Extra Credits

Name: Extra Credits
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Documentary
Rating: 9.3

9.3/10 Community-Wertung

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Genre: Animation Comedy Documentary

Erstausstahlung: 2010-07-29Dauer: 10 MinStatus: Continuing

Join James Portnow, Daniel Floyd and Allison Theus each week as they take a deeper look at games; how they are made, what they mean and how we can make them better. (Quelle: thetvdb.com)

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Season 18 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
5	3D NPCs Please - Adding Depth to Character	2020-02-19
Ever wonder why there are some NPCs that stick with you for ages after the game is finished and others that you forget almost as soon as you have encountered them? We've talked about writing characters a number of times on this show, but today we want to look at how NPCs with different kinds of relationships with the player can be written with more depth. Let's take a look at villains, mentors, and companions and see what makes them tick.
4	Introverts and the Industry - Building Better Spaces	2020-02-05
You would think that an industry built on technology and a lot of solitary work would be perfect for introverts. But there are a lot of ways that the gaming industry is still geared towards people with more extroverted tendencies. Networking events that involve large crowds, brainstorming sessions that require immediate responses, and deferring to the loudest voice are all ways that unintentionally make working harder for introverts. So how do we help create spaces in business to help everyone have a voice? Guest writer Renato Pelizzari is here to help answer that question.
3	Playing the Villain - Being Good at Being Bad	2020-01-29
Eddy Webb tackles the tricky subject of how to play a villain well. We've all had that experience with that one player who wants to dive right into the Chaotic Evil side of the chart... and that's okay! It's fun to be bad every now and then, and can even really open up stories to some great possibilities. But as with all tools, there are ways to use it poorly (and how!) so we're here to help show you how to play bad, good.
2	Should You Play the Classics? - Why Game History Matters	2020-01-22
With graphics that age quickly, cartridges and game systems that can be elusive to find, and so many new games coming out every week, it can be hard to understand why anyone should have to go diving through the primordial ooze of games from yesteryear. But if you're looking to get into game design, there's a lot of reasons you should try to twist your hands to fit a N64 controller. Even if newer games copy a particular formula and genre, you should try to dig into the roots of what makes that series good or popular.
1	Escort Missions - Dragging Dead Weight	2020-01-15
Escort missions, the bane of almost every gamer. You can see countless forum posts, articles, and memes trashing the helpless victims we're supposed to be protecting, but who keep getting us killed over and over and over again. Why do designers keep punishing players by chaining them to NPCs? And is there a way to do escort missions right?

Season 17 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
55	Because Games Matter - Jacob's Story	2019-12-25
Our final story also comes from C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital ( https://victors.us/streamformott ) Jacob was born with primary ciliary dyskinesia which means spending an hour every day receiving treatment to help prevent lung infections. During those treatments, Jacob was able to help pass the time by playing games. But when a tumor was found in Jacob's kidney, he had to stay at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. The week leading up to surgery was long, boring, and isolating. But the Child Life Specialists at the hospital changed all of that by visiting with toys and games. Games that gave Jacob something to look forward to and helped give Jacob hope.
54	Because Games Matter - Victoria's Story	2019-12-18
Victoria was always a curious child, but an undiagnosed anxiety disorder and ADHD gave her a rough start. It was difficult to make friends and at school she was known as the weird kid. After she was diagnosed, medication helped! But she still struggled socially. But after her parents read about Game to Grow, they decided to give it a shot. D&D allows kids like Victoria to explore social situations in a structured, no-risk environment and soon, Victoria was breaking out of her shell.
53	Because Games Matter - J.J.'s Story	2019-12-11
J.J. was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when he was 7. The hospital can be a scary place for a child, but it was in C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital that J.J. was introduced to video games. An activity therapist named Jerry Reed presented J.J. with Pitfall. Video games impacted J.J.'s life so profoundly to the positive, J.J. became a Certified Child Life Specialist at the very same hospital, 20 years later.
52	Imposter Syndrome - Fake It Till You Make It	2019-12-04
Imposter Syndrome is the psychological phenomena of thinking that you're less capable or deserving of your achievements that you are, leading you to think that you must have "fooled" your way into your position or success. And it is SUPER common in creative fields, including the game industry. Where does this phenomena come from, why is it so harmful, and how can we prevent it?
51	Loading Screens - The Waiting Game	2019-11-27
Nothing is more frustrating than a game crashing behind a loading screen, or the game grinding to a halt as you have to travel in-between areas. Even as tech gets stronger, our games get bigger, so it doesn't look like loading screens are disappearing anytime soon. But do they have to kill the pacing of the game and bore your player to death? We don't think so! We talk about a few examples of loading screens done right and how to engage your player during the waiting game.
50	Credits are not "Extra" - Why Game Credits Matter	2019-11-20
It's important to give credit where credit is due, but doing so might be trickier than some people might realize. Games take a long time to create and people may come and go on a project or be moved around to different departments. And the lead artist in one studio might not do the same tasks as a lead artist in another studio. This all makes credits very complicated! But that doesn't mean we can give up on credits either. Credits should not be "extra".
49	Get Hired: Portfolio Design - How to Build a Portfolio	2019-11-13
If you want to get a job in the games industry (or most any creative industry for that matter), then you’re going to need a portfolio. Why? Because they’re the second step towards getting you an interview. So we're going to teach you some of the basics when it comes to putting together that amazing portfolio for the dream job!
48	Game Jam Showcase #5 - Passage	2019-11-06
The Hallway by Ellie Samson Momentary by Zack Contest to Suggest by SRPent & OutOfCharacters Obolus, Please by Lei Into the Bullet Hell by Hot Girls with Broken Legs Moving Makes You Smaller by Moldoveanu Florin Doods: Radical Passage by Vandervas Generator 80 Days by Evan S.
47	The Perfect Horror Protagonist - Writing a Character for Fun & Terror	2019-10-30
For All Hallow's Eve, we're reviving an old episode from the dead: How to make a proper horror protagonist! It's been six years since we've talked about horror protagonists and the games industry has given us more examples of prime horror examples. So let's talk about the main points you should follow to write up a great horror protagonist.
46	Reciprocity in RPGs - How to Share the Spotlight	2019-10-23
Welcome back to our guest writer Eddy Webb! After his last episode, Eddy's been doing some thinking about failure in tabletop RPGs. More specifically, how failure can bring everyone at the table closer together. How? Through the principle of reciprocity. Letting yourself fail can help let another player shine and just by offering the spotlight to someone else, you can build a better play experience for everyone.
45	Did Level Scaling Break Games? - Leveling in Open World Design	2019-10-16
With whole new worlds open for exploring, game designers ran into a quick problem: how do you make sure new players don't run into a difficulty brick wall, and experienced players don't have to wade through trash mobs? Games like Oblivion and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey tried to fix this problem by simply scaling enemy difficulty to grow along with the player. But is that really the best solution? Or does level scaling doom open worlds to a same-y slog?
44	The Kobayashi Maru - No-Win Scenarios in Games	2019-10-09
Ah, the infamous Kobayashi Maru. The no-win Star Trek scenario is actually more common in video games than you might think. When games employ random elements, you increase the odds of creating a scenario where before the player even touches the controller, they have already lost. That must be a huge game design mistake, right? Well... It's not always so simple.
43	User Generated Content - The Upsides and Pitfalls to Level Editors	2019-10-02
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
42	The Real Core Loop - What Every Game Has In Common	2019-09-25
We've talked about specific core loops of games before, but there's a core loop that every game shares: The Real Core Loop. Very creative name, I know. But understanding this loop can help reveal what kind of game you're creating & how to minimize frustration on the player's end.
41	A Rebuilding Year - Navigating the Ups and Downs of Creative Careers	2019-09-12
Games teach us that it's okay to make mistakes, that we'll inevitably mess up in the game just like we mess up in real life. How does one pick themselves back up after an unexpected disappointment, crisis, or failure in achieving their creative goals?
40	Content Curation - Why Digital Game Stores Are So Selective	2019-08-28
We discuss the various design considerations that go into running a digital games storefront, from functionality to relevancy, and shed some light on the game certification process for consoles in particular.
39	The Prisoner's Dilemma - The Game Theory of Decision-Making	2019-08-21
Why is cooperation so difficult? Why do people make choices that seem to be worse for everyone involved, including themselves? Welcome to The Prisoner's Dilemma.
38	Learning to Play Magic #5 - The Psychology of Magic: The Gathering	2019-08-15
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
37	Diegetic UI - Realistic, or Distracting?	2019-08-14
What makes a good UI and a good HUD? Can you make narratively immersive UI that doesn't end up distracting or confusing the player? Is it okay to just make "boring" UI?
