlists, I would abandon the project and move on to a new one. So, how did it go? (Spoiler: Not very good)

Here are the Numbers

As of April 9, 2025:

• Lifetime total units: 1,133

• Lifetime unique users: 250

• Median time played: 33 minutes

• Wishlists before demo launch: 463

• Wishlists as of April 9, 2025: 835

• Reviews: 20, all positive (some of them are friends and family)

Lessons Learned

1. A Text-Based RPG is Still an RPG

Have you ever heard the advice “don’t make your first game an RPG”? I hear it a few times a day. But when I decided to make a text-based RPG, I thought to myself: “I love RPGs and writing. How hard could making a text-based RPG be? There are no assets! I’ll just write!”

However, when I finished the demo content, which makes up only 15% of the game, and saw that it had over 50k words, I realized something: In addition to making a full-fledged role-playing game with UI, combat, character creation system, resource management, and an economy, I’m also writing a huge fantasy novel that’s going to be at least 300k words long…

So, while I may have escaped the difficulties of environmental design, physics, and the other challenges of a 3D RPG, I’ve replaced them with something just as hard.

2. Fishing Rod Effect

When people (whom I watched play the game) saw that a fishing rod is being sold in the market, each of them reacted: “A fishing rod??? I need to buy that!”

Just learning that there’s fishing in the game makes people happy. So, if your game has a fishing minigame, I highly recommend adding it to the demo.

3. Communicating Rules

The game has a very simple character creation and combat system. A little bit of tinkering is enough to figure out how it works—so I thought. If you can’t figure it out, there’s an encyclopedia section where everything is explained.

Well, almost everyone who played the game was confused about how everything worked. The most common feedback I received in the feedback form was that the systems weren’t explained clearly enough.

Players shouldn’t have to struggle to understand the basics of the game. The game should communicate everything clearly and directly, even if it’s very simple.

Road Ahead

That’s the story so far. Numbers are looking bleak. Even though I had decided to quit if I didn’t get 1000 wishlists, I couldn't bring myself to quit after the positive feedback from people who played it.

For now, I continue working on it, but at the same time, I'm considering my other ideas as well. Maybe I can develop something smaller and more 'marketable' alongside it.

We’ll see how it goes together. Every now and then, I try to remind myself of this quote from The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell:

There is a saying among jugglers: “If you aren’t dropping, you aren’t learning. And if you aren’t learning, you aren’t a juggler.”

You Might Also Like

• 3 Pillars of Compelling Game Characters

• On Games and Writing: Interview with Nick and Max Folkman

• Game Development is Series of Rolling the Dice

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey.

Sorry for going radio silent last month; I’ve been busy trying to finish the demo of my game. But more on that later. Let’s start with today’s topic:

Sanderson’s Three Pillars of Compelling Characters

One of today’s greatest fantasy writers, Brandon Sanderson, shares his writing lessons on his YouTube channel. Although these lessons are focused on writing fantasy and science fiction novels, many of them can be adapted for games as well.

In his lesson about characters, he talks about the three key traits of compelling characters:

• Proactivity

• Relatability

• Capability

Let’s take a closer look at these and explore how we can adapt them for games. Let’s go!

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1. Proactivity

Brandon explains, "When we go into stories, we want to see progress.” So we naturally love the characters who move the story forward. A great game example of this is Commander Shepard from Mass Effect.

Right from the start, Shepard is a proactive character. In the first mission, when things go wrong on Eden Prime, Shepard takes immediate action—leading their squad and investigating the strange alien artifacts. Throughout the game, the player, as Shepard, is constantly making decisions, taking initiative, and pushing the story forward.

Even though players have control over Shepard’s choices, the character remains proactive because the narrative consistently frames them as someone who gets things done. Whether they’re paragon or renegade, Shepard is never a passive observer.

Question: Does the player character in your game move the story forward through their actions? What about NPCs? Are they passive observers, or do they actively engage with the plot?

2. Relatability

For players to bond with our characters, they need to be relatable in some way. There are many ways to earn the sympathy of the player, and one well-known technique is called Save the Cat. A screenwriting term coined by Blake Snyder, "Save the Cat" means having our character do something good at the beginning of the story to frame them as likable.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, one of the first things we do as Arthur Morgan is save Sadie Adler, a helpless woman who recently lost her husband, from a gang of outlaws. And that’s not the last “cat” we save. Then, we go on to save John Marston, a character we love from the first game. Within the first hour, Arthur has saved two people, showing that, even as an outlaw, he follows a moral code and will stand up for those he cares about.

"Save the Cat" doesn’t necessarily mean rescuing someone. It simply means having the character do something that makes them admirable, and helping the player form a bond with them.

Question: Does your character save a cat in the beginning of the story?

3. Capability

“We love reading about competent people doing things competently,” Brandon says. And as players, we love playing as competent characters in games. A great example of this is Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher series.

Geralt is a master witcher, and the game constantly reinforces his competence in monster hunting and solving problems. Whether he’s tracking monsters, brewing potions, or fighting (or playing gwent), Geralt is always portrayed as an expert in his field.

Wherever Geralt goes, people from his past remember his accomplishments. His reputation often precedes him, and by the time his name is mentioned, others usually already know it, reinforcing his competence.

Question: Is your character capable at what they do?

Final Words: Breaking the Rules

Creating an engaging character is an inherently creative process, and trying to fit it into rigid formulas can limit your imagination. Don’t be afraid to break the rules and turn them upside down! For more insights, check out Brandon’s full video.

Who’s your favorite game character and why? Drop a comment below.

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Me

My game: The last few months have been spent adding content, polishing, and testing the demo of Herald of the Mists. And now, I’ve officially completed the demo! Depending on your choices, it takes around 1.5-2 hours to finish. All that’s left is to publish it, send emails to streamers, and hope that people will play and enjoy it. I’m planning to release the demo on Steam on March 21st. If you're interested, you can play the early version on Itch!

Playing: I’ve been playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Since the first one is one of my favorite games, it was hard to ignore the game and not play it until the demo was done. So far, it's been a lot of fun, though my only complain is that it feels much easier compared to the first one. We can talk about it in more detail once I finish it.

Reading: Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I played the game adaptation many years ago. While the game itself didn't leave a huge impression on me, I still listen to its music. The book has been highly praised, so I decided to give it a read. So far, it’s been really good.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

Failure might not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about game design, but it’s one of the most important aspects since it’s integral to the feeling of achievement.

What’s considered a failure can vary widely across genres. Failing to solve a puzzle in a puzzle game or being spotted in a stealth game can be perceived as failure. However, the most common failure state in games is, without a doubt, the classic death screen. You die (or fail) and must restart from the latest checkpoint.

Some games, though, make “dying” a core part of the experience. In these games, death isn’t the end but rather an opportunity to progress.

In this issue, we’ll explore three games that use unique mechanics around dying. Let’s go!

