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What I Like About Introductions
First of all, welcome to ‘What I Like About’ – I hope you, er, like it! (*phew* smooth start) As a lifelong gamer-turned-wannabe-designer, I have a confession to make. I love games. No, really, it’s...
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What I Like About Xenoblade Chronicles
What did I like about Xenoblade Chronicles? Nearly everything. The sheer scope of the world is deserving of the description ‘epic’, approaching the scale set by games such as Skyrim (and by ‘such as’,...
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WILA 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors
In WIHILA 999, I talked about some of the things a game can do to make a story interesting and relatable, right up to what is probably the most important thing – the interplay between the mechanics of...
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WILA Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Part I)
When I spoke about what I was looking forward to in Deus Ex, it was all about implicit gameplay choices and choosing to play a game the way you want to play it. When it comes down to accomplishing the...
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WILA Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Part II)
Last time (it feels like just moments ago) I used Deus Ex as an example of giving the player choices about how he or she plays the game. If you’ve just tuned in, I recommend going and having a quick...
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WILA DmC: Devil May Cry
There’s been an accidental trend in my recent posts – I’ve talked a lot about how the player plays the game, why that matters, and designing with that in mind. A big part of WILA Xenoblade was how the...
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What I Hope You’ll Like About This Column
Now that I’ve had around a month writing this column and I’ve put up a bit of a backlog, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk a bit more about my vision for the column in a way that wouldn’t have...
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WILA Resonance
Ten to fifteen play hours after my last post, I’m back to follow up on the indie pc adventure game, Resonance. In WIHILA Resonance, I asked what this game could add to the gameplay of a generic...
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WILA Extra Credits (Core Aesthetics)
Though a shout-out on its own is not really this column’s style, there’s a lot to be learned from the many sources of insight and information out there on the expansive and noisy internet. This is a...
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WILA D&D Next (Non-combat Gaming)
Many people like many different things about Dungeons & Dragons – the storytelling, the fantasy action, the camaraderie, the layers of customisation. It’s safe to say that I like the philosophies...
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WILA Final Fantasy XIII-2 – Communicating Narrative
This has been a long time coming. Anybody who has spoken with me about games, especially role-playing games, knows that Final Fantasy 13-2 captivated me. I was never sure when (or if) the time would...
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WILA Shin Megami Tensei IV – Money in an RPG
Hey everybody, apologies for the break, but vacations happen from time to time. I’m back, so let’s get started. While on holiday, I blazed through Shin Megami Tensei IV. I had a few things in mind to...
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WILA Tales of Xillia – Player and Character Resonance
[Note from Dustin: We’ve got a special guest writer this week – Florencia Minuzzi from teawithflo.com. She also happens to be my partner in a new game design venture. As a writer, I felt she was more...
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WILA Dragon’s Crown – Conveying Story Without Stopping the Action
Here in the WILA posts, I oscillate between picking out a single game mechanic and elaborating on its many design benefits, and highlighting a single theme or goal of a game’s design and picking out...
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WILA Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn – Crafting
It’s been a while since I wrote WIHILA Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, and those articles are not a prerequisite for this one (but you’re welcome to go have a read anyways if you haven’t yet). Now...
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WILA Pokémon X/Y – Clothing
This week I want to discuss something a bit more specific and mechanical: the clothing in Pokémon X/Y, and how it ultimately relates to engaging the player. Picking out a character’s clothing is the...
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