36	Learning to Play Magic #4 - Building a Deck	2019-08-08
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
35	Game Jam #4 Showcase - Theme: Connect	2019-08-07
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
34	Mixed Success - Winning and Losing in Tabletop Roleplaying Games	2019-07-31
Tabletop roleplaying games don't have an overall "win" or "loss" condition, but they do have individual moments of wins and losses that can be exaggerated and customized for more engaging gameplay.
33	Learning to Play Magic #3 - The Stack	2019-07-30
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
32	Learning to Play Magic #2 - What's in a Color?	2019-07-25
Today, we dig into the lore, personality, and philosophy of all the different Magic colors, as a prelude to strategy.
31	In Defense of Imagination - When to NOT Tell the Whole Story to Players	2019-07-24
Beautiful visuals and spell-binding stories can be found in games even without photorealistic, over-wrought intensity. We look at examples like Undertale, Dark Souls, and even Overwatch as examples of how "imagination gaps" can be intentionally designed as a jumping-off point to engage the player even more than if everything was laid out at the start.
30	Learning to Play Magic #1 - Core Concepts	2019-07-18
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
29	Letters to My Nephews #4 - Playing for the Long Game	2019-07-17
Games can teach us to keep a good perspective on life, both when it comes to planning for the future, and when it comes to seeing the current (stressful, struggling) moment in context of its real long-term impact.
28	Magic - Why We Play	2019-07-11
We're kicking off a mini-series called "Learning to Play Magic" over the next few weeks to teach you how to play... with a cat! But for today, we're just talking about the design lessons you can learn from playing MTG.
27	The Disappointing Final Level - Making Better Endings For Better Games	2019-07-10
By keeping a consistent tone with the gameplay, tying up all loose plot and character threads, and balancing the emotional payoff with the emotional buildup, games can have amazingly powerful endings that leave us wanting more. We look at some well-done examples like Super Mario Odyssey, Portal, and Silent Hill 2, as well as some weaker examples like the endings of Psychonauts and Assassin's Creed 1.
26	Stop Normalizing Nazis - Socially Conscious Game Design	2019-07-03
Historical and current political context matters in game design. Don't treat Nazis and terrorists like they are just one of several morally equivalent character skins for players to try on. Rainbow Six Siege is just one example of a game that includes thrilling PvP mechanics without normalizing morally wrong ideologies.
25	Bleed - Exploring Psychological Transference in Games	2019-06-26
"Bleed" describes one type of emotional impact games can have on players, where empathy is high and the barrier breaks down a bit between who you are and who you're playing as. We discuss different game narrative techniques to encourage emotional bleed.
24	Save Scumming - The Game Design of Save Systems	2019-06-19
Let's talk about how game saving works, the different types of saved-game systems, and which types of game designs encourage the practice of "save scumming"--which we don't think is inherently a bad thing, but it can feel frustrating to players if they feel like that's their only guaranteed chance of success at a difficult gameplay situation.
23	The History of Roguelike Deckbuilders - From Playing Cards to CCGs and Beyond	2019-06-12
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
22	Sticking to Your Guns - How the Doom and Dragon Quest Franchises Modernized	2019-06-05
Doom (2016) and Dragon Quest XI were successful sequels/reboots with their fans because they focused on modernizing the already loved and proven atmosphere and mechanics of their original games. You don't necessarily need to add in new elements just because other games use them--find what works for your game and for your intended audience.
21	The Kuleshov Effect - Improving Character Interactions in Games	2019-05-29
The Kuleshov Effect first came from the world of film, but it has fascinating applications in video games when players interact with non-playable characters. Context, juxtaposition, and emotions can be used in gameplay to create psychological fidelity in addition to the technical fidelity of mocap, voice acting, and artistic design.
20	Comfortable Play - Respecting Boundaries in Tabletop RPGs	2019-05-22
Having mutual trust at the table means we can use tabletop RPGs to explore ideas that are uncomfortable for us. When the game is run safely, we can use these experiences to help us understand how we would confront these things in the real world, and it can give us an experience to share with others when we leave the role-playing world.
19	Game Celebrities - The Role of Game Devs in Pop Culture	2019-05-15
Many times, the "game celebrities" we think of are the names of studios and publishers themselves, or just a small handful of historically notable names--but even these names aren't often well known outside of the gaming world. This can result in a general perception of game devs as nameless and unimportant, reinforcing power from the studio heads.
18	Games You Might Not Have Tried #19 - Game Jam "Cycles" Edition!	2019-05-08
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
17	Mental Health in Games - How We Can Do Better	2019-05-01
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice offers some great examples of how to address mental illness respectfully in games, but we found some other examples in media as well as recommendations by actual psychologists. Many thanks to Heidi McDonald and Dr. Kelli Dunlap for their research and writing for this episode!
16	Technical Debt - Improving the Production Pipeline	2019-04-24
Technical debt is what happens when problems caused early on in development aren’t dealt with until later, causing them to be significantly more difficult or expensive to address. They can affect any part of the production pipeline--what do producers need to know in order to correct these project management issues?
15	Using Narrative as Context - Balancing Gameplay and Story Elements	2019-04-17
You can de-emphasize a story without completely removing a narrative from a game. From the Super Mario games to Portal, there are many opportunities for narrative elements to enhance the gameplay and give the player a reason to, well, keep playing!
14	Google Stadia - Is Cloud Gaming For Real?	2019-04-10
Announced at GDC 2019, Stadia is potentially an incredible game-streaming technology that will dramatically increase convenient access to games to people all over the world and from all income levels, but will it actually stick? What barriers and hurdles does it face from ISPs and content creators?
13	Games You Might Not Have Tried #20 - April 1st Edition!	2019-04-01
We bet you REALLY haven't tried some of these undercover hidden gems of the gaming world!
12	RPG Character Sheets - Designing Gameplay Around Character Customization	2019-03-27
As a GM, one of the coolest things you can do for your players is to pay attention to what they spend their stat points and how they build their characters, so you can create more gameplay moments that match what they're looking for (even if they don't consciously realize it!). Thanks to Eddy Webb for guest-writing this episode!
11	The Importance of Not Playing Games - A Balanced Game Design Education	2019-03-20
The famous folks who made the games of our childhood, such as the Legend of Zelda series, were inspired by their own life experiences, rather than referencing previously created games. So why is it so common for young developers to almost entirely rely on these games as their sole templates, rather than designing from a wide variety of real-life inspirations? The rise of “lifestyle games” contributes to this imbalance in how a designer spends their time. Design students should remember to seek out experiences in all their forms, if they want to truly be a crafter of experiences. It’s also a huge part of why Extra Credits often talks about subjects “seemingly” unrelated to game design--they actually do matter in the big picture of a design education. Thanks to Samuel Dassler for guest-writing this episode!
10	Mechanics Shaping Story - Re-examining the Core Gameplay Loop	2019-03-13
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
9	Where Do Your Fortnite Dollars Really Go? - The Origin Story of Tim Sweeney	2019-03-06
We discovered a fascinating, feel-good story about Tim Sweeney (the founder of Epic Games) and how his love for the forests of North Carolina got him into game development!
8	Games You Might Not Have Tried #19 - Tabletop You Might Not Have Tried	2019-02-27
Today we finally delve into tabletop RPGs you might not have tried, with the help of RPG designer Eddy Webb.
7	The Mechanics of Character Design - Analyzing the Design of Marvel Puzzle Quest	2019-02-20
Good character design should successfully capture the fantasy of being a particular character. Even with mechanical constraints on gameplay possibilities, compelling characters are still achievable via techniques like ludonarrative resonance.
6	Destiny vs. Warframe - $500 Million in Free Marketing	2019-02-13
Ironically, many of the marketing promises of Destiny ended up being a great advertisement for Warframe. Although not without its flaws, Warframe has overall delivered a stronger gameplay experience and tonally consistent atmosphere than Destiny did.
5	The Meaning of Bandersnatch - The Philosophy of Free Will	2019-02-06
Bandersnatch wasn't the first interactive film on Netflix, but it attracted a lot of views from its association with Black Mirror and meta-narrative attempts. What kind of commentary does it make about us as players and viewers?
4	Games You Might Not Have Tried #18 - Game Jam Edition!	2019-01-30
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
3	Too Soon?!? - The Challenges of Early Builds and Game Demos	2019-01-23
Most of the time in game development, the game isn't actually in a polished and/or playable state until very close to the release date, which is why many studios are reluctant to release early builds or demos even at major marketing events like E3. Learn about the role of the build engineer!
