Game Design

 
Los 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 ...

Are 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 ...

You don’t need to be a gamer to recognize the incredible success of Fortnite: Battle Royale and Overwatch — two of the most popular games ...

By Scott Rogers – Instructor, New York Film Academy Game Design
Nintendo recently celebrated its 46th year of creating video games, and with the exception of ...

Gaming 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 ...

By Felipe Lara – Instructor, New York Film Academy Game Design

A good piece of concept art can be used as a prototype to test one ...

For 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 ...

One of the most debated topics in the video game industry is one that may surprise you: not graphics or gameplay, but ethics. People, whether ...

By Felipe Lara – Instructor, New York Film Academy Game Design
Adding storytelling to your game can help you connect emotionally to your players, add meaning ...

Is the only thing keeping you from transforming your great game idea from dream to reality your wallet? Well then, you will be happy to ...

By NYFA Instructor Felipe Lara
Adding storytelling to your game can help you connect emotionally to your players, add meaning to the experience, and increase long-term ...

By Felipe Lara, NYFA Game Design

How can you make your game more engaging and effective? In a nutshell, by making engagement stronger at the different levels ...

By 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 ...

By Felipe Lara, NYFA Los Angeles Game Design

We all want to make successful games: innovative, loved by players, and profitable.  The question is: Is there ...

There’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 ...

The 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 ...

Like in life, learning the hard way is never a pleasant experience. Instead of identifying your game design mistake beforehand and avoiding it, you get ...

The 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 ...

Do you fancy yourself creating the virtual worlds where players explore and get lost in? The job of Game Artist is becoming more and more ...

Boss 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 ...

Almost anywhere you look, statistics will show that the number of people who identify themselves as gamers is growing. From small mobile and indie titles ...

More 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 ...

If there’s one skill everyone thinks they have, it’s creative writing. The programmers coding the game and artists bringing ideas to life have no trouble ...

Difficulty has always been an interesting subject when talking about video games. Some people have no problem playing a single-player campaign on Easy or Normal ...

When Valve released Steam more than a decade ago, few could have imagined the impact it would have on the game industry. The online digital ...

One of the most important decisions every development team has to make is what platform their game will be made for. Unlike a decade or ...

From having a successful interview to making sure your application doesn’t end up being ignored, there are plenty of tips out there to help you ...

If there’s one thing a lot of indie game developers are learning the hard way, it’s that making a game is only the first step ...

Gamers are a blessed bunch. Each year, countless titles on numerous platforms release to help us have fun and escape from reality for a while. ...

If there’s one thing that the internet and social media have shown us, it’s that people really like expressing their feelings and opinions. Take a ...

When asking experienced developers and game design professors what every aspiring designer should know, you’re bound to get a variety of tips. We’d expect no ...

Of all the roles you can obtain while working in the video game industry, few are as rewarding and sought-after as “Game Designer”. Game designers ...

Not long ago the idea of making games without a large team and serious publisher support was seen as a joke to many. Of course, ...

Most game developers do all they can to make their in-app purchases as enticing as possible. Whether it’s faster resources, more chapters, or powerful items, ...

Ever since L.A. Noire offered access to new missions, outfits, and modes via the “Rockstar Pass” in 2011 other developers have been tempting players to ...

During an interview for Japanese website, Nintendo Online Monthly, Shigeru Miyamoto offered a very interesting piece of advice to aspiring game developers:
“…Although you should of ...

It cannot be stressed enough how important it is for a game developer to playtest their game. We have even provided some advice on how ...

When you think about video game design, you can think of it in terms of a jigsaw puzzle. Not only does each piece need to ...

One of the hardest things for a developer to balance out in their own game is difficulty. This is because developers are almost generally pretty ...

While there are plenty of opinions floating around when it comes to crowdfunding, one thing’s for certain: plenty of great games have seen the light ...

The thought of showing off your game in a crowded setting, and actually interacting with people looking to catch a glimpse of your project, can ...