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Outward: Part of the Adventure

Outward is an adventure/survival game where you don’t actually die. But what’s the point of “surviving” if there’s no “dying”? Well, there are worse fates than death.

Whenever your HP drops to 0, which happens quite often as the game thrives on making you suffer, a random scenario unfolds. If luck is on your side, someone might drag you back home, kindly taking your hard-earned money in the process. If you’re unlucky, you might wake up as a slave, stripped of your cash, gear, potions, and backpack. The outcome of your failure depends on your location, and the possibilities are many. In some cases, “dying” might even result in a positive turn of events, such as healing a negative status.

The system runs on uncertainty. Once you fail, you don’t know what consequences you’ll have to face. And whatever happens, it all ties back to the game’s core theme. Did monsters drag you into a cave and devour all your food? Did bandits steal your armor? Well, it’s all part of the adventure.

The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante: Death as a Resource

The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is a narrative-driven, text-based RPG where death is built into the narrative and worldbuilding. You play as Sir Brante, a commoner born into a noble family, navigating life through a series of choices. As the title suggests, these choices inevitably lead to suffering—and, eventually, death.

But death in this game isn’t the end. At least, not initially. During your first three deaths, known as “Lesser Deaths,” you are reborn. These allow the narrative to continue. However, if you die a fourth time, you face the “True Death,” where your journey ends for good. This is true for other people in the world too. Everyone (with some exceptions) is reborn until they face the True Death.

Having multiple lives creates an interesting dynamic in the narrative. It’s a highly limited resource that you have to spend wisely to make it to the end. Will you use it to unlock new dialogues and gain new stats? Or will you spend it to escape a difficult situation?

Pathologic 2: Death’s Heavy Toll

Pathologic 2 is a first-person survival RPG where you must race against time to save a town consumed by a plague. Your mission is to fight the plague and save as many people as possible. On the surface, it looks like the game has a very simple save-load system.

But when you die, you’re transported to the Theatre of Death, where a particular NPC explains that if you die, you will be punished. And punished you will be. Each death results in permanent penalties, such as reductions to your maximum health and hunger. Think you can bypass these consequences by reloading a save? Think again. The game applies these penalties across all saves.

Dying is a heavy burden in Pathologic 2. Thus, surviving does feel significant.

Final Words

There are countless games that turn death into a meaningful mechanic; these three are just the ones that stood out to me. While each of these games integrates death into the gameplay differently, they all have something in common: Death has irreversible consequences.

What consequences do players face when they fail in your game?

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Me

I’ve been working on the demo day and night. I ended up scrapping most of the content I added last year because I wasn’t happy with it, so now I’m trying to make up for the lack of content. And to top it off, Steam decided my visual novel wasn’t eligible for the Visual Novel Festival. I’m trying to sort that out too. Wish me luck!

Reading: Wind and Truth is finished, and to be honest, it was quite underwhelming. It fell far below the quality bar set by the previous books. The whole book felt like we were occupied with trivial side quests, though the ending wasn’t too bad. (It felt more like Mistborn Era 2 than Stormlight—if you know what that means.)

Playing: Recently, whenever I get a break from the demo crunch, I play Outward. The game is entirely designed to make the player suffer—and I love it. It’s one of those games that captures the sense of adventure so well. Let me know your build if you’ve played it.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

In this issue, I’ll take a look back at 2024 and see what kind of year it’s been. Let’s go!

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GameDev’s Journey

This year on GDJ, I published 25 issues (excluding the one you’re reading now), with a total of 31,565 words. At the beginning of the year, the subscriber count was 159; as I’m writing this, it’s 326. Not bad at all!

Although the quality of my writing isn’t quite at the level I want yet, I can see improvement when I compare this year’s issues to last year’s. That’s what matters most to me. I had less time and energy to dedicate to the newsletter compared to last year, but I managed to raise the quality bar a bit.

Here are the three issues I’m most proud of this year:

• Game Development is a Series of Rolling the Dice

• 4 Types of Steam Short Descriptions

• The Game Dev’s Guide to Fishing Minigames

I try to write about whatever I’m focused on in my own game at the time, which sometimes means covering topics that nobody else really cares about. I keep asking myself, “Was this too specific?” or “Was this too general?” after each issue. Still, I feel like I’m getting better at finding the balance.

In short, it’s been a good year for GDJ. A big, big thank you to everyone who subscribed. I hope our numbers grow even more in the coming year!

Herald of the Mists

I’ve made some progress on my game—not as much as I’d like, but not bad either. Back in January, the game’s identity was still taking shape. Now, I’d say it knows exactly what it is.

I added over 50k words of content to the game (unfortunately, a big chunk of it will end up being scrapped because I wasn’t happy with it). I also added combat, a magic system, tooltips, fishing, a market, and other features. Nearly everything I added last year had to be completely reworked from scratch. And I must’ve gone back to visuals 10 times, trying to improve them.

I also created a Steam page and a website. Neither is in great shape and outdated, and I plan to redo both soon.

As for marketing, things are looking bleak. Other than a few social media posts, I haven’t been able to do much. My wishlist count hasn’t even reached 200, and I honestly don’t know how to increase it. Next year, I’ll release a demo and assess the situation from there. Of course, I’ll share all my experiences here too.

Right now, I’m focusing on polishing the combat. (By “polishing,” I actually mean rebuilding it from the ground up.) My goal is to release the demo in March and have 90% of the game finished by the end of the year. Wish me luck!

Personal Life Updates: Quitting My Job

Another development that’s been occupying my mind lately is the fact that I’m leaving my job on the 26th of this month. Longtime readers might remember that I also resigned from a job last August. I started this one in March, but I’ve decided to quit again because I wasn’t happy. Neither the pay, the benefits, nor the opportunities for skill development were satisfying. Since I don’t have any responsibilities beyond myself right now, I decided to take this risk again.

I want to find a new job as soon as possible, but in the meantime, it’ll be nice to dedicate a few months entirely to the game.

Great Games I Played in 2024

• Baldur’s Gate 3: It’s hard to say anything about this game that hasn’t already been said. What makes it special to me is how much it feels like Dragon Age: Origins, one of my all-time favorite games.

• Starfield: Despite its many flaws, I really enjoyed Starfield. I have a soft spot for realistic sci-fi themes, and exploring its lore was delightful. The story was interesting, though I wish fewer main quests were fetch quests. My favorite part was exploring derelict ships in the depths of space, uncovering what went wrong, like entering a vault in Fallout.

• Gothic 2: Somehow even more unforgiving than the first game, Gothic 2 was a highlight of the year for me. I’ll never forget returning to the map from the first game, now overrun by orcs and dragons, and swimming through lakes to avoid being caught.

• Pillars of Eternity 2: While it didn’t quite live up to the first game for me, sailing from place to place and completing faction quests in PoE2 was still a lot of fun. The way the story leaves off has me even more excited for Avowed.