2	The Catharsis of Doing - Designing Emotionally Intense Experiences	2019-01-16
Video games provide catharsis in a very unusual way from film and literature, and understanding how they do that is important for creating deep emotional experiences.
1	Overwatch and Informational Audio - Sound Design in Games	2019-01-09
Since audio is so important to communicate critical information, it needs to be designed neatly. Cluttered audio is confusing to players. We look at examples of audio in Counterstrike and Overwatch to learn about this.

Season 16 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
28	Because Games Matter - A Teachable Moment: Kingdom Hearts in the Classroom	2018-12-19
High school English teacher Patrick wondered how he could connect better with his students--for one in particular who kept to herself, she just needed someone to let her know that it was OK to talk about video games in the classroom.
27	Because Games Matter - MJ's Story: How Games Brought a Family Together	2018-12-12
Growing up, MJ fought non-stop with their brother--until they discovered Pokemon Stadium together. It would not only change their own life, but that of their entire family, for years to come.
26	Episode 400! - Taking a Day	2018-12-05
Happy 400th episode Extra Credits! Consider taking some time today to play a game you love. YOU matter, so, take care of yourself!
25	Games You Might Not Have Tried #17 - New Games to Learn From!	2018-11-28
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
24	The GDPR - What It Means For You! (Developers AND Players!)	2018-11-21
The GDPR stands for the “General Data Protection Regulation.” It’s a European regulation that became effective in May 2018, designed to overhaul the way we think about data and data privacy--even internationally--especially when it comes to the privacy of your game-playing data.
23	Tutorials That Don't Talk Down To You - Context Sensitive Design	2018-11-14
Context sensitive game design is often the key difference between a good tutorial, and a condescending, painfully obvious and frustrating tutorial.
22	Building Streaming Into Your Game - Designing Games for Observers	2018-11-07
Adding streaming-friendly features to your game can increase its marketability, but they have to be as well-thought out as the rest of the gameplay mechanics that cater directly to players.
21	Games You Might Not Have Tried #16 - Spooky Scary Game Recommendations	2018-10-30
Happy Halloween! Today a whole bunch of the Extra Credits folks are here with some spooky scary skele-games for you to try!
20	Achieving Vicarity - Creating Livable Fiction	2018-10-24
Guest writer Evan Hill (a level designer from Naughty Dog) talks about creating surprises--expectation gaps--in your game, and why adhering to a "lifelike" experience isn't the same as preserving the player's sense of immersion.
19	The New Player Experience - Hooks, Tutorials, Rewards	2018-10-17
A good new player experience consists of three pieces: the hook, the tutorial, and the reward. Spider-Man (2018) is an example that gets this right, by giving players an amazing experience right off the bat and not waiting until the second act.
18	Aspirational Play - Adding a Sense of Wonder to Game Design	2018-10-10
From internet drama stories of Crusader Kings 2 to the secret rooms in Enter the Gungeon, there is value in designing really cool gameplay and story experiences that not all of your players will necessarily get to experience (at least, not immediately). Stoke imagination and wonder by including exciting details that players can enjoy experiencing, even if only vicariously through shared transmedia knowledge.
17	World of Warcraft Epidemiology - The Corrupted Blood Plague (And Why It Matters)	2018-10-03
Let's look at how, in 2005, World of Warcraft accidentally provided a virtual simulation of a pandemic that academics have been studying in papers since.
16	The Metaphor is Meaning - "Show, Don't Tell" in Game Design	2018-09-26
Every developer should be taking full advantage of the visual and interactive mechanics in games to deliver extra layers of meaning without having to do all game storytelling through text. And players can enhance the depth of their gaming experiences by paying attention to possible metaphors that exist!
15	The Joy of Losing - Learning to Have Fun Playing Games	2018-09-19
The design of multiplayer games means that, in most cases, half the playerbase is losing games at any given time. However, that shouldn't mean that half the playerbase is miserable or is unable to have fun. You can still have fun learning how to be a better team leader and practicing mechanical skills--which is important for combatting toxicity in multiplayer games.
14	Games You Might Not Have Tried #15 - September 2018 Edition	2018-09-12
Check out some new games to play this month! Here's the list of the games in this video, accompanied by a link to the PC versions on the Humble Store if available (if you do decide to make a purchase through any of the Humble links, you'll be informed that a small percentage will go back to supporting Extra Credits, i.e. paying our artists!). * Yoku's Island Express (NOTE: if you own a Switch, we recommend getting the Switch version instead, as the controls and portability are very delightful) https://www.humblebundle.com/store/yo... * Legendary Gary: https://store.steampowered.com/app/68... * 20XX: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/20... * Cultist Simulator: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/cu... * Wars Across the World: https://store.steampowered.com/app/34... * Prey - Mooncrash DLC: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/pr... * The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit: https://store.steampowered.com/app/84... * Omen Exitio: Plague: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/om... * Cardinal Cross: https://store.steampowered.com/app/81... * The Painscreek Killings: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/th... History of Virtual Reality, part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWIyz... brought to you thanks to Oculus Rift: http://bit.ly/2vJIFRZ
13	How Games Challenge Us - Empathy and Intuition in Puzzle Design	2018-08-22
How can we use empathy, intuition, and other types of design vectors to create interesting gameplay besides the most popular mechanics--which are based in reflex and logic challenges?
12	Gestalt - The Parts and the Whole	2018-08-15
Gestalt design principles--how we understand groups of objects as a whole unit via symmetry, proximity, closure, and more--is a powerful tool in game design to quickly and effectively communicate visual information to the player.
11	Steam: What Sells - What Steam's Player Numbers Tell Us About Game Genres	2018-08-08
We can learn a lot from Steam's player numbers about why certain games, like PUBG and Paladins, continue to be popular on Steam, as well as why niche driving simulators are doing better than adventure games.
10	Don't Just Hire Your Fans - Creating a Good Design Team	2018-08-01
Having 500+ hours logged on a particular game or franchise shouldn't be a job requirement to work on that particular game or franchise--in fact, by working with folks who aren't already "super-fans" of your game, you'll end up making better creative design decisions.
9	Game Therapy - How Can Games Improve Mental Health?	2018-07-25
Games can help us heal, emotionally as well as physically. We need to do more research on their positive impacts and how we can maximize the emotional value of commercial games, not just on the harmful effects of gaming disorders.
8	Ma, The Space Between - Uncluttered Game Design	2018-07-18
Today we're talking about a Japanese word "ma" and how it applies to game design. Incorporating rest, space, and emptiness can make the rest of the gameplay, action, and narrative stand out.
7	The Price of Randomness - Balancing RNG	2018-07-11
Let's compare the RNG design in Hearthstone and Slay the Spire and figure out how we can design RNG for strategic difficulty without veering into completely frustrating players.
6	The Three Pillars of Game Writing - Plot, Character, Lore	2018-07-04
Let's examine the elements that make up "game writing." Plot, characters, and lore all have to be balanced depending on the type of game you're making--knowing what to cut from your story bible is just as important as knowing what to keep.
5	College E-Sports - Road to Glory?	2018-06-27
E-sports scholarships are becoming slowly more commonplace, but they have inherited some of the bad qualities of other college sports, as well as unique issues like the usually short lifespans of video games themselves. Should you pursue an esports career?
4	The Content Conundrum - Why So Many Games Feel Generic	2018-06-20
Procedurally generated content seems like a really appealing route for a lot of indie developers--it's what AAA game studios are doing, and it seems to protect game balance! But often times it's worth the extra effort to craft a few handmade pieces, even at the risk of "breaking" the game.
3	Games You Might Not Have Tried #14 - Mechs, Monsters and More!	2018-06-13
These games are definitely perfect...ly suited to expanding your game design knowledge, even if they have some flaws here and there. It's another edition of "extra" game reviews: Games You Might Not Have Tried!
2	Ladders and Team Games - Doing it Wrong	2018-06-06
Thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring this video. The first 500 people to sign up at this link get their first 2 months for free: http://skl.sh//extracredits Why do team-based video games like Overwatch seem to struggle with judging team cooperation and not just individual skill? The answer, surprisingly, comes from chess.
1	Blockchain Games - Can Blockchain Technology be a Game Mechanic?	2018-05-30
Say hello to Matt Krol, our new narrator! Today we're talking about about that cursed buzzword "blockchain" that's appeared on the fringes of the game industry within the past year, most infamously Cryptokitties. How could blockchain tech actually provide good game design value?

Season 15 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	Choice Paralysis - Too Much of a Good Thing	2018-05-23
Game designers must decide how to segment and present choices so that the player isn't overwhelmed. From character creation to strategy, there's a lot of complexity to the user experience.
