Hello everyone,
I was recently interviewed by the Esports Research Network on the topic of Lane-Pushing Games and also my work on Causeway.
You can find the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Google, Apple, or Stitcher.
I'm sure some of you might find it an interesting watch. Do check out some of the other episodes as they're full of smart takes on esports with some very interesting guests.
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.
Ethereal: Clash of Souls started development in mid-2018 as an Unreal Engine project that would be a 3D MOBA, not using the Paragon assets and declaring some significant changes in gameplay.
Following a number of early trailers and character reveals, updates on the game have been sparse. I spent some time chatting with Undying Games founder Luke to get a closer look at what the team has been working on:
Project CORE by Metabuff Studios was announced in November 2018. Initial videos shared concept art, a furnished level, and the essentials of working gameplay. Further trailers followed in early 2019, before an extended period of internally-focused production.
In August 2020, the team announced a change in direction: committing to development of original IP and art assets. I caught up with one of the Metabuff founders opolisprime to find out more about the team's journey so far and what's coming up next.
In late 2019, Fault was announced after a year of work behind the scenes. The first of its paid-access alpha tests followed only a few weeks later in December 2019, with several more alpha weekends in the months that followed. In July 2020, Fault launched via early access on Steam.
I caught up with Ryan Red, Community Manager at Strange Matter Studios, to find out more:
Predecessor by Omeda Studios was one of the earliest announced projects to make use of the Paragon assets. "Omeda" is a nod to a location of the same name in Paragon's lore!
The team started out with a transparent process featuring regular development streams. This changed after its first closed alpha in March 2019, when the game transitioned behind closed doors for a while — eventually re-emerging in July 2020 with a series of closed alpha weekends.
I caught up with rgsace, one of the Omeda Studios founders, to learn more about the project:
Overprime began as a personal project by an aspiring game developer called RocketMania from South Korea. It was in active development from mid-2018 to mid-2019, with the purpose of learning Unreal Engine 4 and building a portfolio.
That game, called Overthrow, became the first publicly playable Paragon successor.
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