Comment by ghostzilla

Comment by ghostzilla 3 days ago

Jesse Schell's book is a great read beyond game design.

Thanks for the other links.

To leave something in return, here's something I read the other day and kept thinking about it (I'm designing on a PvP motion based game)

"In competitive games, there is little more valuable than knowing the mind of the opponent, which the Japanese call “yomi.”

As a side note, I would even argue that the “strategic depth” of a game should be defined almost entirely on its ability to support and reward yomi."

The Yomi Layer concept is a reminder that moves need to have counters. If you know what the opponent will do, you should generally have some way of dealing with that.

https://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/7-spies-of-the-mind

snapcaster 3 days ago

I have tons of friends that took his classes at CMU, as much as everything he says sounds good I don't know a single person that has ever enjoyed a game he made. Because of that, I have to assume what he says is either fluff or wrong even if i can't perceive why exactly

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ghostzilla 3 days ago

That's interesting, it hasn't occurred to me to check his games. That said, I remember reading that Machiaveli was once given a territory to govern and he was terrible at it, despite The Prince. It may be a thing about teachers vs doers.
THAT said, there is a lot of intersting things one can learn from John Carmack, so there's an exception to every rule.

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- snapcaster 3 days ago
  
  >That said, I remember reading that Machiaveli was once given a territory to govern and he was terrible at it, despite The Prince.
  this is a great articulation of what i'm trying to say thanks
  
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daseiner1 3 days ago

Obviously you’d be a better judge than I am given your inside knowledge, but your comment reminds me of the many virtuoso musicians who don’t really make music people like. There’s a gap between technical ability and taste, artfulness.

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- snapcaster 3 days ago
  
  It's not that he's making games too avant garde or something that might be going over my head. His company just makes corporate slop, not a single enjoyable game amongst them
  
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no_wizard 3 days ago

I feel a great deal of the games Schell produces are for clients (like ports) or serve as a more in-depth proof of concept.
I think the client work pays the bills though, looking at their catalog.

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- snapcaster 3 days ago
  
  Yep, but that's a totally separate thing from making good games
  
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  dowager_dan99 3 days ago
  
  Usually but not always. There have been some great corporate projects, but it does feel like they are less common now than say 10+ years ago, and typically neat twists on existing successes vs. unique ideas
  
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