2016 Scott Fine game Design Year in Review

Whoa! Time does fly! It’s already been a few years since I started this blog. Just like last year, I’m doing a 2016 year in review! Today I’d like to take a look back at some of my favorite post from the last year.

I’d like to highlight three articles which I believe are my best work of the year. Additionally, I’d like to give an honorable mention to one of the most exciting moments of my year.

1.       Pokemon GO! Series

Okay, I know I’m cheating right out of the gate but technically I think these should be highlighted as a group. In this four part series, we start by understanding the basic functionality and mechanics of Pokemon Go. In part two, we discuss gym battles and the problems plaguing them. Part 3 is one of my most popular posts of the year, it deals with how Pokemon are distributed and located around the planet. We finish up discussing the economy of Pokemon go and how it affects the players.

Part 1 - Basic Pokemon GO

Part 2 - Pokemon Go: Gym Battles!

Part 3 - Where's that Pokemon?

Part 4 - Pokemon Go: Economy

2.       Game Design Analysis – Disney Magic Kingdoms

This analysis breaks down the game Disney Magic Kingdoms. We discuss everything from the basic mechanics and to quest functionality to the economy and rewards. This is one of the most popular pieces on the site today.

Disney Magic Kingdoms - Design Analysis

3.       The Dark Zone Versus the Prisoner’s Dilemma

This piece discusses the Division, more specifically the dark zone and how it relates to the Prisoner’s Dilemma. This is the piece I’ve had more comments and heat over than any other piece I’ve written.

The Dark Zone Versus the Prisoner's Dilemma

Honorable mention:

Boss Battle Gamecast Guest – Ep. 48

This was an exciting opportunity for me! I had the honor of being a guest on the Boss Battle Gamescast. We discussed the industry, what I’m up to now and so much more. Check it out when you get some time!

If you don't have time to stream it now, feel free to download it for future listening at the Raptor cow website HERE

With that said I’d like to thank you. Your comments have helped me to improve these posts. I’d like to give an extra big thank you to everyone who stuck around since 2015.  I know I haven’t been the most active over the course of the last few months. I appreciate your patience and thank you for sticking around. I’ll be doing more posts in the New Year and I should have some big news in the coming months. I hope you had an excellent 2015 and that 2016 will be even better.

I’ll see you guys next time,

Scott

P.S. If you're new (Welcome!) and wanted to check out 2015's year in review it can be found HERE

Scott Fine Game Design 2015 Year in Review!

In this past year,  I started this blog to focus on game design and my own projects. Now that the year is coming to an end, I’d like to take look back on a few of my favorite posts.

Specifically, I want to highlight three game analysis/postmortems which I believe are my best articles of the year, plus one honorable mention that I felt should be included. I also want to highlight three posts about my personal projects and processes which I found to be enjoyable. If you have yet to check these out, I highly recommend them because I think they are excellent!

1. NFL RUSH Heroes & Rivals Postmortem

In this post, I sat down with an old friend who also worked on the NFL RUSH apps, and talked about what went wrong and what went right. It highlights some of the work we did and is easily the most popular of my posts this year!

Read it here!

2. In-depth look at - King’s Fall Raid series

I know I am technically cheating by counting these three as one post. In this series, I break down three of the toughest sections of Destiny’s King’s Fall Raid. I explored how the player learns to defeat each section, and eventually how they beat the raid.

Read it here!

3. Two Dots, Too Charming

A mobile game which captured my heart. My goal for this post was to understand why it was so pleasant. What are the core mechanics? How do they use the free to play model? What makes it so charming? What can we learn from this game?

Read it here!

Honorary Mention: Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade - Touching the Grim Dark Future

“Freeblade is a lot of things, and I could gush about so many things it does right, but today I want to stick to the controls. Controls in iOS games typically fall into one of two categories: either they are intuitive and easy to use, or an absolute mess and frustrating.” Excerpt from
Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade - Touching the Grim Dark Future

Read it here!

Personal Projects:
In my personal projects posts, I went for a less formal tone and more of a casual blog style than the analysis posts. I hope you enjoy them!

1. Choose Your Own Adventure

Here i’m going to walk you through a bit of my process. This is in no way how you should necessarily do things; this is just to show how I sometimes do things. I also discuss what I did programming-wise to bring this prototype to life.

Read it here!

2. Blog: Diamond Raven Games & Haunted Hop not quite a post mortem

Here I talk briefly about the process of bringing “Haunted Hop” to life, and eventually to the iOS app store.

Read it here!

3. Prototyping… I love it.

“I like to prototype. It helps me to figure out my thoughts and test the game mechanics to see if they are actually fun. Also I don’t have beautiful colors or great looking assets to cloud my judgment. It allows me to focus solely on the mechanics.” Excerpt from Prototyping… I love it.

Read it here!

Last but not least I’d like to thank you. By reading and giving me feedback on my posts, whether through conversations over coffee or in the comments section, I learn more about what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong. I’ve improved because of your feedback. And even if you didn’t get the chance to give me feedback directly, I’d like to thank you as well for using your time to read my ramblings. Thank you and I hope you had an excellent 2015!

I’ll see you guys next week,

Scott