Ryan Durand

At Uncapped Games I'm helping to develop my favorite game I've ever worked on professionally by far... and surprisingly it's an RTS. This is surprising because I (unlike nearly the whole team who are RTS powerhouses), have basically no RTS experience at all. Fire up Super Smash Bros and I may have a shot to impress, but RTS has been a huge - and fun - mental shift for me! ...and somehow, I've gotten pretty good! (At our game at least 😅). Very excitingly, we're on the schedule to say more about our game at SGF ( https://lnkd.in/e5uDTwZp ) in June, but now, kicking things off so to speak, we've put out a really cool documentary that explains some of our philosophies, hopes, and goals. If you're an RTS nerd - or just curious to learn more, check it out: https://lnkd.in/eQpxP3WZ

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There's no single right approach to a feature or a game. I learned this lesson early on at Playrix. Years ago, I reviewed a new feature prototype for Fishdom. It was complex, experimental, and heavily inspired by another game. After playing, I felt the prototype missed the mark. The feature didn't evoke the desired emotions like its reference. So, I prepared detailed feedback: • Pointed out the flaws and differences • Suggested changes to align it closer to the reference I was confident my feedback was perfect. I thought I found the only "right answer," as if it was a math equation. Later on, my mentor looked at my feedback and said: 💬 "Anton, your feedback boils down to remaking everything from scratch to get closer to the initial reference. While that may be valid, did you consider finding something that works well and could be developed in a new direction, even if it’s not like the reference?" 💬 I was stunned. I hadn't considered another way except following the reference. And in the end, the team indeed found a different path for the feature. Since then, I've always reminded myself: There are always multiple paths to solve the problem. None are absolutely right or wrong.

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This Rift Wizard descendent has me. I'm enamored with its scope, which seems to break down into... • Trigger-based RPG buildcraft (90%) • Roguelike progression loop (6%) • Literary dark-fantasy lore (3%) • Everything else that makes a video game (1%) This solo-dev delivered excellence in precisely the parts of these games that I love by absolutely punting art, animation, sound, and I bet by consequence a ton of engineering. It's a lesson in focus—a demonstration of what scope-creep costs the projects we never finish or which ship cluttered or underbaked. If those ratios above even approximate your priorities, this indie title is worth way more than the chump-change it's asking for.

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🎮 Want a job in the video game industry? 🎮 Begin with the end in mind.* ➡ When you drive to work do you just turn left or right based on how you feel that day? 😅 (I hope you left extra early that day) ➡ When you gather data for a project, do you grab monthly active users, popular breakfast items and breeds of dog? 🤐 (This report might be fun but your boss will not be happy) ➡ When you schedule a doctor appointment, do you call random numbers in the phone book? 🙃 The same applies to...well...applying for jobs. ❔ Do you look at the minimum requirements for a job or do you click easy apply on cool titles? (Although, I might as well shoot my shot for Game Director) ❔ Do you update your resume with your most relevant experience when you apply? What is your desired outcome? Work backwards and you'll see at least some of the steps in a path to get there. This is not easy to do, because there is no perfect way to be the best fit for a job. Everyone's journey is different. What steps have you taken to get to your goal or how have you been successful in your journey? *One possible end goal pictured #Letsgetyouhired #RecruiterAdvice

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Play the game in your head before you code a single line. You must imagine every detail: gameplay, flow, visual style, UI, etc. ↳ The clearer your vision, the smoother the development. ↳ If you can't picture it distinctly, development will be chaotic. Because every new game starts in your head, in your imagination. So push it to the limits before spending any resources on development.

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These little demos are a Graphics Engineer's version of practicing freethrows in the gym. Repetition, routine, and training. That's all. I've finished the control layout for my browser shooter. There are left+right virtual thumbsticks that work like thumb sticks on console shooters. To shoot, tap the bullet UI on the right side of the screen. Play here: https://lnkd.in/eBsyVx5x Code here: https://lnkd.in/eXJmCDXh Thoughts on Rust + wgpu here: https://lnkd.in/eMexfy6H

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I'm always slightly amused when game design discussions get heated, because it betrays a perception gap between What We Do (incredibly difficult technical art) and What We Offer (entertainment). For example, how long did your team spend on fine-tuning the animation design and player feel of hero movement? How many rigorous debates were had over the balance of animation expressiveness versus input responsiveness, and how that weaves into the overall user experience and product promise? Add those hours up, and multiply by the emotional intensity of said conversations. Now compare the size of your playerbase to that of a game where you click a banana. (spoiler: your game has less players 😅 ) Maybe you're overthinking it. Maybe most of us are! Embrace the jank. 🍌 Have a banana.