• Oxenfree 2: I played quite a few sequels this year, it seems. Maybe I should write an issue about that. Anyway, while Oxenfree 2 also falls into the “overshadowed by its predecessor” category, its ending moved me enough to earn a spot on this list.

Great Books I Read in 2024

• The Green Bone Saga: This series had been on my list for ages, but I never got around to it because urban fantasy didn’t initially appeal to me. This year, I finally read and finished the whole series, and now I can confidently say that I love urban fantasy. I won’t be forgetting the Kaul family from this Japanese mafia-themed series anytime soon.

• The Magic of Thinking Big: A recent read that focuses on how our attitudes and thoughts toward ourselves, life, and our pursuits significantly shape their outcomes. It was quite eye-opening.

• $100M Offers: One of the most useful books I’ve read about marketing. While not directly related to game development, it still taught me a lot.

• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow: A story about three friends founding a game studio. It’s packed with drama and bittersweet moments. While reading, I genuinely thought it was based on a true story. Learning later that it was fiction gave my brain a small Fight Club moment.

• Stormlight Archive 5: Wind and Truth: It’s still early for me to include this on the list since I’ve just started reading it, but as one of my favorite series, it deserves a mention. The first 200 pages haven’t quite met my expectations yet. I had hoped for more focus on characters who took a backseat in the previous book. We’ll see how it goes.

Final Words

Once again, thank you all for reading, liking, and commenting on these issues. I hope you’ve had a great year. The next issue of GDJ will come out in the new year, so I wish you all a Happy New Year in advance.

Don’t forget to share the best games you played this year with me in the comments!

• Huana

• Vailian Trading Company

• Royal Deadfire Company

• Príncipi

Each has its own unique and interesting history and lore. The relationships you build with these factions directly influence the game's ending.

But something felt missing when it comes to these factions.

As I approached the end of the game, my interest in them gradually dwindled. Not sure why, I decided to dig deeper into what makes factions engaging and explore what might have gone wrong here. Let's go!

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Why Are Factions So Common in RPGs?

“We are the only salvation this tortured planet and its people have. Without us, humanity is sure to perish.”
- Vree, the head scribe of the Brotherhood of Steel

The role of factions varies greatly depending on a game's genre and the type of experience it aims to deliver. As highlighted in a thesis on factions by Fredrik Nyrell and Andreas Tobiasson, their most fundamental and essential function is to generate conflict. Players can align themselves with a faction, adopting its enemies as their own and forming alliances with its friends.

Factions also provide a sense of community, creating an “us versus them” dynamic that motivates players. (Remember the teams in Pokémon GO and the debates they sparked online?)

Factions also play a critical role in worldbuilding by adding depth and authenticity to the game world. As noted in Other Atlas, factions are instrumental in crafting major historical events, political intrigue, and compelling narratives.

How to Create a Faction That Matter

Naturally, the approach will vary depending on the type of game you're developing. Since I’m working on a single-player RPG, my focus will be on that genre. I’ll also use an example from my own game as we go along: a faction named the Knights of the Mists.

1. They Make Sense

A faction should feel grounded and believable within the world it inhabits. Its motivations and goals need to be clear and effectively communicated to the player. In his video on factions, Kyle from Map Crow recommends treating factions as if they were characters in the same room. By considering their purpose, relationships, desires, and the obstacles they face, you can give them a strong identity and make them more relatable.

The Knights of the Mists are elite soldiers trained to use the mists to outmaneuver their enemies. Their primary goal is to defend The Mists region from invaders, but they also serve as a form of law enforcement. Their existence is rooted in the game’s world, as the region is perpetually blanketed in dense fog. Their motto reflects their philosophy: “Swords our weapon, mists our shield.”

2. Joining Requires Effort

Joining a faction should feel like an accomplishment. The player has to prove their worth first so joining gives a sense of achievement and investment. In Gothic, for example*,* you need to build your reputation and demonstrate your value to a faction before being allowed to join. Once you’re in, you start at the bottom rank and gradually climb the ladder. Each rank comes with its own unique armor and weapons, giving you the feeling of progression. This is something I feel Pillars of Eternity 2 lacks. You don’t truly join any faction; instead, you act more like a freelancer carrying out tasks for them.

To join the Knights of the Mists, you need to prove yourself, much like in Gothic. This involves completing a few key tasks and making the right choices along the way. You need to show them that your values align with theirs.

3. Joining Has Consequences

Joining a faction should carry meaningful consequences, both narratively and in gameplay. For example, if Faction A forbids the use of magic, joining them might restrict your ability to cast spells. Aligning with Faction A could make you enemies with Faction B, while strengthening your relationship with Faction C.

Although The Mists region is known for its rebellion and defiance against the Queen, the Knights of the Mists remain loyal to her, upholding her rule. Thus joining them makes your interactions with the rest of The Mists more challenging.

4. Intriguing Figures Represent the Faction

One of the most impactful elements that make a faction memorable is compelling figures who represent it. At the end of the day, factions are brought to life through the people who embody their values and interact with the player. These key individuals act as the “face” of the faction and are central to how players perceive and connect with it. As experienced game writers Nick and Max Folman emphasized, everyone wants to see strong character work.

The leader of the Knights of the Mists is a legendary figure known as Kai the Written. Nicknamed "the Written" because his life was foretold by prophecies by the Queen long before his birth. He is not the faction’s founder and, in fact, fought against them several times. Using their own tactics against them, he exploited their strengths as weaknesses, ultimately defeating them and earning their loyalty. The problem? Kai has been missing for years. His absence has caused fractures within the faction and sparked power struggles among those vying for leadership.

5. They Evolve Over Time

Factions that change and develop over time based on the player’s actions or significant events feel alive. As players complete quests and make choices, the factions and their relationships with one another should naturally shift.

Not all of the Knights followed Kai’s leadership. Some continued to defy the Queen’s rule and split from the group, forming their own faction known as the Soldiers of the Mists. As the player, the fate of these two factions will depend on the choices you make.

Final Words

In summary, factions are incredibly effective for adding political intrigue and depth to your game. Make sure that they feel logical within the world you've built. To make joining a faction meaningful, challenge the player and ensure they face the consequences of their choices. Don't forget to add a charismatic leader to each faction and allow them to evolve as the game progresses.

You Might Also Like

• The Game Dev’s Guide to Worldbuilding

• How to Create Intriguing Choices in Games

• NPC Alchemy: Creating Compelling Companions

Me

Reading: The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. It focuses on how our attitude toward life and projects significantly influences their outcomes. The approaches and advice within it are also applicable to game development. It’s highly inspiring, and I would recommend giving it a read.