24	The Digital Museum - Assassin’s Creed Origins Discovery Tour	2018-05-09
The Assassin's Creed Origins team recently added a non-violent exploration mode to their game coupled with an educational voiceover narrating facts about ancient Egypt. How could we improve on this museum-like experience
23	Wolfenstein vs Call of Duty - The Need for “B” Games	2018-04-25
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus offers up one of the most honest depictions and criticisms of Nazism and bigotry in modern mainstream games, and part of that is due to its "b"-game-like nature--similar to b-movies that transgress the standards of their time.
22	Unpleasant Design - When Bad Design is Used to Hide Problems	2018-04-18
Sometimes bad design is created intentionally, to cover up a flaw in the system instead of fixing it. Using cities like Seattle and London as examples, we examine how architecture is designed to remove homeless people from the public eye without actually helping them.
21	Impractical Research - How Academia Can Make Better Games	2018-04-04
Academic research in games should be challenging our need for commonly accepted principles like Skinner boxes or certain narrative structures. Historically it tends to be focused on finding only certain types of quantifiable data, which can be distracting from the medium's overall progress.
20	Break Points - Balancing the Math with the User Experience	2018-03-28
Why does a small, incremental increase in a stat sometimes feel like an overpowered boost? How can we use break points to improve the player's experience? Guest art by Allison Utterback! https://twitter.com/ingrid_archer (No, not THAT Allison, but a very awesome Allison nonethless.)
19	NieR: Automata - Sacrifice and the Meaning of Kindness	2018-03-19
Many video games offer you the chance to make “good” or “bad” choices, but often times these choices lack weight; you as a player aren’t emotionally attached to the circumstances, the causes, or the outcomes. Nier: Automata, however, lets players truly empathize with others in a crucial end-game choice.
18	The Legality of Loot Boxes - Designing Ethical Lootboxes: II	2018-02-28
Legislating regulation around in-game purchases seems like a good idea, but let's proceed cautiously: the phrasing of such potential rulings could create situations that unfairly affect gamers themselves, not just publishers.
17	The Loot Box Question - Designing Ethical Lootboxes: I	2018-02-14
Why does the games industry seem to prefer lootboxes over other types of microtransactions nowadays? Why are they so easily manipulated to abuse players' agency? How can we make them better?
16	Why Do Games Cost So Much To Make? - AAA Game Budgets	2018-01-31
Let's talk numbers: marketing, office space, dev tool licenses, voice actors, and more that goes into the average AAA game budget. Why do some games never turn a profit while others seem to magically make it work on the cheapest budget possible?
15	Games Should Not Cost $60 Anymore - Inflation, Microtransactions, and Publishing	2018-01-24
You would think that paying $60 for a game would be enough, but so many games these days ask for money with DLC, microtransactions, and yes, lootboxes. There's a reason for that.
14	So You Want To Be in QA - The Test Chamber	2018-01-17
Quality Assurance, or QA, does not mean you sit around playing games all day. At least, not for fun. But if you have patience, love experimentation, and find the right team, it can be an extremely rewarding job.
13	Hidden Game Mechanics: Design for the Human Psyche	2017-12-20
Sometimes games trick us into having a more engaging experience by simulating near-death escapes and gently massaging the odds to be kind to us. These hidden game mechanics play into the expectations of our human psyche to give us the results we expect.
12	DayZ - Tragedy of the Commons: The Game	2017-12-12
When resources are limited, self-interest works against itself. We see that in games like DayZ, where players could team up to fight a common threat, but the fear that someone will backstab you leads everyone to assume the worst and therefore behave as enemies.
11	Losing Player Trust - The Data Dilemma	2017-12-06
Companies rely on metrics to tell them how players respond to a game, which can mean that short-term bumps (like revenue gained by adding microtransactions) disguises real player unhappiness with a game's quality and a publisher's integrity over time.
10	The Warhammer License (Again) - Did Games Workshop's Gamble Work?	2017-11-29
Games Workshop started handing out bits of the Warhammer License like candy - but did it work? We think so! They used the great detail of the Warhammer Universe to distribute risk and create tiers of investment in games with varying quality levels, resulting in a test bed for small studios and a template for working with big ones.
9	Big Huge Charity - Giving in the Games Industry	2017-11-22
The games industry gives less to charity than any other major entertainment industry, but charity events can be great both for business AND for making the world better. DomiNations (Big Huge Games) shared data from their own charity events to help us show how!
8	A Eulogy for Quintet - Melancholy and Wonder	2017-11-15
We loved games from Quintet back in the Super Nintendo era: ActRaiser, Soul Blazer, and Terranigma touched our hearts with their gentle, melancholy exploration of themes like working through tragedy or facing the dark experiences in our lives.
7	Games You Might Not Have Tried #13 - Find New Games	2017-11-08
If you want to try games that feel different, that feel new and ambitious even if they're not necessarily the most polished experiences, then check out this list of Games You Might Not Have Tried! We review and recommend interesting but under appreciated games for you to discover and enjoy.
6	The Pacing of PUBG - The Thriller Tension of Battlegrounds	2017-11-01
Why have we become obsessed with a game where nothing happens for minutes at a time? It's because PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is something rare in games: a multiplayer thriller. CORRECTION: This episode was co-written by Rob Rath, not only James Portnow as listed in the endslate
5	Games You Might Not Have Tried: Horror - Find New Games for Halloween	2017-10-25
If you want to try games that feel different, that feel new and ambitious even if they're not necessarily the most polished experiences, then check out this list of Games You Might Not Have Tried - Halloween Edition! We review and recommend interesting but under appreciated games for you to discover and enjoy.
4	One More Level - The Arbitrary Endpoint Trap	2017-10-18
When we stay up later than we wanted just to hit a progress point in our games, we have fallen into the arbitrary endpoint trap. Some games deliberately manipulate us to do one more level, but many times we're doing it to ourselves and making playtime a chore.
3	Prey: The Enemy Inside - Testing You Softly	2017-10-11
What we want to believe about ourselves and what's actually true may be very different things. Prey: The Enemy Inside starts with a simple psychological test... and then puts you in situations that may reveal your answers to be lies.
2	The Problem with Power Fantasies - We're Not Always Right	2017-10-04
Games embrace power fantasies that let the player do whatever they want, to whomever they want, without anyone questioning the morality of their actions. But questioning and re-evaluating our choices is an important part of life, and players don't need to be treated so delicately that we never address these issues in game.
1	The Anchoring Effect - Why Review Scores Matter	2017-09-27
The first data we see affects our opinion about everything afterwards - so a good review score makes us like the game more, and an apparent sale makes us more eager to buy a game with a higher price point. This anchoring effect is even built into game design itself.

Season 14 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	PAX WEST 2017 Extra Credits Panel	2017-09-20
The Extra Credits crew gathered at PAX West in 2017 and did a panel! We hope you enjoy our answers to audience questions and the debut of Scott's yearly secret video.
24	Accessibility - The Curb Cut Effect	2017-08-30
Accessibility design makes the game better for all players, not only the disabled. By planning ahead and making more options available, designers can give players the tools to customize their experience in a way that fits them best.
23	Keep Cutting - Sunk Cost Fallacy and Game Development	2017-08-23
Once development begins on a feature, game developers often get drawn into a sunk cost fallacy that compels them to keep working on that feature even when it's failing. Cutting those features is hard, but often the right choice to make the game better.
22	Game AI - Funtelligence	2017-08-16
Games often advertise their complex AI, but in truth, offering a wide variety of simple NPC behaviors unique to each enemy often feels more engaging AND challenging to the player than putting them through multiple hours of facing a bunch of NPCs operating on the same AI behavior tree.
21	Marginal Mechanics and Red Herrings - Why So Weak?	2017-08-09
Every game has some skills or abilities that are just weaker than other abilities. Players wind up ignoring them or resenting them, so why include these "red herring" mechanics? While it can be just lazy design, there are also some very good uses for these marginal mechanics!
20	Peace Games - Gaming for a Better Future	2017-08-02
Since the founding of the Olympics, games have been a tool to bring people together, allowing us to compete but also to recognize the humanity in our opponents. Although online games have become a breeding ground for toxicity, they still have the potential to teach us about each other and find role models in professional players.
19	How Games Speak - Learn the Language of Design	2017-07-26
Game design is a language and games speak to us in ways that we can understand. But how does that work? By understanding three simple ideas, we can both make better games and learn what makes the ones we play and love so special.
18	Arts Funding - Helping Games that Help Us	2017-07-19
Games have made great strides in the last few years towards public recognition and arts funding in the United States, but all that could fall apart unless we step up to support the programs like the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities which make it possible.