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Practice interviews can be incredibly valuable. Especially after you've been through something traumatic like a layoff or a toxic work environment. Find someone you know well, someone you trust; if you don't have anyone like that, reach out and find someone (www.amirsatvat.com has resources). It's important that you pick someone who can give you critique and someone you can hear it from. One of the things that we do in every interview, whether we're conscious of it or not, is to frame our own work in relation to the experiences we have had. There are a lot of potential pitfalls in that beyond the obvious bad-mouthing of people and companies. For example, I've interviewed a lot of senior production leaders over the last few years. Several of them have related situations where they were not able to get higher-level alignment among stakeholders - this is extremely common in game development. But, how you relate that experience makes a tremendous amount of difference. If you focus on how frustrating it was, how blocking the stakeholders were, how impossible it was to make progress because of that issue, that doesn't put you in the best light. As a production leader, I expect you to resolve issues like that. If, on the other hand, you focus on how you got the team to work around the blocking issue, how you got the stakeholders into alignment, how you forced accountability into leadership on the lack of alignment - now we're talking. Every story you tell in an interview gives the people you are talking to a window into what working with you is going to be like. If you're not aware of your own unconscious framings when you're telling these stories, you may be putting their focus on the wrong places. Practice telling those stories with people who have the right ear to call out the false notes that are coming up. Again, especially after a highly emotional event, you're likely bringing emotional contexts to your stories without even being aware of it. You wouldn't walk up to the mound at a baseball game without having practiced your pitch. Get your reps in on interviewing, and it will pay off.

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I found a question on Reddit about "How to go from highly technical career game programmer to solo dev game designer?." This subject fills me with interest because both areas of video game creation are presented so differently even when they are forever intertwined. How many times you have played a video game with perfect gameplay mechanics that it's boring as hell? This was my answer to the question from this programmer. I'm going to tell you what works in my case, but have in consideration that every path can be different. I started studying and reading a lot of content related to games and level design. Yes, I know that there are many YouTube tutorials, but I went back to the previous technology: Books. What is important in any type of learning is the structure methodology. Try to avoid leaving holes without explanation. That's a killing approach when you're learning new basic concepts. Remember, you don't know about this, or even worse, you still don't know how much you don't know. This is my recommendation based on books I've read that help me understand the intricacies of video game design and level design. From the most essential to the less, here's my list: - The Art of Game Design - Jesse Schell - An Architectural Approach to Level Design - Christopher W. Totten - Level Design for Games - Phil Co - Level Up - Scott Rogers The other part is to try to connect with your gamers of the game genre you're creating. Start building a relationship so they can provide you with some feedback and ideas to improve your game. Be open to listen and to test ideas. Post Saturdays on Twitter (X) using #screenshotsaturday and ask for feedback. This will help you build a fan base and get ideas/suggestions for free. Finally, to continue my education in that area I listen to podcasts related to game design. Perspectives from other designers will help you big time. One more little thing I purchased, was the Master Class of "Will Wright - Teaches Game Design and Theory." He's a master of the art of game design. To close this post, remember that I'm creating an educational program with live sessions to mentor and teach people about how to become a successful video game creator. You can't be only a game developer, a game designer, or a level designer. You need to build your career with intention and follow a path and a strategy. If you're interested in becoming part of this project, I'm doing a group of interviews to collect information and design the content of this educational program. Reserve your time to talk with me here: https://lnkd.in/gPYJeadb Have a great journey! Tony #GameDesign #GameDevelopment #SoloDev #IndieGameDev #GameProgramming #LevelDesign #GameDesigner #GameDevCommunity #GameDevTips #LearnGameDesign #GameDesignBooks #GameDesignLearning #GameDesignJourney #GameDevResources #MasterClass

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As much as I am devastated I am, in the most professional way possible, angry. I am angry that executives have turned to an unsustainable model of infinite growth to attract and please investors that know nothing of the craft of game development. I am angry that executives continue to push this urgency for game releases when the incredibly lucrative and successful Baldur's Gate 3 took 6 years to develop. And then when these games are pushed by executives to be released before finish or polish, the game performs poorly and then the same executives close the studio blaming the failure on the developers who wished for more time in the development cycle. I am angry that investors have no interest in the quality of products in the games industry and only on short term ROI. I am angry, that we as gamers keep buying these poor products and that executives lay off talent and close studios not because they are in danger of bankrupcy but to show "growth." Enough is enough. Don't join a AAA company. Join a start up. Work part time outside of games while working for a profit share agreement with friends at your own studio. Join a union. Hold these executives and publishers accountable. Do not trade your talent for a salary with a studio that does not respect you. This isn't new. This is the same song and dance that has been happening for years in this industry. And it doesn't have to be this way. Make your voices heard.