For most developers, the thought of being the president of a video game company never really crosses our minds. Instead we’re thinking about how we’ll ...

When creating a free-to-play (F2P) game, most developers focus on tracking the obvious: number of downloads, installs, and in-app purchases. While there’s nothing wrong with ...

Making sure your game is fun should be your first priority, but getting people to actually notice it is important too. One of the best ...

Although it has only been around since 2012, the Steam Greenlight process has changed a lot since its launch just a few years ago. In its ...

There are indie game teams out there who think creating a design document would be a waste of their precious and limited time. This idea ...

Whether you’re developing a free-to-play game, or one that will launch with a price tag, the end-goal as professional game designers should always be to ...

Being a game designer is not only about coming up with cool ideas, far from it. The truth is, being a good game designer requires ...

This is the third part of our series covering common interview questions that you might encounter during an interview for a game design job. If ...

If there’s one area of the job searching process that many people find nerve-wracking, it’s the part where you actually talk to a person. More ...

In part 1 we revealed three of the most common questions you are likely to face when heading in to a game design job interview. Here ...

If you ask most developers how many unforeseen challenges they have come across during a single game project, they’ll most likely have a good number ...

It isn’t difficult to find articles providing tips for creating a fun game. You will see  advice like be creative, prototype new ideas, and have ...

So your game is finally ready to launch and you want as many people as possible to know about it. By the time your game ...

Having dreamt of creating your own games ever since you were a kid, you’re brimming with passion and excitement now that it’s finally becoming a ...

So you’ve finally graduated from college with that coveted piece of paper you’ve worked so hard to obtain. Whether you went through a game design ...

If you have recently completed the storyline or single-player campaign of a big-budget game, chances are you didn’t sit there trying to read every name ...

Although there are sure to be exceptions, most games end up having some form of game design document. Whether it is completed before the game ...

If you’re an aspiring game developer or professional looking to work in the industry, you have probably heard of the annual Game Developer’s Conference that ...

When asking a game designer what you should be doing to make good games, they will more often than not tell you to “play a ...

With the explosion of video gaming into the mainstream in recent years, it naturally follows that a greater number of people are looking to learn ...

It’s no secret that making a computer game usually requires a solid understanding of computer programming—they are “computer games,” after all. Unfortunately not all of us ...

It wasn’t long ago that having an online game design portfolio was unheard of. In fact, when most people think about an online portfolio that ...

It’s impossible to ignore just how successful Kickstarter has become in only 5 short years. From Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune’s new Mighty No 9 to ...

Despite still being a relatively new entertainment medium, video games are evolving rapidly and in the past 20 years alone we’ve already seen many stages ...

Back at the genesis of the video game industry, games used to be made by lone (and usually hobbyist) programmers at home in their spare ...

StarWars.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 ...

Current events continue to keep most of the population indoors for extended periods of time, affecting everything from studying to working to, yes, even gaming. ...

If you want to make video games, you need to be playing video games. But while the latest and greatest AAA console games are a ...

At 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 ...

Most gamers have heard of Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario and the Legend of Zelda series, or they might know of Hideo Kojima, ...

It’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 ...

This December, Netflix anthology series Black Mirror released their first “interactive narrative” episode, entitled Bandersnatch. The critical response was explosive, with some reviewers calling it ...

January 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 ...

Last 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 ...

The video game industry can be a tricky beast to predict. Who could have expected a little sandbox game called Minecraft to dominate pop culture, ...

Today’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 ...

Whether 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 ...

By Felipe Lara – Instructor, New York Film Academy Game Design

If you have led a team in the development of a new game, you probably ...

The 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 ...

by 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. ...

By 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 ...

CGI and video games: computer generated images (or, at least, computer interpreted images) are, by definition, the visual recipe for every video game we play ...

Wondering 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 beauty of video games is that they can take you to any point in space and time you can possibly dream up. Want to ...