17	Injustice 2: Trauma Survival - Harley Quinn's Greatest Fear	2017-07-12
Content Warning: Abusive Relationship. Harm doesn't end when physical or emotional abuse stops. In Injustice 2, Harley Quinn is a hero who's still dealing with the aftermath of her trauma - and neither of those aspects of her character detracts from the other.
16	One Million Subs - Thank YOU for Supporting Extra Credits!	2017-07-06
Whether you've been with us from the beginning or just found us on YouTube, you are what makes Extra Credits special. Your support and encouragement keep us going. And the conversations and questions you bring with you to your friends, your family, and your world are the reason we started this show in the first place.
15	Getting Started as a Game Journalist - Practice, Prepare, and Pitch	2017-07-05
So you want to be a game journalist! Where to start? Freelancer Rob Rath shares his experience and advice, from practicing writing on a personal blog to researching the types of articles sites publish and even how to write a good pitch.
14	Persona 5 and Jungian Psychology - Masks, Major Arcana, and Meaning	2017-06-28
Did you know Persona 5 is based on Jungian psychology? Learn about the symbolism behinds the masks and major arcana! These concepts can be surprising helpful when analyzing or even writing games.
13	Games You Might Not Have Tried #12 - Find New Console Games	2017-06-21
If you want to try games that feel different, that always feel new and ambitious even if they're not necessarily the most polished experiences, then check out this list of Games You Might Not Have Tried - Console Edition! We review and recommend interesting but under appreciated console games for you to discover and enjoy.
12	Perversion Subversion - Examining Hentai Sensibility	2017-06-14
Some recent Japanese games have tried to examine the hentai sensibility, with varying degrees of success. Where Yakuza 0 succeeds in finding a new perspective through bawdy humor, Persona 5 tries a more serious look that falls flat when the game thoughtlessly engages in sexual objectification.
11	The Legality of Using Your Data - Games of Tomorrow	2017-06-07
Games driven by personal data have the potential to change the medium in exciting new ways, but they also have the potential to cross boundaries. What laws regulate a game's ability to harness player data, and what responsibility do devs have to use that information wisely?
10	Indie Advice - Fire Early	2017-05-24
Firing somebody is hard, but if one team member isn't keeping up, it's better for everyone if the team leader fires them early before their part of the project falls behind. It's better for the team, better for the game, and often even better for the person being fired.
9	Why Do We Ship Buggy Games? - A Look Behind the Scenes	2017-05-17
When launch day bugs ruin a game, why don't publishers just delay the release to fix everything? While it's definitely bad business for them to make such broken games, it's worth taking a look at how the problems get that bad instead of just blaming "lazy developers."
8	Lifestyle Games - The Play's the Thing	2017-05-03
Sometimes a game is more than just a game: it's a lifestyle. You play it enough for it to become a part of your life. Often these games have different playstyle genres, but the way we play them makes them "lifestyle games."
7	Localize Everything - Finding Hardcore Fans Worldwide	2017-04-26
Nothing feels worse than seeing a game you really like but can't play because it's only being released in another part of the world. But does it have to be that way? Here's why we think every console game should be published worldwide.
6	A Case for Cutscenes - Everything Old is New Again	2017-04-18
Cutscenes have long been the whipping boy of "bad" game design, but Yakuza 0 shows us they can still be amazing in a modern game if done well. What was Sega's secret?
5	Liminal Space - Incorporating Real Life into Games	2017-04-14
As games grow connected to our online accounts, they start learning about us: our names, our friends, and so much more. That connected information has the potential to create really cool experiences, but only if it's not abused.
4	The Auteur Myth - Lone Visionaries... and Their Teams	2017-04-05
When a game comes out, blame or praise often falls on the one person we think of as its "auteur," the lone visionary who directed its creation. This skews the reality of development: games are the product of a whole team whose diverse contributions all help shape what it becomes.
3	The Stress of Game Development - Tips for Survival	2017-03-29
Making games is hard. You need all kinds of technical and creative skills, but most importantly, you need to know how to manage the many kinds of stress that come with it.
2	Politics in Games - All Media is Political	2017-03-22
We can't remove politics from games. They express our perspectives and understanding of the world, just like movies, books, or any other art form. We can agree or disagree with the stances they express, but all media is political.
1	Co-Pilot Mode - Better Together	2017-03-15
Xbox quietly introduced a new feature that creates family sharing, more accessibility, and custom co-op modes. Let's examine Co-Pilot mode.

Season 13 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	De-Gamification - Flexibility to Play Your Way	2017-03-08
Progress bars and other forms of gamification have begun to crop up everywhere. But what about the pure joy of undirected play?
24	TV You Might Not Have Tried - Check Out New Shows	2017-03-01
Want to binge watch some TV shows that are interesting, different, and off the beaten path? We've got you covered. Here are some of our favorites from the world of television!
23	Non-Professional Game Dev - The Joy of Making	2017-02-22
Why are hobby and personal games important? Even though they rarely make waves in the mainstream game industry, they are a fantastic outlet for expressing a wide range of creative possibilities.
22	Advanced Game Literacy - Finding Meaning in Games	2017-02-16
Advanced game literacy lets us analyze our games beyond the surface level, finding meaning in the mechanics and much more. To get there, we need developers, consumers, and academics to help create a community of analysis.
21	Basic Game Literacy - Why It's Hard to Learn How to Play	2017-02-08
Even if we reduce game literacy to just "being able to play," the number of genres and platforms make it surprisingly difficult for even experienced players to claim well-rounded literacy. But the creative rewards for a game literate community could be immense.
20	Intro to UX Design - User Experience and You	2017-02-01
User experience designers act like translators between the game and the player, crafting everything from menus and tutorials to in-game effects to help players learn and interact with the systems.
19	Video Games and Gambling - When Does a Game Cross the Line?	2017-01-25
Casinos and online gambling sites have begun to recognize the potential to use video games as a new source of revenue. With more and more skill-based games being re-purposed for gambling - sometimes legally, sometimes not - it becomes important for developers to look ahead at the features these adaptations may have.
18	Strategic Uncertainty - Keeping Strategy Games Fresh	2017-01-18
Too many strategy games are over hours before you actually win the game. Once you build up enough of a lead, you have the resources you need to respond to all the game's minor challenges. The key to fixing this problem is uncertainty: hidden information or unexpected events that make you change your plans and keep the game dynamic.
17	Because Games Matter - How Video Games Saved My Life	2016-12-21
Zhenghua Yang (Z) woke up one night, choking on his own blood. His platelet count had dropped below fatal levels and doctors gave him only two hours to live. But Z survived. He spent two full years hospitalized, feeling lost and hopeless until video games brought him to a new sense of purpose and a community of friends. Now he develops his own video games to explore their potential to teach, inspire, and yes: save lives.
16	Because Games Matter - Light in the Dark (Souls)	2016-12-14
Daniel Starkey had been through a difficult break-up that left him feeling alone in the world. He started playing Dark Souls, a difficult game that stranded him in another lonely world - but it helped him discover the patience and focus he needed to get himself back on track.
15	Because Games Matter - A Better Vision	2016-12-06
Sara Winters, born with ocular albinism, was legally blind for most of her early life. Game therapy helped her brain learn to make sense of the images processed by her eyes: it helped her to read, to find friends and community, and to build a life helping others. She shares her story with us Because Games Matter.
14	Accretion - Design by Landfill: A Long Term Strategy?	2016-11-30
Accretion happens when, instead of fixing broken mechanics, developers just build new ones and let the old ones become obsolete. It allows longterm projects like MMOs and yearly sequels to keep going as the new teams pick up where the old ones left off, but it can also bog the game down and make it completely inaccessible to new players.
13	MMO Economies - Hyperinflation, Reserve Currencies & You!	2016-11-23
When players can generate their own money in infinite supply by killing monsters for in-game gold, MMO economies quickly get overrun by inflation. In the past we've talked about how designers can create gold sinks to solve this problem. Today we'll talk about other ways game designers approach it: by adapting the same tools used by economists in the real world.
12	Letter to My Nephews #3 - This Is Your Story	2016-11-17
Video games let us be heroes who accomplish the impossible. They teach us to take control of difficult situations and find our way through. When we apply those lessons to our real lives, how much can we accomplish?
11	Games You Might Not Have Tried #11	2016-11-09
If you want to try games that feel different, that always feel new and ambitious even if they're not necessarily the most polished experiences, then check out this list of Games You Might Not Have Tried. We review and recommend interesting but under appreciated games on a variety of genres and platforms for you to discover and enjoy.