Playing: Yes, I finally finished PoE2. Overall, I can say that I liked it. But as I mentioned last time, I don’t think it comes close to the first game. Now, I’m playing Mass Effect 2 Legendary Edition. I’ve really missed this universe.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

Increasing workload from my daily job and my desperate efforts to prepare a demo for Steam’s Visual Novel Festival in March prevented me from finishing this week’s issue of GDJ. Still, I didn’t want to let the week go by without posting anything. So today, I’ll shortly tell you about the progress I’ve made with my game and share a few links that might pique your interest. Let’s go!

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Herald of the Mists Dev Log

First of all, yes—I finally got rid of the embarrassing capsule art from before! The new artwork was created by Giovanni Fim, who was incredibly patient and flexible throughout the process. I’m really pleased with how the new visual turned out.

Beyond that, I’ve been thinking more about the game’s visuals. I changed the white background to gray because I was concerned that staring at a bright white screen might put off some players.

But to be honest, I’m still not entirely sure about this visual design. So, I also tested it with a black background:

Since the black-and-white visuals didn’t quite suit the black background, I added a bit of color as well. What do you think works better?

I also asked the same question on Reddit, and most people seem to prefer the black background. Many suggested adding a toggle option, but I want the game to have a single, decisive visual design.

On another note, I updated the game’s save system. I was previously using BinaryFormatter, but I happened to learn that it’s not secure at all. Now, I’m saving data as a JSON file and encrypting it for security.

I’ve polished the camping mechanic. Originally, if you had a certain number of rations, you could just press a button and fully restore your health and mana. Now, you can choose how many rations you want to use, and your health and mana bonuses will scale accordingly. This makes managing your rations more strategic.

I also added a settings window, which currently includes only audio and display options. It needs more work but should be enough for the demo.

Additionally, I made some small tweaks to the character creation screen and am now working on the main menu:

There’s still a lot to do for the demo. First, I need to polish the combat system, both in terms of visuals and mechanics. The content for the demo is there, but it’s unedited. I’ll need to go through everything, edit it from scratch, and rewrite certain parts—likely around 10-15k words. On top of that, I need to update the Steam page with new descriptions, screenshots, and a trailer. I’m also planning to create an Itch.io page.

In short, there’s way too much to do in just 2.5 months. It’s a bit overwhelming, but I’ll figure it out somehow.

On a positive note, the Steam page is now available in Germany. Previously, it was restricted due to the age-rating survey.

Interesting Videos

I recently came across Razbuten’s video on How Small Open-World Games Feel Big. He explains how small games use their limited space more efficiently to make them feel big.

In one of his recent videos, Tim Cain talks about storytelling vs player agency. He says that as a developer, you have to decide which one is more important to your game and design accordingly.

Me

Reading: Finished reading the first book of The Expanse. The second half was more action-oriented than I expected. I really enjoyed how the sci-fi aspect was knowledge-based and grounded. It truly feels like a plausible future. I’ll definitely continue with the series.

Playing: Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. Yes still. I only get to play it once or twice a week, but I’ve managed to get pretty close to finishing it. While I enjoy it, I have to admit it feels quite a bit weaker than the first game. It seems like they had a lot of ambitious ideas but didn’t fully commit to them, especially when it comes to the ship mechanics.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

Business isn’t exactly booming. Four days ago, a basilisk attacked the village again, scaring people so badly they barely dare to step outside. Rumor must have spread quickly because the number of travellers passing through has nearly dropped to zero.

But there's a glimmer of hope. A man with two swords, white hair, and broad shoulders is riding into town. His face is as fearsome as the monsters he's slain. Now, he walks up to your stall, leans on it with his arm, and looks at you with stern and cold eyes. Trouble’s brewing. He says:

When somebody says minigames, one of the first examples that always comes to mind is Gwent. A minigame that is so beloved that its developer, CDPR, decides to turn it into a standalone game. But why? Why is this card game so popular, and what can we learn from it? Let’s find out!

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Why Is Gwent the Perfect Minigame?

Even if you haven’t played The Witcher 3, you’ve probably heard of Gwent, the card game that’s become one of the game’s most iconic memes. It’s a minigame entirely separate from the main story, one that you can play with various merchants throughout the game, and sometimes even with key characters. It’s such an engaging minigame that many people, myself included, end up setting aside the main quest just to spend hours playing Gwent. It’s the perfect minigame in my eyes and here’s why.

1. It’s optional

Don’t want to interrupt a mission to rescue someone you consider almost like a daughter just for a card game you’re not interested in? Then don’t. If you prefer, you can completely ignore Gwent and carry on as if it doesn’t exist in the game. Or, you can play a few rounds, take a break, make some progress in the main story, and come back to it whenever you feel like it. It’s all up to you.

2. Different from the main game

In the previous article about the fishing minigames, I mentioned that one of the main purposes of minigames is to give players a break from the main game and a chance to rest their minds. To achieve this, it’s important for the minigame to be as different as possible from the main gameplay. Gwent accomplishes this perfectly as a simple card game, offering an experience that’s completely different from the rest of the game.

3. Collect ‘em all

One of the elements that makes card games so addictive is the underlying “collect them all” motivation. We all love collectibles, and Gwent taps into that. Throughout the game, you can collect all the cards by simply playing Gwent or buying them from various merchants. More cards mean more deck variations. (But let’s be honest—you’re going to build Nilfgaardian deck full of spies).

4. Simple enough for a minigame, complex enough to stand alone

The rules of Gwent are pretty simple: the player with the highest point in two out of three rounds wins. It only takes a couple of games for the basics to click. But as you keep playing, you start to notice that each deck type has its own strategies, making the game complex enough to stand on its own. Which deck type you choose, how many cards you include in your deck, and the kinds of cards you play all become important choices.

5. Incentives to engage

Finally, the game offers plenty of incentives to engage and keep playing Gwent: Gwent quests, Gwent tournaments, and even Steam achievements. As you progress in the main game, your opponents also gets more challenging, assuming you are not using a Nilfgaardian deck with spies. But even then, you’ll occasionally face a tough opponent, especially in DLCs (because they start spamming spies as well :D).

Minigame Checklist

In summary, Gwent’s popularity is no accident. It’s distinct enough from the main game to give your brain a break, filled with collectibles you can gather throughout the game, easy to learn but challenging to master, and most importantly, entirely optional.

If you’re considering adding a minigame to your own project (or have already done so), ask yourself the following questions:

• Is it optional?

• Is it different enough from the main game?

• What motivations does it provide to the player?

• Is it simple to learn but hard to master?

• Does the game offer incentives for players to engage with it?

What’s your favorite minigame?

You Might Also Like

• 5 Quest Design Lessons from CDPR

• Design by Subtraction: Less but Better

• 5 Core Pillars That Make Turn-Based Combat Fun

Me

Reading: I finally started the Expanse series, which I've wanted to read for a long time but couldn't bring myself to do because of its length. I'm still at the beginning of the first book, but I’ve already gotten really into it. The first 200 pages were quite good and full of interesting worldbuilding; let's see how the rest goes.