As the biggest pop culture event on the East Coast, New York Comic Con (NYCC 2016) is always on the radar of every comic fan ...

Two 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: 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 ...

If you went back in time, even just by twenty years, and told the first person you met that one day millions of people would ...

At 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 ...

For 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 ...

The video game industry has changed dramatically the last few decades, especially when it comes to getting your foot in the door. For the longest ...

It’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 ...

Whenever 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 ...

Another 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 ...

Compared to the history of film and television, video games are still pretty much in their infancy. One can also argue that games are advancing ...

The game industry is more competitive than ever, enough that finding success in any one country is hugely challenging. Imagine then trying to create a ...

Like Christmas and birthdays, gamers begin counting down the days until the next E3 the day after the show closes its doors. While there are ...

We have more games to enjoy than ever before thanks to the indie renaissance that our industry is currently experiencing. This is especially true in ...

While many of us learned about episodic games by playing Telltale Games from the mid-late 2000s, this format has been around in various forms since ...

It’s amazing to think that the Game Developers Conference started out in a small living room back in the 1980s. The annual event now takes ...

Recently, the upcoming Assassin’s Creed film, based on Ubisoft’s annual game series, finished filming. While those who remember 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ...

Strategy is one of those genres that has remained relevant throughout video game history, in one form or another. We say that because “strategy” is ...

Fallout 4, Star Wars Battlefront, Halo 5: Guardian, Call of Duty: Black Ops III—these are only a few of the many well-received titles gamers all ...

Of all the perks that come with being a video game developer, playing lots of video games is near the top of the list. While ...

2015 marked the second time that Sony put on their own showcase live event—the PlayStation Experience. From upcoming independent games and big-budget titles to tech ...

If there’s one video game genre that can be difficult to explain in a nutshell, it’s action-adventure (AA). This genre is broad and often combines ...

Almost one year ago we talked about how Geoff Keighley’s first Game Awards show was a long-awaited taste of how an annual awards ceremony should ...

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding video games, especially among people unfamiliar with the industry, is that everyone involved in making them eventually gets rich. ...

Virtual reality has been a hot topic in the video game industry for a while now. This contrasts greatly to the 90s when VR headsets, ...

One of the most important yet often ignored parts of game development is prototyping. A prototype is your way of testing out concepts without putting ...

There have been a couple of huge acquisitions in the gaming industry within the last few years. Last September Microsoft bought Mojang, allowing them to ...

If there’s one mechanic that has stood the test of time and transcended genres, it’s stealth. Stealth elements can be seen in today’s action-adventure titles ...

In the last decade or so we have seen a renaissance of sorts when it comes to games that give players the ability to create ...

Over the past few decades, the video game industry has really come into its own—not only is it the fastest growing entertainment medium in terms ...

It only takes one look at the most popular games in recent years to see that story has become very important to us. Sure, some ...

It’s never a bad idea to examine a particular game studio and see how their process helps them create successful games. Of course, what works ...

Anyone who says developing games is easy has obviously never done so. After all, there are more than a few common mistakes that even the ...

Like anything in life, learning mistakes the hard way as a game designer is anything but fun. Whether it be an unfair boss or boring ...

While most gamers can’t wait for the month of June to come around so they can see what’s coming at the next E3, there’s no ...

It was a little more than a month ago that Microsoft impressed us with some unexpected announcements at Gamescom 2015. While the best reveals were ...

As a game developer, it never hurts to look at what titles are selling like hotcakes, especially on a platform you’re considering releasing your own ...

Any game designer who has been in the industry long enough can relate to the old saying: “if I knew then what I know now…”
Like ...

From bigger worlds and realistic graphics, to downloadable content and 1 Gigabyte games that can fit on your phone, there are plenty of obvious differences ...

When one thinks about the App Store or Wii gaming library, some pretty amazing games come to mind. From Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime ...

When you look back at any of the “Most Anticipated Games of 2015” lists written up last year, you’ll usually find the same games repeating (such as Batman: ...