10	The Most Fundamental Deceit - Horror and How Rationality Betrays Us	2016-11-02
Ever wonder why characters in horror stories take so long to realize that the danger they're facing is real - and deadly? True horror turns our strengths against us, turning our rationality into a weapon that makes us doubt our own perception before we dare to question the reality we always trusted.
9	Overwatch and Asymmetric Character Design - The Challenge of Varied Playstyles	2016-10-26
Overwatch's character diversity is its best feature, but it also makes each new map and new character much more challenging to create. How do the designers adapt each release to keep the game's variety of playstyles relevant and fun?
8	Overwatch and Asymmetric Level Design - What Makes the Maps Fun?	2016-10-19
Overwatch has the most wildly asymmetric levels we've seen in a multiplayer FPS. And yet, each level is meant to funnel players through a perfectly crafted interest curve. Does it work?
7	The PS4 Pro - Changing the Console Market	2016-10-12
Sony's announcement of the PS4 Pro is the next step in their gamble on PlayStation VR, but it also seems poised to end the console "generation gap" and make upgrades in the console market more like those in the PC gaming world. But is this a good thing?
6	Letters to My Nephews #2 - Learning to Learn	2016-10-05
Dave and Max: Games can teach us about ourselves and games can teach us about the world. Sometimes it's important to see not only how games can help us understand ourselves but how our play prepares us to take on the challenges we'll we know we'll be forced to face. I hope this episode helps you step into these challenges without fear and helps arm you with the knowledge of how well prepared you really are.
5	PokÃ©mon GO - Designing for Good (2)	2016-09-28
When games and the real world meet, we have the chance to do some real good. Join us as we explore how we can use gaming in the real world to make the world a better place.
4	PokÃ©mon GO - Designing for the Real World (1)	2016-09-21
Pokemon Go has taught us a lot about how to make real world games. Unfortunately some of it is what we really, really have to do better. Find out all the places where Pokemon Go stumbles.
3	Free-to-Play's MECHANICS are Great - Gwent, Blitzball, and the Mini-Game Revolution	2016-08-31
Free-to-Play mechanics bring persistence and progress to simple game systems, only to slam players into a frustrating paywall. But replace real money with in-game money that every player earns by enjoying the main single player game, and suddenly the same mechanics that make free-to-play so maddening become the foundation for a memorable and even beloved mini-game like Gwent or Blitzball.
2	Improving on Pokemon GO - Making Better Augmented Reality Games	2016-08-24
Pokemon Go demonstrated the potential of a well-themed augmented reality game to capture people's imagination, but as far as game design, it doesn't offer much. We take a look at how a hypothetical D&D competitor could use the same type of location and resource structure to make a more engaging and accessible game.
1	Understanding the Fantasy - How to Shape a Game's Design	2016-08-17
The most important skill for a game designer is understanding the fantasy or player experience their game wants to deliver. Dig deep into the genre of the game, study both the best and worst examples from all media to understand why people love that genre, and then design visuals, story, and mechanics that make the most of that understanding.

Season 12 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	Letters to My Nephews - Never Giving Up	2016-08-10
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24	Remote Development - How to Work Effectively from Long Distance	2016-08-03
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23	Games You Might Not Have Tried #10 - Find New Games	2016-07-27
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22	Games You Might Not Have Tried #9 - Find New Games	2016-07-20
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21	Classroom Metrics - Real World Case Study for Games in Schools	2016-07-13
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20	Revolution 1979 - How to Make a Documentary Game	2016-07-06
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19	The Power of Incentives - How Games Help Us Examine Our World	2016-06-29
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18	Backtracking and Level Design - Making a Way Out	2016-06-16
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17	The Warhammer 40k License - A Total Change of Strategy	2016-06-08
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16	The Copyright Dilemma - On Trademarks, Copyrights, and Patents	2016-06-01
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15	Legacy Play - Thoughts on the Vanilla WoW Server	2016-05-25
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14	Integrating Academia - Experimenting for Better Games	2016-05-18
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13	In Defense of Short Games - Worth Every Dollar	2016-05-11
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12	Enclothed Cognition - Do Character Outfits Affect Our Play?	2016-05-04
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11	The Casual Core Fallacy - Designing for Depth	2016-04-28
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10	Educating Game Designers - Too Much "Game" at Game Schools	2016-04-20
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9	The Division - Problematic Meaning in Mechanics	2016-04-13
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8	The Importance of Local Multiplayer - Seeing Eye-to-Eye	2016-04-06
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7	So You Want To Be an Animator - Building Your Career	2016-03-30
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6	Understanding the Witness - Mechanical Transference and You	2016-03-23
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5	What Does Tomorrow Look Like? - How We Envision the Future	2016-03-16
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4	Game Literacy: Games in Education - Should We Teach Game Basics?	2016-03-09
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3	The Lottery - Why People Favor Worse Odds	2016-03-02
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2	Games You Might Not Have Tried #8 - Find New Games	2016-02-24
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1	Why Aren't There Science Fiction Games?	2016-02-17
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Season 11 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	Why Are There No Good Video Game Movies	2016-02-10
Why are there no good movies about video games? We asked our friend Movie Bob to weigh in, since this topic is his specialty. And there's no single answer to it. True, video games have a different storytelling style because of their interactive nature, but books and plays and even song also have different approaches that have been adapted successfully. The bigger concern is that the people with money and the power to make decisions in the film industry didn't grow up with our classic games. Looking back to Tim Burton's Batman, that movie was a hit that spawned multiple comic book movies - but they were all based off old franchises (Dick Tracy) or new fads (Spawn) instead of the most popular and enduring characters (Spiderman). They picked the wrong properties. Another challenge is that in games, caring about the story isn't necessarily part of caring about the game. Street Fighter has a narrative that most players don't even know about. But what if there's something worth adapting about a game aside from its story or mechanics? What if you adapted its core gameplay: a first-person experience of war. It would be distinct, and it would be distinctly Call of Duty. It even has the potential to feel more personal for the audience and to tell a good, original story that may not even need to connect to the game beyond that persepective.
24	What to Look for in 2016 - Industry Developments to Watch - Extra Credits	2016-02-03
It's a brand new year, and there a few interesting trends we're keeping an eye on as 2016 shapes up. For starters, the Portable Steam Machine may create a unique space for itself in the market. Since Apple devices like the iPad took over the mobile scene, there haven't really been any portable games designed around a controller input other than Nintendo 3DS - and its control scheme is unique enough to make porting to other systems difficult. The Portable Steam Machine, on the other hand, is built to play on both a handheld and a computer and it has a built in controller that unlocks diffferent avenues for game designers wishing to be successful in multiple sections of the market. We're also keeping an eye on the rapid acquisitions of non-Chinese game developers by Chinese corporations like Tencent and Snail Games. The quiet but rapid rush of acquisition we've seen over the last year has now reached a phase where it needs to pay off, and Chinese companies need to be more strategic about their investments. But they've been largely more hands-off than Western firms like EA when they acquire games, and the relationship between Riot Games and Tencent (which recently acquired 100% ownership) will serve as a bellwether to see how this shakes out. On similar lines, China recently lifted its ban on consoles, so we may see new Chinese game developers form to build games in their new console market. We're interested in whether those games remain in China or become localized and exported to other countries, bringing another new voice and new cultural perspective to game design. Finally, we hope to see whether the Western acquisition bubble will pay off. Microsoft and Activision invested billions of dollars into acquiring Minecraft and King Games (Candy Crush), respectively - even more than Disney paid for the acquisition of Marvel or Lucasfilm. If these investments pay off, expect to see a change in the valuation of all game development companies - but if not, expect to see in
23	Free to Play Laws - Can We Stop Predatory Practices	2016-01-27
The European Union (EU) has passed laws regulating free-to-play games, but their focus has been on limiting the way Free-to-Play games target children. It's not a bad start, but since children only make up a small sliver of the F2P market, it still leaves the major targets of predatory F2P companies unprotected. People with depression, compulsive personalities, or people who form close bonds with the internet community are deliberately exploited by companies that expect to pump thousands of dollars of revenue out of a single one of these users by preying upon human psychology. We're leary of the form that F2P regulatory laws could take, especially seeing as the versions in the EU triggered both Apple and Google to overcompensate by punishing innocent developers, but as long as companies continue to build game economies on the assumption that they can exploit these "whales" then we are running a dangerous risk of requiring government intervention to protect the players.