Playing: I'm continuing with Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. Lately, my day job has become quite demanding, so I’m struggling to find time to play games after work, let alone develop my own game. So it looks like it will take me a while to finish PoE2.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

With it, you can freely travel across hundreds of galaxies and explore millions of planets. You can discover all kinds of flora and fauna, earn money to upgrade your ship, build a base, and gather resources with your friends.

Now, picture yourself sitting down to fish in the midst of all this.

It sounds absurd, but this is what drew me back to No Man’s Sky after years: the new fishing minigame. And as it turns out, I’m not the only one.

This also made me think: Why do so many games include fishing minigames, and why do we love them? That’s what we’re looking at in today’s issue. Let’s go!

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Why so many games have a fishing minigame?

No Man’s Sky, Destiny 2, Far Cry 6, the Zelda series, World of Warcraft, Stardew Valley, Red Dead Redemption 2, Final Fantasy 15—and many more I could list just to get closer to my target word count—all these seemingly unrelated games have one thing in common: They all have a fishing minigame. BUT WHY???

The biggest reason, as Adam Millard explains in his video "Why The Hell Are There So Many Fishing Minigames?" is that fishing (and other minigames) gives players a fun and relaxing break from the main gameplay loop.

Our brains naturally get tired and bored when doing the same thing for too long. Take the first three hours of Doom, for example. It’s incredibly fun at first, but after three hours of nonstop monster-slaying, most players feel mentally exhausted and need a break. That’s what minigames do: They provide a break and allow the brain to engage with something different so it recharges for the main game.

Also, being a "mini" game by nature, the mechanics are simple and easy to learn, making it both relaxing and rewarding at the same time.

Why is fishing, in particular, such a common minigame?

It's likely because fishing can easily be integrated into many different game mechanics. As we'll see in the next section, developers often tailor the fishing mechanic to fit the theme and other systems of the game. (Plus, it helps that fishing is something we're all familiar with.)

Different Types of Fishing Minigames

The most common type of a fishing minigame involves casting a line, waiting, waiting, waiting, and then spamming buttons once the fish bites. But some fishing minigames go beyond this. Let’s look at a few different types:

• Turn-Based Fishing: The player and the fish take turns making decisions. A rare example is Dragon Quest X, where you try to make the best move without wasting resources or letting the fish escape.

• First-Person Shooter Fishing: The player must aim and shoot to catch fish. In Yakuza 6, you dive, then simply shoot and slaughter all fish until the boss fish appears.

• Simulation Fishing: These games aim for realism. They require players to factor in bait, tackle, weather, and fish behavior for a more authentic fishing game. Example: Red Dead Redemption 2.

• Stardew Valley-Type Fishing: Not sure what else to call these, but it’s where the player controls a slider within a bar and tries to keep it aligned with a moving fish icon. Cult of the Lamb also uses a similar mechanic. (Another magnificent game uses the same mechanic, which I talk about in a sec).

What Makes a Good Fishing Minigame?

There’s no universal answer to this, as mechanics can vary heavily depending on the game. But in my opinion, a good fishing minigame rests on three key pillars:

1. Relaxing

The main goal is to give players a break from their piling quests and other responsibilities. They should be able to sit back and enjoy fishing without any stress. The mechanics should be simple and easy to learn so they can jump in and start playing right away.

2. Rewarding

It’s not enough just to have a minigame; you need to give players some incentives. This could be fishing tournaments, selling fish for money to complete other quests, or even fishing-focused objectives. All of these can motivate players to engage with the minigame more.

3. Different

While the mechanics should align with the game’s overall theme, they shouldn’t feel identical to the main gameplay. After all, the goal is to give players a refreshing break. For example, my game is text-based and heavily focused on reading. A text-based fishing mechanic wouldn’t make much sense in this case.

Speaking of my game…

Fishing in Herald of the Mists

Yes, I couldn’t resist adding a fishing minigame to my own game. Since it’s text-based, I included a small time-based mechanic to give players a break from all the reading. In its current form, it’s a very basic Stardew Valley clone. After getting your rod and bait, you cast your line, wait for a random fish, and then try to keep the hook over the moving fish until you catch it. It’s still a work in progress—I plan to add more fish types, rods, and spice up the mechanics.

Final Words

In summary, fishing and other minigames offer players a break from the main responsibilities of the game, giving their brains a chance to rest. Fishing is so common because it blends easily with other mechanics and is simple yet rewarding. However, it’s also crucial to make it unique enough when adding it to a game.

So, what’s your favorite fishing minigame?

To-Do List

Watch: Top 10 Best Upcoming Indie Games - Steam Next Fest Oct 2024!

Learn: How to Create a Squash and Stretch effect in Unity with code (2D, 3D, UI)

Read: How My Indie Game Hit 10k Wishlists

Me

Reading: I finally finished Jade Legacy, the third book in the Green Bone Saga, and what an incredible ending to the series. While the first book is still my favorite, this one had moments where it surpassed it. Spanning over 30 years, it allowed us to see the characters grow and evolve along with their world. I’ll definitely miss spending time with these characters and can’t wait to see what Fonda Lee writes next. Even if you're not into urban fantasy (like me), I highly recommend checking it out.

Playing: Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. The first Pillars game is one of my favorite CRPGs, but despite that, I couldn’t get into Deadfire in my previous two attempts. Now, with Avowed nearing release, I’m giving it a third and final shot.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

Today's issue is a very special one because I had the chance to interview two highly experienced writers in the industry: Nick and Max Folkman. They have worked on many games like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. But I first came to know them through one of my favorite podcasts, Script Lock, where they interview various game writers, talking about how they broke into the industry and the intricacies of their careers.

They were kind enough to answer my questions when I reached out to them as a desperate indie dev who is trying to write a visual novel. Let’s get into it!

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Interview with Nick and Max Folkman

N: Thank you for accepting this interview! Let me start in Script Lock style: How did you guys get into the industry?

Nick & Max: We had both moved to Los Angeles and worked in the film industry for a few years when we attended Indiecade, which is a local indie game festival. Brad Muir, who was a game director at Double Fine at the time, was doing a Q&A with the devs of FTL, and we ended up striking up a conversation with him afterwards since we’re all from the midwest. We became friends, and fast forward a couple years and we ended up staying at Brad’s place during an SF trip. By this point he was leading development on Massive Chalice, but it was early and they were looking for a writer. He knew that Nick and I had chops, asked us if we wanted to do a writing test for it, which we did and ended up landing the job, much to our astonishment.

N: What would you recommend to someone who’s trying to become a game writer today?

Nick & Max: 1) Try to find your own community of developers, either near you or online. Being able to talk game development with people on a regular basis is so useful, and even better if you all do a game jam or even make something bigger together. 2) Work on writing samples that show strong character work. The kinds of samples that studios take can vary wildly, but generally everyone wants to see strong character work so you can at least focus on that initially. It can be a screenplay or an interactive scene or whatever; just show that you know how to create compelling characters. 3) Don’t take it personally if/when you apply to a studio for a position and they reject you. We’ve been rejected soooo many times in our careers, and rejections happen for a wide variety of reasons. And! It doesn’t mean you can’t apply again in the future for another role.

