One of my pet design hates is when a game deliberately punishes you, either for doing well or for something as innocent as picking up some health. The main focus of this particular rant is the FPS games Doom and…

I do enjoy RPGs, and I've played a good mix of Western and Japanese over the years. But the two things that puts me off most JRPGs are the “Random Battle” mechanic and the turn-based battling. The first RPG I…

Manuals nowadays are (with few exceptions) rubbish and are symptomatic of how so many people are getting game design wrong. There are three main problems I have with manuals: 1. Insert tab A into slot B then… I do realise…

Inside the games industry I feel there is far too much focus on Unique Selling Points (USP). So much so that a lot of larger developers and publishers require a game design to have at least one USP before they…