22	Still Skeptical of V.R. - Five Challenges for Virtual Reality	2016-01-20
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
21	Information Density - How Mr. Robot Does a Lot with a Little	2016-01-13
The television show "Mr. Robot" provides a very good example of how to get the most of a scene. SPOILER ALERT in this episode and this description! In episode 9, the show reveals that the antagonist is actually a facet of the hero's split personality. In the scene where it's revealed, they use music that not only reflects the protagonist's state of mind, it also references Fight Club, a movie with a similar story reveal that used the same music. With this simple choice, they have created both an internal reference - the mindset of the character - and an external reference - the similarity to Fight Club - which come together to form a richer interpretation for the viewer of the show. Let us know in the comments about games you've played that also manage to pack multiple messages into a few simple references!
20	Game Writing Pitfalls - Lost Opportunities in Games	2016-01-06
A video game takes up more of our time than movies, TV, or books, but they have far less to say. Literally: while TV scripts have about 120 words per minute of dialogue, we timed several narrative heavy games at about 16 words per minute. Many of those words are aimed at giving the player game information, not plot exposition, but even so, games like Destiny waste the time they do have on instructional text or throwaway lines. Characters simply restate what's going on around them or make meaningless comments to cover the gap in boring sections of gameplay. Contrast that with the Witcher 3, which dispenses instructions in five words and then proceeds to tell a story. Good dialogue should meet at least one of four basic criteria: 1) Tells us about the world 2) Tells us about the speaker 3) Tells us about other characters, or 4) Moves the plot forward. When games have so few words to build their story, it's a shame to see those opportunities wasted on filler.
19	Propaganda Games - Sesame Credit - The True Danger of Gamification	2015-12-16
China has gamified being an obedient citizen with the creation of Sesame Credit. The game links to your social network and gives you a score for doing things that the government approves of, but it also reduces that score for doing things the government disapproves of. Even your friends' scores affect your own, and being friends with people who have a low score will drag your score down as well. This insidious system applies social pressure on people to ostracize their friends with lower scores, either forcing those friends to change their ways or effectively quarantining their rebellious ideas. While many sci-fi visions of a dystopian future have centered around a bleak government that controls through fear, Sesame Credit shows us that a government can use gamification and positive reinforcement to be just as controlling. And it's real. While currently the system is opt-in, the government plans to make it mandatory in 2020. Once mandatory, it may give rewards for good scores or penalties for bad ones. And in the meantime, making it opt-in has already set the tone for the game: people participate willingly, so they find it fun, and they set a very high standard for what the "average" score should be. Already people have begun sharing their scores on social media.
18	Games You Might Not Have Tried - Winter 2015	2015-12-09
For our long-running Games You Might Not Have Tried series, Extra Credits reviews and recommends a selection of video games that might have slipped under your radar.
17	Where Does Your Console Come From? - Supply Chains	2015-12-02
Consoles take a complicated route to get from us - all the way from being minerals in the ground to being assembled in factories across the world. A close look at how this happens reveals ethical and logistical difficulties worth talking about. Varying labor laws, outsourced work, and even worker reluctance make factories hard to inspect for good working conditions. Further down the chain, the raw minerals used in consoles often come from war-torn regions such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where local militias seize control of the mines and use them to raise funds to propagate their brutal civil war. The electronics industry has gotten better about rejecting conflict minerals, but it's far from perfect. Microsoft and Sony are part of industry organizations to track and reduce abuse along supply chains, but Nintendo has only made small steps and simply refuses to collaborate with the rest of the tech industry to help solve this problem. Console manufacturers can still do more by putting a bigger focus on supply chain audits, voicing support for laws that would improve nationwide standards, being vocal to draw attention to these issues, and giving factories a bigger lead time for product launches. As consumers, we need to understand the impact our demand for launch day console availability has on pushing more unsafe labor practices and consider whether a small price increase (perhaps as little as $5) to guarantee that our consoles were manufactured without conflict minerals would really be too much of a price to pay.
16	The Antihero - Can Games Create Antiheroes?	2015-11-25
An antihero is someone whom you want to see succeed, even though it almost feels like you shouldn't. They're not villains, whom we can love but whose plans (like world destruction) we can't support. The antihero has an objective we agree with, but a personality that just grates on us. In Western literature, the predecessors of the antihero include Shakespeare's Hamlet or John Milton's Satan from Paradise Lost: they had grating, yet attractive, personalities, but their goals were not really those of a hero. Lord Byron introduced the first real antihero in his poem, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, which became so well known that "Byronic hero" is another way to describe the antihero. Since then, we have seen antiheroes in everything from Kafka's Metamorphosis to detective noir and pulp sci-fi novels. They tend to appear when a new generation of writers in a genre wants to escape the stale cliches of their predecessors. Games may be due for an antihero movement, but since they are interactive, it's difficult to make an actual antihero rather than just a character who acts like a jerk in between action sequences. Brooding is not very engaging for the player, for example, so how do you create brooding moments for an antihero when the player is in control? How do you make players feel that angst?
15	More Ways to Use Randomness - What is the Goal of RNG?	2015-11-18
While a positive random effect can only benefit the player who controls it, there are other varieties of random effects. Negative randomness means the effect can actually be bad for the controlling player - for example, if their card or character (like Ogre Brute) randomly targets the wrong enemy. Where positive random effects needed to be balanced by putting a card below the power curve, negative random effects should be offset by raising a card above the power curve so the player feels like they're getting a reward for risking it. There is also reciprocal randomness, where the random effect applies to all players in the game. Hearthstone's Spellslinger card generates a random spell for both players, but is not a well-designed example because its ability to generate any spell in the game for either player creates far too large of a delta of randomness. Winning or losing in that case doesn't rely on the player's ability to adapt, but simply on luck of the draw. A card like Mechanical Yeti which generates similarly powered advantages (or perhaps disadvantages) for both players does a better job of generating small but impactful results for both players. Ultimately, randomness in game design should not aim to create big moments - as those can make it feel like the game tilted unfairly - but should instead be focused on creating engaging moments for all players involved.
14	The Delta of Randomness - Can You Balance for RNG?	2015-11-11
Randomness has three major functions in game design: 1) it creates exciting moments, 2) it gives the weaker player a chance to win occasionally, 3) it forces players to adapt to changing circumstances. When adding random elements, game designers must look at the delta of randomness, or the difference between what baseline impact that element has without a random effect and the realized impact it has with its random effect. Hearthstone once again provides an easy example: a card with a random effect should have its baseline below the average power curve on the assumption that its realized random effect will boost it over the curve. Surprisingly, cards with the least variability in their random effect tend to be more exciting for both players than cards with a large but unreliable random effect. Large randomness can swing the game in ways that make it seem like the outcome was decided the moment one player lucked into a huge random draw. But small random effects can still give one player a slight advantage without completely shutting down their opponent, giving both a chance to play around the inherent RNG in the cards.
13	Destiny is Gaming's "Law & Order" - Video Game Comfort Food	2015-11-04
Destiny is rarely great, but it is consistently good - enough to become a "comfort food" in the games world. The first person shooter style gameplay is familiar enough to most players, and executed well enough by Bungie, to feel interesting and accessible without requiring too much gameplay. Even as the game evolves over time, the designers have consistently hit good notes without reaching for brilliance or attempting to introduce radically new design ideas or even, frankly, fix all of the design flaws that have been around since the game's underwhelming launch. This is because the game must appeal to a large audience, and while it doesn't offer the best in PvP or the best in PvE, it does both well enough that players who enjoy either of those options can often agree to settle on Destiny in order to play with their friends.
12	Places of Horror - The Secrets of Scary Settings	2015-10-28
Horror settings fall into two basic categories: places of disempowerment and places of isolation. Places of disempowerment - such as alien worlds and the bottom of the sea - force us into situations where we don't understand the rules of our environment, and can never tell when our expectations will be suddenly reversed. Places of isolation, like remote cabins and arctic research stations, make sure we know that no one will help us: if we can't find a way to survive, we will simply die. The inherent terror in these settings can be amplified by giving them a haunted past, such an ancient graveyard or an abandoned asylum, or by making the place itself possessed of malice and willpower that's directed against those inside it. Finally, these settings can provide psychological landscapes that reflect someone's inner struggles and fears directly back onto them.
11	Balancing an MMO Ecosystem - Getting a Mix of Player Types	2015-10-21
Dr. Richard Bartle's Taxonomy provides rough guidelines for understanding the types of motivations that players have. It also allows us to appeal to those players in broad groups, for example, providing easter eggs to lure in Explorer type players. These players groups also have a natural synergy with each other: for example, killers like to prey upon achievers, so they require a population of achievers to enjoy the game. But if there are too many killers, then it gets in the way of any achievers succeeding at their own goals, so game designers have to make sure that they balance these populations by keeping track of what type of gameplay they're encouraging most when they add features.