N: Can you walk us through your typical day as a game writer?

Nick & Max: It’s hard to say what a typical day is because every game is different and every team is different. One thing that may surprise people outside of the industry is that the majority of our days are not spent playing the games or writing scripts. They’re both definitely an important part of our jobs, but we spend just as much time in meetings with other writers, and other departments, working through problems in tight collaboration. Another huge part is documentation. The bigger the team, the harder it becomes to get everyone on the same page, so it becomes very important to write down not only what we’re doing, but why we’re doing it (and then update it accordingly as things inevitably change).

N: What are some insights you gained after talking to many different writers in Script Lock?

Nick & Max: One of the biggest is that there is no one way to break into the industry. All that matters is whether you have a voice (and you’re not a jerk to work with). Another is that imposter syndrome can affect anyone, even the most “successful” of us. It’s very easy to attach self-worth to your game succeeding or not, which makes it all the more important to shift your mindset to valuing the experiences you have and what you can learn from them.

N: Considering all the responsibilities of a game writer (worldbuilding, dialogue writing, character creation, etc.), which one do you think is the most important? (and which do you enjoy the most?)

Nick & Max: This might be a bit too general, but we really believe collaboration is the most important responsibility for a game writer. You should not be doing worldbuilding or dialogue writing or character writing or pretty much anything totally on your own. All departments are storytellers, and it’s only through working with them that you’ll be able to make the best story you can that can work for this interactive experience you’re helping create. As for which one we enjoy the most, both of us actually choose dialogue writing. There’s so much range with what you can do with it, and even the absence of it, and getting to hear actors speak any dialogue we write is always an incredible experience.

N: Have you ever been involved in a project that didn’t fully capture your interest or where you struggled with motivation? If so, how did you complete it?

Nick & Max: It can be worth reframing the project to being more of a puzzle to solve. By dialing into it more, I’ll often look for the parts that do interest me, and build from there. By making it more of a challenge, I can build those creative muscles I wouldn’t otherwise use because I’m going outside of my comfort zone, so to speak.

N: Sometimes I look at my writing and think, “This isn’t bad at all!” While other times I think “This couldn’t be any worse.” So my question is, how do you judge the quality of your own work?

Nick & Max: It’s key when you write anything to take a step back and return to it later with fresh eyes. At that point you can usually rely on your gut instinct to tell you whether it feels good or not, but if this isn’t a muscle you trust yourself with, the best thing you can do is just maintain a schedule of reading good writing. Additionally, having a writer’s group, or just showing your work to another person, is a great way to expose potential blind spots in your writing. At the same time, you should steer away from perfectionism. It’s unsustainable and you risk losing the forest for the trees. Better to shoot for a “B”, get to 80% of what you had in your head, and then reassess in the context of the whole.

N: Are there any (writing and/or productivity) tools you use?

Nick & Max: Our respective jobs at Insomniac and Riot require us to use specific software, but for personal work we’re big fans of Highland 2. It’s a lightweight text editor with templates for screenplays, novels, comics, and more. Among its many features, the thing I use the most with it is the built-in writing sprint tool, which allows you to set a timer and keeps track of how much you’re able to get done. It also crashes way less than other software we’ve used, which is probably the most important part, haha.

N: It might be a bit of a cliché, but how do you make sure each character has a distinct and unique voice?

Nick & Max: It all comes from the character creation process, and also looking at what characters have already been set, and making sure that we’re covering a decent range of voices. Often when you’re building out a character’s personality or backstory, it’ll tell you what their voice should be. Like if you have a character who is so lonely that they’ll latch onto anyone who comes near them and call them a friend, even if they mean them harm– that suggests an effusive, fast-talking personality that immediately feels distinctive. And then the other ingredient is if you have actors performing these lines, they’ll take what you give them and make it even better. And while you shouldn’t rely on actors to do all the heavy lifting in terms of providing a distinct and unique voice, you shouldn’t discount what they can bring to the table either.

N: How do you go about developing the lore and history of a game world, and how does this worldbuilding shape the narrative?

Nick & Max: For us, worldbuilding never comes before the narrative, unless we’re working on a pre-existing IP where it’s already there. Ideally the narrative should shape the worldbuilding and not the other way around because the narrative is the central experience. Additionally the game design should also inform the worldbuilding because the more they can align, the more connected everything else will feel.

N: And finally, what games have you been playing recently?

Nick & Max: I (Nick) have been losing too much of my life to Balatro, and having an absolute blast with Astro Bot! As for Max, he’s weaned himself off Balatro by starting a second playthrough of Red Dead 2. What a game! (N: Indeed!)

N: Is there anything else you would like to add or tell people about yourself?

Nick & Max: Just best of luck out there! It’s a difficult industry to break into, and the industry in general isn’t in the best shape right now, but things will get better, and writing games really is an incredible experience that is so different than every other medium.

Final Words

I would like to thank Max and Nick again for taking the time to answer these questions despite their busy schedules. I'm also very happy that this marks GDJ's first interview.

If you're particularly interested in the writing and storytelling side of things (like me), I highly recommend checking out Script Lock. You’ll get to know so much about other game writers and their experiences. For more about Nick and Max Folkman:

Nick’s Twitter

Max’s Twitter

Their Website

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

But what makes a mystery engaging and satisfying?

Let’s try to find out the answer from GURPS Mysteries and from Brandon Sanderson, who’s great at mysteries that keep fans theorizing forever.

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What Makes a Good Mystery in Games?

In my game, Herald of the Mists, your only main quest is finding an army, which disappears without leaving any trace. Solve the mystery, and the game ends. So it’s important to get it right. That’s why I wanted to give this matter some research. Here are a few tips I learned.

1. Information Management

Solving a mystery involves revealing information bit by bit until the truth is completely unveiled. The pacing of your mystery, the impact of the final reveal, and the player’s engagement will be determined by how you spread the information among scenes. According to GURPS Mysteries, every significant scene should move the mystery forward, giving players at least one important clue and bringing them closer to the solution. The given clue should be clearly communicated to the players.

2. Rule of Seven

To easily manage the information and keep things simple, GURPS Mysteries suggests using the Rule of Seven. According to the Rule of Seven, each mystery should only contain seven essential elements of any kind. That means seven NPCs, seven items, seven clues, etc. We don’t have a long attention-span and details can easily get lost in the air. Limiting the point of interest will help players keep things on track and stay enagged.

3. Player Involvement and Agency

What invites players to solve the mystery? Are people paying them to solve it? Will solving it help them aid someone they care about? Does their life depend on uncovering this secret? Whatever it is, players must have a reason to be involved. Equally important is how the mystery is woven into the game's mechanics—players should be the ones actively solving it, not just following along as the game reveals the answers.