If there’s one annual trade show that has every gamer counting down the days until it starts, it’s the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Here is ...

Perhaps by the time you’re reading this it has finally started to sink in that Satoru Iwata, one of the most beloved figures in the ...

E3, for a lot of us, is comparable to Christmas; an entire week when our favorite websites and social media pages serve as a floodgate ...

Over the past few years we’ve seen many big name developers and publishers enter the mobile game market. From Sega and Blizzard Entertainment, to Epic Games ...

One of the most beloved genres in gaming continues to be the role-playing game (RPG). It’s in these games that we often truly feel like ...

When one looks at the relationships between video games and other forms of entertainment, few are as fascinating as that of games and toys. Today ...

Last on our “Learning From The Best” series is a genre that only recently began making a comeback after a few years of seeing little ...

The first-person shooter (FPS) is without a doubt one of the most popular genres today. Between the annual Call of Duty, completely new titles like ...

It was only about a month ago that Valve Corporation, one of the most recognizable video game companies in the world, was making headlines with ...

During their 2005 E3 press conference, Sony showed off the power of the PlayStation 3 in a way that Square Enix regretted for many years ...

Although they’re certainly not for everyone, puzzle games offer a unique joy that few other genres can provide. There’s just something about confronting a problem ...

When thinking about Nintendo this coming E3, many will only have one thing on their mind: the Wii U sure is struggling to sell, isn’t ...

If there’s one type of game that is currently seeing an incredible revival, it’s the platformer. Whether you’re talking 2D or 3D, gamers have proven ...

Of the three big video game companies battling it out this generation, only Sony will step into E3 2015 with bragging rights. While the Wii U ...

It’s been quite a rough road so far for Microsoft. Although the Xbox 360 managed to fare better than the Playstation 3 throughout most of ...

Any gamer who held a controller in their hands during the last half of the 90s knows how big 3D platformers were. From Super Mario ...

If you grew up playing video games in the 90s, chances are you wanted a specific game console for one reason: it had one or ...

Just like excellent reviews and high sales numbers, a good modding community is something every game creator dreams of having. In fact, many developers openly ...

Easily one of the best things about the gaming industry is that it’s constantly changing. Who knew music video games like Rock Band and Guitar ...

A few months back we showed you three quotes spoken by some of the most influential game designers of all time. From standing up for ...

Zombies.
Zombies, zombies, zombies.
For the past decade, the undead blighters have been rising from their graves and spreading their viral appeal through pretty much every medium ...

For game developers to attract players to their game and keep their attention, more than a fun and captivating main quest is needed. Gamers do ...

“A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.”
– Shigeru Miyamoto
Chances are you’ve already read or heard this now-famous quote by ...

Normally when a game company is trending on Twitter, the hope is that it’s because an anticipated game has just released to critical acclaim, or ...

Creating an indie game is something many game developers dream of doing at some point in their career. There’s nothing more exciting than seeing your own ...

If there’s one thing that has been polarizing fans for a few years now, it’s the possibility of Nintendo entering the smartphone scene. Should the “Big ...

2015 is another year where we’ll play a host of amazing games we didn’t know could provide us with so much joy and entertainment. At ...

Few could have anticipated the level of success Hearthstone would achieve, even if trading card games like Magic The Gathering are as popular as ever. Who ...

As the annual Game Developers Conference comes to an end, it’s never too early to start looking ahead  and planning for the next one. Attending ...

Even though it’s been growing for a few years now, it’s still amazing to think just how big the indie gaming scene has grown. Gone ...

Whether you grew up in the “Genesis does what Nintendon’t” era, or your very first video game console was released in the last 10 years, ...

Most people look back at games from a decade or two ago and shake their head at the outdated visuals and simple gameplay. Of course, ...

Testing your game may sound as easy as handing someone an early build and asking them to tell you if they hate something or encounter ...

It’s hard not to appreciate all the advancements we’ve seen the gaming industry go through over the past twenty or so years. From voice chat ...

