game design

Building Skill Tests @ Game Design Skills

Celia WagarLeave a comment

I’ve been writing with GameDesignSkills.com for a while now. I’m a moderator on their discord, Funsmith Club, and I’ve been working with Alexander Brazie on a game design course for the past 4 years, and we’re currently teaching test lessons with a live audience and doing workshops with them!

I’ve also been writing articles for Game Design Skills. You might have noticed that some of the Depth articles on my site have gone missing. I’ve combined multiple of them into one article which is now hosted here on Game Design Skills. I’ve also published an article on game design pillars with them.

Today, I published an article on level design, or more broadly, skill tests and dynamic skill challenges, with Game Design Skills, which you can find here: https://gamedesignskills.com/game-design/player-skill-test/

I am still going to be writing and publishing content to this blog, but I’m also going to be linking articles I get posted over there when they go up.

If anyone’s curious, I’ve still been developing Charmed Chains. I have a card database now, and I’ve created a process to automatically data merge the cards into a template for easy printing. I’ve changed the direction of the game fairly dramatically from where it was during the last playtest, switching to a focus on pump spells (“combat tricks”) and I’ve incorporated colors and color identity into the game. I hope to run a playtest at Evo when I go there next month!

Parries are the Mindkiller

Celia Wagar18 Comments

Parrying is so cool that it short-circuits people’s higher brain function, leading them to slam it into everything, and allow it to beat absolutely everything. Parrying in single player games is an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS thing to add to your game, and it should be done with utmost caution, at risk of destroying your entire game’s design.

So first up, what exactly is a parry? A parry is a timed button press with a narrow window that will completely nullify almost any attack headed at you, and sometimes will leave the opponent in a state to be punished, or sometimes outright deal a massive amount of damage to your opponent. A parry is different than a block, because blocking can be held continuously for a variable length of time, and there are frequently penalties to blocking, or blocking too many attacks. A parry is different than dodging, because your character will not move, and will absorb the incoming attack rather than ignoring it. This can mean playing a paired animation, or taking some hitstop and parry-stun. For the sake of this article, if the first few frames of blocking will nullify an attack and negate all damage you take, I’ll be including it as a parry.

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Celia’s Tips for Clear Writing

Celia Wagar1 Comment

A lot of what I’ve ended up critiquing video essayists and other games writers about is the clarity of their writing. I feel like many people are trying to create “Good Writing” rather than communicate effectively. Many video essays are written more like political speeches than they are trying to be direct and informative. It feels like they are informed by what makes good fictional writing more than good technical writing, and try to carry a vibe to the detriment of their message.

Here are the principles I follow to make my writing direct and effective:

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