4. There’s Always Another Secret

One thing Brandon Sanderson is great at is how he adds multiple layers of twists to mysteries. Just when you think you’ve uncovered the whole truth, BAM—another wave of reveals hits you. The secret to making these twists impactful isn’t about hiding the truth but about cleverly misleading players and making them believe in a false reality. It’s showing that the thing they just assumed without being told is not what they assumed.

5. There’s a Cost?

The most satisfying part of solving a mystery is, of course, reaping the rewards of solving it. What are the positive and negative outcomes of uncovering this mystery? How was the world the player inhabits affected by it? How were the figures involved in the story impacted by the revelation? What kind of consequences did the player face after bringing this secret to light?

Wrap Up

To sum up, it’s important to plan ahead and manage the information in a way that’s interesting and engaging. Limiting yourself to seven key items while layering multiple twists helps maintain intrigue. The player should have a clear motivation for revealing the secret, and the mechanics of the game need to give a sense of agency. And when it’s all done, it’s time for the player to face the consequences.

NOTE: I’ll be away from my computer for a couple of days, camping in a mountain. So I won’t be able to see and reply your comments immediately, but do let me know what makes a good mystery in games in your opinion.

To-Do List

Watch: An in-depth look at romance in video games

Learn: The allure of mysteries

Play: Return to Sender

Me

Reading: Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee, the third and final entry of the Green Bone Saga. When I read the first book, I was sure the series would become one of my favorites. Although the second book was good as well, it felt a bit weaker and made me somewhat doubtful. So, determining where the series stands for me has been left to the third book.

Playing: I had decided not to play any games this month to focus on my game, but... I couldn’t stop myself from occasionally jumping into The Witcher 3 and No Man’s Sky to wander around and relax a bit.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

Life’s been a bit chaotic lately.

Between my computer dying and some family matters, I haven’t had a chance to work on my game AT ALL, and I couldn’t finish this week’s issue. However, I didn’t want to leave you hanging, so I’d love to hear your feedback instead. Feel free to skip this one, and I’ll be back next time with the usual game dev content.

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First of all…

It’s been over a year since I started writing this newsletter. Balancing a full-time job and game development, putting these issues together hasn’t been easy. My fellow Substack writers are out there publishing 70 posts a week, while I’m over here BARELY managing two articles a month.

But when I look at my old posts and see how terrible they are, it makes me feel great that my writing got slightly better. I've learned a lot, which was the whole point to begin with.

So I wanted to thank you for all of you who've been reading GameDev’s Journey! Thank you for all the likes, comments, and sharing. It means a lot to me.

A quick survey

I’d really appreciate it if you could take a moment to complete this short survey. Your feedback will help me improve GameDev’s Journey and hopefully provide more value to you.

Greatest Hits

If you haven’t seen it yet, I created a new tab called Greatest Hits where I shared the best of GDJ so far. Check it out!

Me

After getting ZERO things done about my game last month, I’ve decided that this month is going to be all about development—no games, no distractions, no excuses. That also means no personal updates about what I’m playing or consuming.

I’ve been terrible at avoiding life’s distractions lately. There are always dozens of things that will come between me and my precious game dev time: a full-time job, mental and physical health, family and friends, burnout, hobbies, etc. So progress has been slow. My goal is to get the demo done before the end of this year, but there’s still a loooong way to go. Wish me luck!

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

Today, this framework is known as Heinlein’s Rules of Writing, and as you might guess, they are focused on writing, not game development. But I believe we can adapt them to game development. So, let’s dive in.

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Rule 1: You Must Create a Game

The first rule is “You Must Write,” which we can adapt to “You Must Create a Game.” This is probably the most obvious and straightforward rule, but it’s still crucial. It’s easy to get caught in a loop of endless learning, spending hours scrolling through Reddit or watching game engine comparisons. There’s also an initial resistance that stops us from starting—whether it's fear of failure, laziness, or something else. Regardless of the reason, the important thing is to persevere through it and find the drive to move forward.

Rule 2: You Must Finish the Game

The second rule is “You Must Finish What You Write,” which we can change to “You Must Finish the Game.” Let’s be honest: getting started is simple, but seeing a project through to completion is a different story. A story that requires discipline, consistency, patience, and even more discipline. As you progress, things get tougher, and the finish line can seem like it’s moving further away. This is where I’m at the moment, and it feels to be the hardest part. I remind myself that the ability to keep pushing forward is what will set me apart.

Rule 3: You Must Refrain from Constant Tweaking

The third rule is “You Must Refrain From Rewriting, Except to Editorial Order,” which is the most challenging to adapt to game development. I think we can interpret it as avoiding a never-ending development cycle. Many experienced game developers say a game is never truly finished; you simply decide to stop working on it and consider it complete because you could continue polishing and adding new features forever.

Rule 4: You Must Put the Game Out There

Heinlein's fourth rule is “You Must Put Your Work on the Market,” which, for game developers, translates to “You Must Put the Game Out There.” Finishing a game is one thing; sharing it with the world is another. The real test comes when it’s in the hands of players. This step provides feedback, exposes your work to a broader audience, and can lead to new opportunities.

Rule 5: You Must Continue Making Games

After you’ve finished a game and released it, it’s easy to become complacent or feel drained. However, just as a writer improves by writing more, a game developer grows by constantly creating. As we discussed in Game Dev is a Series of Rolling the Dice, every time we release a game, we essentially roll the dice. Having released a game before gives you a great bonus on this roll, increasing your chances of success.

Wrap Up

So, which rule do you think is the hardest?

To-Do List

Check Out: Game Maker Toolkit Notebook (”A list of development tools and assets and business resources” related to game dev)

Bundle: Sound FX Odyssey: Complete Cinema and Game Sound Design

Me

Reading: Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Probably the best read of the year so far. It’s a story of two game developers who found success relatively early and went through many difficulties and dramas. It’s one of those books that will stay with you forever, so check it out!

Playing: Still Gothic 2: Night of the Raven. I’ve reached the “Night of the Raven” part, and it’s going strong. I have finally got enough Strength to actually deal damage and get through the levels by not dying three times every minute.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

You don’t?

Me neither. So let’s figure it out together.

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Game Dev’s Guide to Lambda Expressions

If you're working with Unity and C# like me, you've probably heard of Lambda Expressions or at least seen their syntax on the internet. It's something I know exists and use here and there, but I didn’t really understand how it works. That’s why I wanted to dig a bit deeper and create this quick guide. Let’s go!

(Man, code blocs in Subtstack are terrible. I had to use screenshots for better readability, but it’s still doesn’t look good on mobile.)

What Are Lambda Expressions?

So basically, lambda expressions allow you to create functions without a name, or in technical terms, "anonymous functions." They let you write concise code without the need to define a separate method every time you need a simple function.

It’s like writing a mini-instruction instead of creating a big block of code.

