This section provides an insight into our Game Design School by looking at the ongoing trends in game design along with how-to guides, and Q&A’s and interviews that clarify the many nuances of game design.
How To Pitch to Game Developers
November 2, 2018Are you wondering how to pitch to game developers?
In 2009, twenty-nine year old Markus “Notch” Persson started work on RubyDung, a procedurally generated construction sim ...How to Design Your Game to Tell a Story
September 21, 2018You don’t need to be a gamer to recognize the incredible success of Fortnite: Battle Royale and Overwatch — two of the most popular games ...4 Prototypes That Will Help You Survive The Road Towards a Successful Game
February 16, 2018By Felipe Lara – Instructor, New York Film Academy Game DesignIf you have led a team in the development of a new game, you probably ...
The Right Concept Art Will Save You Money: 4 Steps to Develop
February 9, 2018By Felipe Lara – Instructor, New York Film Academy Game DesignA good piece of concept art can be used as a prototype to test one ...
How to Be a Star in Game Industry Design Meetings
February 2, 2018For aspiring game designers, we have created three tips to help you excel in design meetings in the game industry. Check it out:Make It About ...
What Beginners Should Know About Ethics in Game Design
November 2, 2017One of the most debated topics in the video game industry is one that may surprise you: not graphics or gameplay, but ethics. People, whether ...Game Storytelling – 3 Rules of Thumb that Work
October 13, 2017By Felipe Lara – Instructor, New York Film Academy Game Design
Adding storytelling to your game can help you connect emotionally to your players, add meaning ...The Table-Top Gaming Revolution: Just 40 Years in the Making
June 23, 2017by NYFA Instructor Andy Ashcraft
So, as some of you may have noticed, table-top games — board-games and card games — are really popular right now. ...3 Questions That Will Help You Make a More Engaging Experience
May 5, 2017By Felipe Lara, NYFA Game DesignHow can you make your game more engaging and effective? In a nutshell, by making engagement stronger at the different levels ...
On Game Literacy
April 28, 2017By Andrew Ashcraft, NYFA Game Design
One of the biggest benefits of playing games, whether we’re playing for fun or to learn how to design, is ...A Roadmap to Make a Successful Game
April 21, 2017By Felipe Lara, NYFA Los Angeles Game DesignWe all want to make successful games: innovative, loved by players, and profitable. The question is: Is there ...
How To Make Sure Your Game is Competitive In Other Countries
July 7, 2016The Gaming industry is more competitive than ever, enough that finding success in just one market is a challenge. Of course, there’s nothing quite like ...5 (Even More) Game Design Mistakes To Avoid
May 5, 2016Like in life, learning the hard way is never a pleasant experience. Instead of identifying your game design mistake beforehand and avoiding it, you get ...How To Become A Game Artist
April 22, 2016Do you fancy yourself creating the virtual worlds where players explore and get lost in? The job of Game Artist is becoming more and more ...How To Sabotage Your Game’s International Chances
April 22, 2016The game industry is more competitive than ever, enough that finding success in any one country is hugely challenging. Imagine then trying to create a ...How To Design The Best Boss Battles: 4 Must-Read Tips
April 1, 2016Boss battles are arguably one of the most exciting things about video games. Ask the average gamer what their favorite boss battles are and they’ll ...How Today’s Best Game Design Students Graduate Prepared
April 1, 2016Almost anywhere you look, statistics will show that the number of people who identify themselves as gamers is growing. From small mobile and indie titles ...How To Write A Compelling Game Story In Three Steps
April 1, 2016More people are realizing just how powerful video games are as a storytelling tool. Movies are fine and books are great too, but there’s just ...
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl: Repackaged And Resold or Satisfying Update To The Originals?
November 24, 2021The Pokémon franchise finds itself in an interesting place (at least as far as this writer is concerned). As someone who has played a couple ...Netflix’s Big Splash In Gaming
November 24, 2021In the world of both streaming and gaming, the streaming wars look like they’re getting taken to the next level. This month, Netflix launched a ...Far Cry 6: Why Character Enrichment Is Worth It
October 1, 2021Far Cry is one of those games where you don’t need to necessarily focus on the story in order to enjoy it. In a sense ...Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut and What’s Keeping The Hit Playstation Game Fresh
September 3, 2021For a couple of months now, Ghost of Tsushima has been all the rage on the Playstation side of console gaming. In a blogpost direct ...Will the Force be with Lucasfilm Games?
January 14, 2021StarWars.com recently announced that they would be starting up Lucasfilm Games, the new brand-heading for all video games Star Wars-related. The 1-11-21 press release says ...10 Board Games to Play Using Video Conferencing
March 20, 2020Current events continue to keep most of the population indoors for extended periods of time, affecting everything from studying to working to, yes, even gaming. ...Six Cool Indie Games You Need to Play (Or At Least Be Aware Of)
November 22, 2019If you want to make video games, you need to be playing video games. But while the latest and greatest AAA console games are a ...Google Stadia: Is This the Future of Gaming?
