[...] We don’t need to just invent mathematically ideal formal systems, but we need formal systems that are also appropriate for the simulation we want to render. The myths and expectations are stronger and have an higher priority than the abstraction and perfection of a formal system. The idea of a “twitch” combat will remove the weight of the previous HUD-heavy gameplay that used a very high level of abstraction that was nowhere direct and intuitive (I wrote something similar while “reviewing” what we know about Vanguard). What is sure is that, if the implementation is good, the players will surely reward this choice. Apparently it was difficult creating special content for 34 different classes, which I’m guessing anyone can see is a ridiculous balancing and content creation task that never should have come about in the first place. “We looked at the professions and said we have 34 widely disparate professions in the game. None of which get all of the attention that a profession deserves in a game this type and many of which don’t resonate to the Star Wars universe. I mean, what is a pikeman and why is it something in the game?” So with that thought in mind, they’ve folded all of the 34 professions down into nine professions including Jedi, bounty hunters, spies, officers, smugglers, commandos, entertainers, traders, and medics. “We ended up with these nine very iconic character types. [...]

[...] I don’t know if he has the IP licensed, but it’s apparently Hobby Lobby Online. Posted by j at 08:42 PM [...]


graphics 800, 600
ball = LoadImage("ball.png")
drawImage(ball, 300, 300)


Nice and high-level, because it was designed specifically for game-making.

I really like Python because I was able to write a moderately complex program the same afternoon I started reading the language reference. The tools are nice, and the language syntax is very clean. Admittedly, I’m a programmer by training, but it seems the language was really easy to use.

My further thoughts,

One comment about programming, have you tried out Python instead of Lua? It’s fairly good for rapid development, and the syntax is really nice, especially for people that aren’t hard-core programmers. (The hard-core programmers tend to dislike the syntax, even, but I’ve found people take to it easily.) You can find information about the game development side of it at http://www.pygame.org/ if anyone’s interested.

Have fun,

So this is an inspiring article. And Raph Koster adds some commentary. What I’m worried about now is publishers saying, “Hey look, these guys can prototype a game in seven days. How come you need six months to do preproduction?” But not really. One interesting thing in the article is the anti-brainstorming stuff.

will be selected for a paid summer internship with the company. Cheers to Kyle for the party invite and to the other Kyle for keeping me laughing throughout the presentation! You guys rock! =) For more details about the GDC presentation, check outRaph Koster’s blog where he expounds on the concept of rapid prototyping and even offers up a “game design prototype kit” to use when fleshing out that killer game design idea. Cheers, Raph!

Blogroll Joel on SoftwareRaph Koster Sunny Walker Thoughts for Now Sex, Lies and Advertising