It looks like this:

This expression takes a number “x” and adds 5 to it.

• The left “()” part is used for parameters.

• “=>” separates the parameters from the expression.

• The right part (“x+5”) is the function, called expression.

Another example:

• n => n * 2 to double each number in the numbers list.

• ToList() converts the result to a List<int>.

• The output will be: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10.

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When to Use Lambda Expressions?

You can use them whenever you need a quick function but don’t want to write out a whole method for it. The most common uses include:

• Filtering Data: They help you filter, sort, and transform data in lists and dictionaries. For example, you might want to select all enemies with health below a certain level, then sort them by level.

• Events and Delegates: They make it easy to subscribe to events without needing a separate method. More on this later.

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Lambda Expressions with LINQ

Lambda expressions and LINQ (Language-Integrated Query) are like best friends. LINQ allows you to query collections of data, and lambda expressions allow you to add logic within those queries. Let’s see some of the most common uses of lambda expressions with LINQ.

1. Where

The Where method allows you to filter elements in a collection based on a condition.

2. All

The All method checks if all elements in a collection satisfy a condition.

3. OrderBy/OrderByDescending

The OrderBy and OrderByDescending methods sort elements in a collection based on a key.

4. Take

The Take method selects a specified number of elements from a collection.

5. Select

The Select method projects each element of a sequence into a new form.

6. FirstOrDefault

The FirstOrDefault method returns the first element of a sequence that satisfies a condition, or a default value if no such element is found.

7. Other

Lambda Expressions with Events and Delegates

Lambda expressions are also useful when defining event handlers or delegate methods.

Let’s say you want to trigger an action when a button is clicked. Instead of defining a separate method, you can use a lambda expression:

Here, () => Debug.Log("Hellow world.") defines what should happen when the button is clicked.

Putting All Together

Now let’s go back to the first example:

Here’s what’s happening:

• Where(e => e.IsActive && e.Health > 0): Filters the enemies list to only include those that are active and have health greater than 0.

• OrderByDescending(e => e.Health): Sorts the filtered list in descending order based on health.

• Take(5): Selects the top 5 enemies from the sorted list.

• ToList(): Converts the result into a list.

Resources

As you might guess, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s no end to what you can do with Lambda. For more details, check out the sources below:

Lambda expressions and anonymous functions

Understanding Lambda Expressions in C#

Understand C# LAMBDA Expressions in only 2 minutes!

To-Do List

Watch: What Happens After The Big Game Dev Success?

Learn: How to be BIG in Japan

Play: 17 Fighters

Me

Reading: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. A story of a motorcycle trip of the author and his son. It’s also a very thought-provoking trip since the author delves deeply into philosophical issues, like man's search for reason. What impressed me the most, however, is the writing style. It flows so naturally while also being detailed. Will try to learn from it.

Playing: I was playing Gothic 2, but my computer died and I lost all my progress just when I was finally getting stronger… Now I’m back to crawling on the ground.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!

In one of his interviews, George R. R. Martin says the following about how to make it as a writer:

“If you need security, this is not the profession for you. Writing is a series of rolling the dice.”

This is true for most creative works, including game development. Every time we publish a game, we are essentially rolling the dice and hoping for a critical roll.

This metaphor made me think of table-top RPGs. If you’re not familiar with them, whenever you try to do something that has uncertain results in these games, you roll the dice. Mechanics change from game to game, but the most common version works like this:

1. The game master (GM) sets the target, or difficulty class (DC), for the action you want to perform.

2. You roll d20 (20 sided die), and add your bonus to the result.

3. If the result is equal to or higher than the difficulty class, your action results in success.

Let’s say you try to break open a door:

• DC: 15 (because it’s tightly locked)

• You roll: 13

• Bonus: +5 (because you’re strong)

• Result: 18 (the door opens!)

Now let’s try to adapt these mechanics to reality.

What’s the difficulty class of your game?

The most defining factor, when it comes to difficulty class, is probably the genre. Some genres sell well (sandbox, simulator, crafting), while others don’t (puzzle, platformer). If you choose a genre that an average Steam user likes, your target DC decreases. And if you choose a genre that doesn’t have a large audience (or is not marketable), your target DC increases, lowering your chances.

The second factor would be aesthetics. If the visuals please the eye, some people will give it a try. Streamers will be more likely to try your game and make content about it, decreasing your DC.

The third factor is depth. The more depth your game has, the more likely it will have a loyal fanbase, spreading your game from mouth to mouth.

Mechanics: Let’s say the base difficulty is 25. For each of these factors, omit or add 5 to it, whether or not your game marks it. If your game’s genre is popular and it has great visuals but lacks depth, then your DC is 20 (25 - 5 - 5 + 5).

What’s your difficulty class and how can you decrease it?

What is your bonus?

Your bonus will be all of your marketing efforts. Your demo, your posts, the festivals, your capsule art, the streamers, etc. All of these efforts will increase your game’s visibility, generating more wishlists, hence increasing your bonus.

The other, and more important, factor is having released a game before. All those past experiences will give you a bonus boost for sure. So even if your game fails, it increases your bonus for the next game.

Mechanics: For each 2000 wishlist, I would say you get +1 bonus. (So yes, if you have 100k wishlists, you get +50.) And for each game you released before, let’s say you get +3.

What’s your bonus and how can you increase it?

Critical Roll

If you roll 1, the result is auto failure, regardless of the bonus and DC.

I am sure we have all seen games that look great and seem destined for success, then get buried in the depths of Steam for no apparent reason. Because no matter how hard we try, in the end, there are still too many factors that happen outside of our control. We always have a chance of rolling a 1.

The opposite is also possible. Although things look dire, we might just roll 20, and things can start going in our favor.

Roll the Dice

By this logic, you always have a chance of success… assuming you roll the dice. And the more you roll, the higher your chance gets.

So keep rolling.

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To-Do List

Watch: It's Hard To Make Games

Learn: What Steam’s Big Demo Update Means for Your Marketing Strategy

Play: Fluoroantimonic (A web game made in 3 hours)

Dev Log

I continue to work on my game, although not as fast as I would like (as usual). If you are interested, you can take a look at the latest dev log I published on my own site.

Me

Reading: The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson. Though I like Sanderson’s storytelling, I can’t say I’m enjoying these secret projects. They feel like they are written for a different (and much younger) audience. This one was full of action scenes, which became a chore to read after some point. In between them, we have info dumps about the planet, culture, and how things work around. Knowing that everything will work out just fine in the end caused me to lose interest. But I’m still very hyped for Wind and Truth, which will come out at the end of the year.

Playing: Gothic 2: Night of the Raven. I mentioned how much I love Gothic 1 several times. And I've finally got the chance to play the second one, which is considered to be the best one in the series by many. I’m only 10 hours in, and I’m enjoying myself so far! It’s more difficult than the first one, and the politics brewing in the background feel much more interesting.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!