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No longer Xbox, but Microsoft Gaming. This is true. Sarah Bond interview was word salad. But between the word salad tidbits did come out. Tango games was succesful, but not for Microsoft standpoint. We are in a different era where you could do everything right and still go down. Scary for any company working under Microsoft. Truth be almost any other big corp company because this is the trend now. Success on reviews, awards, and even sales is no longer a good enough metric, but longevity of the success, games like Minecraft or Fortnite. That is why some game companies under MS are more or less protected. Unlike Arkane that had one fail and were shuttered because they were the new kid to bully in the school system. But even so I doubt any company under Microsoft is safe anymore and if you work with them you are part of the cutting block. This is going to change the dynamic not just for MS but for other companies thinking this is ok. MS is normalizing this behavior and others will take inspiration imo. #xboxdead #layoffs #studioclosing #gamedev #microsoft #games #gameindustry https://lnkd.in/g-WavKx4

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After a short burst of burnout and a little while taking it easy, work on Unreal Tower Defense has resumed. Ill be releasing actual formal devlogs in the future but here are the cliffnotes of my current progress: The master tower is now being programmed! its all planned out in a flowchat on my (Very full) whiteboard, so ive began to actually assign datatable values to the stats! The backpack system is almost done being planned, with what I've recently learned about map variables coming in handy for saving and checking a players skins and towers. I've also been working on a roadmap to 0.0.1, this is to make sure i actually release it and don't just endlessly make content, i cant make a time estimate yet, but once its released ill link it here (Feedback would be greatly appreciated when the time comes, the game will be free!)

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Writing shaders made a lot more sense to me than using a node based shader editor. "NORMAL_MAP = vec3(0,10);" Really helps with foliage in an isometric style, especially if it's moving and is lit by a dynamic light source. it helps keep the lighting consistent and avoids back face discoloration.

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I have released part 1 of my new True Top-Down 2D #gamedev tutorial series for #godotengine 4.

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Game design has been a passion for my entire life. I remember sitting down with a friend growing up, looking at games like Armored Core and Skyrim and saying "Well, that's great, but what if we made it available to be played at a table like D&D or Pathfinder?" TTRPG experience and knowledge has been so critical in learning how to design games- and better, the experience extends beyond just TTRPGs. It extends to games of all kinds- general roleplaying, first person shooters, turn-based or action, trading card games, board games, etc. - Wording VS Intention: Wording and the concept of RAW(Rules As Written) and RAI(Rules As Intended) are incredibly important. Anyone who has spent time playing Magic the Gathering or D&D 5e knows that the occasional loophole in the wording of a rule allows for some fun, albeit potentially unintended nonsense. - User Experience: As a Game Master of 10+ years, and as a player, having fun with the system is extremely important. The mechanics should be intuitive and should have synergy that falls naturally with the other systems within the game. Players inherently want to enjoy their games and have fun, and will praise the design of a game for having good synergy within its own mechanics for having that level of forethought. - Simplicity can be Key: Pathfinder 1e is where I started my TTRPG journey, and retroactively it has a lot of things I love! However, it also has paragraphs and paragraphs to describe a single class ability; it means less people have to filter through more information to understand the exact interaction and experience they will have. I have had players immediately express disinterest if a class has too much information in it, even if it was the exact description they were looking for. - Lack of Stagnation: It has been a consistent experience in the TTRPG community to release new editions, updating, simplifying and refreshing rules. The difference that Pathfinder 1st Edition and Pathfinder 2nd Edition have is vast- and even the revision of Pathfinder 2e changed enough rules to breathe life into the already fun and understandable system. - Plan Ahead, But Adapt: When designing a game, you want to keep in mind any systems you aim to include, as far down as you can. The Tree method comes in handy here, allowing one to think down to the minute details of a project. Thing is, you'll miss things. You will have oversights. That is why adaptability to your plan is important. Planning ahead by creating frameworks for your systems allows the adjustment and insertion of new ideas into old systems. TTRPGs are foundational to the video game industry as a whole, and my passion for designing systems has led me to create and refine several systems for games. The core concept of mechanics, synergies and frameworks would not have been as relevant without my experience and time as a Game Master and a Player in the TTRPG world.

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