Continual updates have created a dilemma for live-service games with long lifespans.
Each update brings excitement and builds the community, but also steepens the learning curve and list of changes to keep track of.
This holds especially true in lane-pushing games.
How do we design to overcome these challenges? One solution is expanding our use of modular content.
This is the second article in a series about making commercial games, with a focus on efficiently iterating lane-pushing game design.
To find success, any new game must have...
This was a lot easier around 2010. Most commercial games launching in that era could inherit nearly 10 years of iteration on game loops, all perfected during the early years of DotA.
As a team making a new game, you don't have 10 years to iterate — but you can take this advice
This article series contains my advice on how to think during the concept stages of a commercial lane-pushing game.
I've shared these thoughts during conversations with many early-stage teams over the years — and they're gathered here to help any new teams avoid blunders and allocate their time efficiently.
This first article will consider the market. We'll cover some introductory concepts, and relate them to the lane-pushing space.
Lets dive in with the 6 considerations...
Last year saw the official release of Pokémon UNITE — a lane-pushing game seemingly without lanes!
It takes the much beloved Pokémon IP and packages a 'MOBA' experience into something quick and digestible enough for a wide audience to enjoy on a casual basis.
Timi Studios aren't the first to try for very short match times, but I do think they're the first to succeed. Here's how they make it work.
Community forms a huge part of the experience in the lane-pushing genre. Many things contribute: and one piece is the humble Code of Conduct.
In this article featuring my game Causeway, we discuss our journey to write one!
Stories hold power. What power do they hold in lane-pushing games?
In this article featuring my game Causeway, we share how one of our ideas in the narrative space ripples out to inform other parts of our game, and makes a positive contribution to our broader community and vision.
For anyone unfamiliar, I want to take a brief moment to introduce the "Tabletop MOBA".
They've been around for a couple of years, though I haven't played one yet (I'd like to try). Analysing them would make for a great game design exercise, and I would like to chat with some of the designers about their interpretations as well.
They generally run 45-120 minutes, and tend towards lower player numbers (likely due to the complexity of taking turns). Common themes include a selection of heroes or sometimes factions, progressing across the board to the enemy base, and non-player-controlled
Suppose you are in charge of a company developing the next competitive online game. Naturally it will be on your mind to have a matchmaking system, so that players can dive right in to the competition.
The question is, should you let players see their MMR?
I'm going to discuss some possibilities by drawing on ideas from a completely different discipline: the microeconomics of certification.
In particular, there's a great paper called "Coarse Grades: Informing the Public by Withholding Information" which inspired me to share and adapt its ideas for the lane-pushing space. Yes, that
I occasionally enjoy connecting game design with other disciplines, and musing on how the two relate. Sometimes the results give me fresh insights, or better yet: new vocabulary for describing parts of a problem that I hadn't considered!
In this article, we'll be exploring lane-pushing level design as viewed through the lens of topology.
Throughout the genre's history, lanes have served us well and there's no doubt this will continue. At the same time, I foresee new variations on lanes emerging which will challenge perceptions.
In this article, I describe a mechanic called pseudolanes, of which lanes present a specific case. I also offer the following definition:
A lane-pushing game is a game which ensures continuous and meaningful availability of pseudolanes.
This is my vision or "thesis" for the genre and its broader potential. I hope to see many new games make use of or take direction from these ideas and push