November 8, 2019At this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), internet behemoth Google announced their bid into the streaming gaming market: the Google Stadia. The Stadia (plural for ...6 Awesome Game Designers You Should Know
October 18, 2019Most gamers have heard of Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario and the Legend of Zelda series, or they might know of Hideo Kojima, ...The Top 10 Legend of Zelda Games
March 29, 2019It’s hard to imagine video games without The Legend of Zelda. Time and time again, Nintendo uses this iconic series to try and set the ...Bandersnatch: Are You Ready for Interactive Storytelling? Press ‘Left’ for YES
March 22, 2019This December, Netflix anthology series Black Mirror released their first “interactive narrative” episode, entitled Bandersnatch. The critical response was explosive, with some reviewers calling it ...9 Great Games From the Last 12 Months
March 15, 2019January and February tend to be a quiet time for game releases, especially following the pre-Holiday season in the Fall. While there’s plenty of new ...Insomniac’s Spider-Man and Why AAA Games Still Matter
January 11, 2019Last September, Sony released Spider-Man, the 35th video game based on the popular Marvel comic book superhero. The game, developed by Insomniac Games (Ratchet and ...5 Trends in Game Design to Watch Out for in 2019
January 4, 2019The video game industry can be a tricky beast to predict. Who could have expected a little sandbox game called Minecraft to dominate pop culture, ...The Architecture of Fear: Level Design Lessons from Haunted Houses
January 4, 2019Los Angeles celebrates Halloween better than any other city on Earth. Maybe it’s because so many Hollywood special effects artists live here, or because there ...What Nintendo Can Teach Us About Game Design
August 10, 2018By Scott Rogers – Instructor, New York Film Academy Game Design
Nintendo recently celebrated its 46th year of creating video games, and with the exception of ...5 Things Old School Games Mastered
July 13, 2018Today’s video games offer some of the most captivating worlds and stories one can experience. From incredibly realistic environments to impressive artificial intelligence, games have ...Movie Marketing: Video Game Tie-Ins Done Well
June 15, 2018Gaming tie-ins for movie franchises have existed for nearly as long as people have been playing video games. When done well, these media can blend ...Video Games that Successfully Made the Jump from Movie to Game
May 18, 2018Whether it’s due to rushed development times or not enough creative freedom, games based on movies rarely become the talk of the industry. Once in ...Best Free Game Engines and Development Software
July 14, 2017Is the only thing keeping you from transforming your great game idea from dream to reality your wallet? Well then, you will be happy to ...The Rise of High Quality Video Game Trailers
June 30, 2017The evolution of video game trailers is comparable to games themselves. While 20 years ago we were content running across 8-bit worlds, now we expect ...25 Video Games Every Game Design Student Should Play Before They Graduate
April 14, 2017By Scott Rogers, NYFA Game Design
Developers of new games constantly reference existing games when collaborating with their teammates. There is nothing worse than seeing the ...Analysis: the Advancement of CGI in Video Games
March 24, 2017CGI and video games: computer generated images (or, at least, computer interpreted images) are, by definition, the visual recipe for every video game we play ...Women to Know in the Gaming Industry
January 28, 2017Wondering where all of the diversity is in the video game industry? Don’t worry — it’s not all guys. Of course, it’s not surprising that ...The Past in the Present: Why Games Set Long, Long Ago Matter
November 12, 2016The beauty of video games is that they can take you to any point in space and time you can possibly dream up. Want to ...Why You Don’t Want To Miss NYCC 2016
October 1, 2016As the biggest pop culture event on the East Coast, New York Comic Con (NYCC 2016) is always on the radar of every comic fan ...How Virtual Reality Might Impact the Future of Game Design
September 3, 2016Two decades ago, the video game market got its first taste of virtual reality thanks to the Virtual Boy. The device promised “true 3D graphics” ...No Man’s Sky Review: An Emotional Roller Coaster
August 26, 2016No Man’s Sky: a game with 18 quintillion planets, all of which are unique and fully explorable.
It’s quite the tagline, and thanks to some extremely impressive ...The Perfect Storm of Game Design: How Did Pokémon GO Become so Popular, So Quickly?
July 22, 2016If you went back in time, even just by twenty years, and told the first person you met that one day millions of people would ...The Top Ten Highest Grossing Mobile Games (And How They Got There)
July 22, 2016At this point, you may have heard of a little mobile game called Pokémon GO. It’s doing rather well and is gaining a bit of ...Kojima’s Standing Ovation
July 8, 2016For those watching The Game Awards 2015, it was very disappointing when Geoff Keighley gave the news that Hideo Kojima would not be stepping up to ...How Developers Won Gamers Over With Story DLC
July 7, 2016There’s been plenty of discussion over downloadable content ever since it became the norm during the last console generation. Older gamers didn’t like the idea ...E3 2016: Predictions for Nintendo
May 5, 2016It’s been a rough generation for Nintendo. Plenty of amazing titles have graced the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, but the latter has definitely left ...E3 2016: The Titles That Can Help Third Party Devs Steal The Show (Again)
May 3, 2016Whenever E3 comes around, most gamers have their attention on the corner of the game world they identify with. Die-hard PlayStation fans will have their ...5 Tips For Standing Out At Your Next Game Fair
May 3, 2016The Penny Arcade Expo, Game Developers Conference, and Gamescom are a few of the many huge trade fairs small developers dream of attending. Who wouldn’t ...E3 2016: Predictions for Microsoft
April 22, 2016Another year, another opportunity for the biggest names in the industry to show us what they’ve got cooking for us. E3 is more than just ...5 Classic Video Games That Changed Everything: From Mario to WoW
April 22, 2016Compared to the history of film and television, video games are still pretty much in their infancy. One can also argue that games are advancing ...
Q&A With NYFA Alum & Game Designer Grettir Ólafsson on Life After NYFA
October 13, 2020NYFA’s own Game Design instructor Scott Rogers caught up with Grettir Ólaffson, who recently graduated from the New York Film Academy’s Game Design program, to ...