It’s amazing how many games these days offer both a vast single player campaign and some form of multiplayer. As online capabilities for both console ...

Want to make video games and break into the game design industry? One of the best ways to do that is to stand on the ...

It’s always fun to see a new big-budget IP release that blows us away with new characters, unique ideas, and irresistible gameplay. In 2014 alone ...

Even if you know your favorite titles aren’t anywhere near being the bestselling games of the year, it’s still fun to see which are. With ...

2014 was yet another great year for gamers that showed. It showed us just how unlikely it is for the video game industry to slow ...

Chances are you’ve come across someone that absolutely despises the idea of microtransactions in a game. To them it’s merely a greedy and absurd way ...

It’s impossible to be a gamer and not get excited about 2015, a year that’s setting itself up to be one of the biggest software-wise ...

Whether you’re new to game development or a veteran with plenty of years already under your belt, it never hurts to hear what other designers ...

When the topic of video game award shows comes up, most gamers can’t help but give a dissatisfied sigh. Unfortunately the gaming industry has never ...

Another year, another awesome twelve months of gaming! From surprise hits like Broforce to Kickstarter titles like Broken Age, this past year saw yet another ...

Few gaming mascots have seen the drastic transition that Sonic the Hedgehog has suffered in the past two decades. At one time he was the ...

You’d think that being compared to one of the more successful game companies would be a good thing.
Not only has EA remained afloat in one ...

It’s amazing just how far the gaming industry has come in terms of who can actually make a living creating games. For the longest time, ...

If there’s one genre that has stood the test of time despite a long-lasting hiatus from the spotlight, it’s the 2D platformer.
From early 1980s games ...

An ‘end of an era’ feeling swept across the gaming industry the day Nintendo announced that they would not be holding a live press conference ...

It wasn’t too long ago when the point-and-click adventure genre stole hours upon hours of time from computer gamers everywhere. The mouse and keyboard were ...

In late 2014 we’ll be getting a remake of a remake of the survival horror title that, for many of us, was the first time ...

It used to be that when a developer annouced an updated version of a game complete with better visuals and maybe even a few bonuses, ...

Stephanie Barish is founder and CEO of IndieCade, what the Los Angeles Times has dubbed “The Sundance of Video Games.” IndieCade is dedicated to the ...

It’s hard to believe that only thirty years ago we almost saw the complete demise of the video game industry in North America.
The now-infamous crash ...

Although the role of ‘game designer’ is one of the most sought after careers in the industry, it’s safe to say that “game writer” is ...

If marketing history has taught us anything, it’s that the gaming community is a mighty and fickle beast that shouldn’t be rubbed up the wrong ...

When one tries thinking of a company that has been considered “doomed” by the masses every other year only to end up afloat, it’s hard ...

Considering how many applications developers and studios receive these days whenever they post a ‘Game Designer’ position, it’s easy for a hiring team to completely ...

Any gamer can look at the gaming experiences throughout their lifetime and realize one thing: the gaming industry changes faster than perhaps any other creative ...

To the lament of many in the Minecraft community, the sale of Minecraft is a done deal. For a cool $2.5 billion, the game now ...

So you finally think you’ve got what it takes to land that fabled ‘Game Designer’ job you’ve dreamed of.
Perhaps you’re fresh out of college with ...

While most game developers have a passion for gaming, at the end of the day it is still a business. That means that attracting players ...

Every now and then, stories can be found of rare video games cartridges — usually from now defunct companies, or parts of a tiny production ...

NYFA’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 ...

David Fratto is a game executive who has worked as a developer and publisher for companies like Knowledge Adventure, Vivendi Games, Scholastic Media, and the ...

As a game designer, Bryan Ma (@whoisbma) has worked for large production companies and independent studios. He has been a student of game design, and is now ...

Robert Nashak teaches in the game design program at NYFA’s Los Angeles campus. He is currently chief operating officer of a virtual reality gaming startup ...