10	Bartle's Taxonomy - What Type of Player are You?	2015-10-14
Bartle's Taxonomy was the earliest attempt to break down player psychology in a multiplayer environment. Richard Bartle, who created the first MUD in 1978, interviewed the players of his games about why they played. Their responses fit into four categories, which we now call Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, and Killers. Achievers focus on in-game goals like getting high scores or collecting gold. Explorers seek to discover new locations on the map or new ways to use the mechanics. Socializers come to meet people, often organizing guilds or collecting on social forums. Killers seek to dominate other players, usually by killing them in PvP. Bartle went further than creating these four categories, however: he also mapped them to a graph with Action-Interaction on one axis and Player-World on the other. This simple graph helps developers evaluate new content: what category does it fall into, and therefore what type of gameplay does it encourage?
9	Future Proofing Your Design - Looking at Hearthstone and Planning Ahead	2015-10-07
Most games released today are expected to have at least a 5-year lifecycle with patches and expansions. As the original design team moves on to new jobs, they must be careful about what they design and try to lay down a set of best practices to prevent new designers from creating new features that accidentally break the game. Hearthstone's Grand Tournament expansion provides good examples to look at. The Tuskarr Totemic, which summons one other card labeled "totem" into the game when played, is currently balanced since only one-third of totems are strong cards. To prevent this card from getting out of control, Hearthstone designers will need to maintain that ratio or the odds of the Tuskarr Totemic completely changing the board in favor of the player who uses it get out of control. On the other hand, the Druid's Living Roots card is currently balanced, but has much more potential to unbalance the game because it can be used to summon multiple small creatures. This opens the door to combinations: any time another card (like Savage Roar) rewards having more creatures on the board, Living Roots can become unbalanced. Finally, there is the new Druid card Astral Communion, whose properties boil down to "win the game immediately" or "lose the game immediately." This card accelerates late game in such a way that it basically has to be unplayable (like it currently is) or it completely breaks the game, making it a risky card to release and an interesting choice from Hearthstone's designers.
8	Power Creep in Hearthstone - What It Teaches Us About Games	2015-09-30
Since we last talked about power creep on Extra Credits, the phrase has become widely used by many players and yet it is often used incorrectly. Many Hearthstone players responding to the recent "Grand Tournament" expansion have called out the wrong cards as examples: Evil Heckler and Ice Rager are numerically better than cards from the original set (Booty Bay Bodyguard and Magma Rager), but those original cards were so weak that they almost never saw play. The new cards fix that because they meet the game's power curve (the graph of power vs. cost to play) so they're actually playable. But the last set, Goblins vs. Gnomes, contained a card that serves as a perfect example of what power creep actually is: the Piloted Shredder offers such high value relative to other cards of that same cost that it basically becomes the best choice in almost any deck. To respond to that, Blizzard added more cards that have the same cost as the Piloted Shredder, but can kill it without dying themselves. This is true power creep: when one element of a game becomes so strong that the entire game must shift to match it. It effectively deletes the design space for any equally costed card that can't compete with the Piloted Shredder, and if Blizzard can't find a way to reign it back in, then it will eventually force the entire power curve of the game to creep upwards.
7	Frame Rate - How Does Frame Rate Affect Gameplay?	2015-09-23
To understand the debates over frame rate that pop up over so many new game releases, we have to start with an understanding of what frame rate means and does. All moving video is really composed of a sequence of still images, or frames. The rate at which we change those frames determines how smooth the motion looks. In film, the standard frame rate is 24fps, but that's actually a slow rate which creates effects like motion blur that our brains have been trained to recognize as cinematic. Video games aim for a minimum of 30fps, however, because the interactivity means that a slower frame rate can make the game feel laggy. While developers sometimes hit a higher framerate, we usually only hear 30fps and 60fps discussed because our TV and computer monitors refresh in intervals of 30, although we can turn off vertical sync (vsync) to get somewhat closer to the refresh rates pumped out by our graphics cards. So why do developers sometimes cap frame rate at 30fps? Sometimes it's contractual - they're prohibited from making a PC version definitively better than its console equivalent - and sometimes it's bad architecture - a game that's programmed to check something every frame becomes more laggy the more frames there are. But in the end, to achieve a higher framerate, developers have to trade off other aspects of the game's performance, and every industry study shows that better graphics trump better framerate when it comes to sales.
6	Romantic Dilemmas - How Witcher 3 Builds Character through Choice	2015-09-16
Geralt in The Witcher III: Wild Hunt finds himself torn between two women he loves. His relationship with Yennefer is passionate but tumultuous, while his relationship with Triss is more tender and caring. Choosing between these two women doesn't feel like picking your favorite option at a buffet, a fault that Bioware romance options often fall into - it feels like defining Geralt as a person through the choice he makes. Geralt's relationship with these women reflects an inner conflict about who he already is (Yennefer) and who he wants to be (Triss). It also showcases a weakness in the "blank slate" character model so common in Western RPGs: by giving the player full control over who the character is, we actually limit ourselves since we can only define the character in broad, easy to design strokes such as "good" or "evil." The defined character and existing backstory of Geralt allowed the Witcher 3 developers to create nuanced choices that help the player think about who he is and what his choices mean.
5	Fallout Shelter - How a Casual Game Won Over Hardcore Players	2015-09-09
The Fallout Shelter app's breakout success took everyone, including Bethesda, by surprise. It's a casual, free-to-play game - exactly what many hardcore players hate - but it became so popular that its revenue overtook Candy Crush, the traditional King of the mobile market. Nor is it just the traditional mobile players who hopped on board: user reviews and the game's forum come from the hardcore audience. The simple gameplay inspired by Tiny Tower has very little interactivity and is heavily timer-based. It also makes the best characters available only to those who pay money for the game's "lunchbox" gachapon. So why does this game succeed where other hardcore-into-casual games like Bioware's Heroes of Dragon Age or EA's Dungeon Keeper reboot failed? It may be that the lack of energy systems and PvP, traditional drivers of F2P monetization, made the game more friendly and less demanding to play.
4	Puzzle Break - Teamwork and Escape the Room Games	2015-08-26
We're big fans of Seattle-based "escape the room" designers Puzzle Break, so we teamed up with them to run a big, 100+ person party during PAX. The premise is simple: you're locked in a room with a group of other people and given one hour to find the key to escape. Most groups don't finish in time, but it's still the best team-building exercise ever. Turning a puzzle game into a multiplayer experience creates three distinct aspects of play: finding the clues, assembling those clues, and then using them to solve the puzzle. People who normally might not enjoy the solo experience of a traditional puzzle game, such as those who enjoy exploration or communication, will find lots to do here. Even traditional puzzle solvers will need to apply different types of logic to solve the wide variety of challenges in the room. This set-up allows everyone to display their talents, and rewards groups for having a diverse set of skills. It also teaches you a lot about the members of your team!
3	Progression Systems - How Good Games Avoid Skinner Boxes	2015-08-19
Progression systems in games are far too often designed as Skinner boxes: psychological traps that feed us carefully measured rewards to create habit-forming activity loops. Skinner boxes are not rewarding in themselves, but progression systems can be, and they should be used to create a better game experience. Building in choices that allow the player to select their own build (and optimize it) lets the player think ahead and makes progression a part of the game experience in itself. It also helps them become familiar with the systems in the game at their own pace as they level up. These systems can even actively make the game better by encouraging players to try and then improve on the most engaging types of play, giving rewards for skill or strategy, for example. Finally, they can actually enhance the story, giving the players faction alignment that responds to their actions in the game and locks or unlocks hidden parts of the story as they progress.
2	Returning to WWII - Four New Approaches to War Games	2015-08-12
World War 2 games like Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, and Battlefield flooded the market during the 1990's and continued to dominate the first person shooter genre for years to come. Players grew fatigued with the sheer number of them, however, especially since it seemed that many replayed the same battles over and over again in new game engines. But in their rush to recreate the most famous moments of WW2 for the Western World, they left huge, important, and very game-worthy parts of the war unexplored. It was called a World War for a reason, yet many fronts of WW2 in Africa or Asia have never been covered in a game. Developers could also focus on a specific battle rather than trying to cover the entire experience, allowing players to experience the highs and lows of a single, fierce struggle. They could also change the gameplay from traditional run 'n gun shooter to styles that have worked for games like Far Cry or Red Dead Redemption, focusing on raiding parties or freedom fighters. And finally, they can make the world outside the battle feel more real by engaging with real themes of the war - far too many WW2 games have simply ignored the Holocaust and acted as though the war took place in a cultural vacuum.
1	A Generation of Remasters - Welcome Updates or Troubling Omens	2015-08-05
Making new content is expensive, time-consuming, and risky. Many publishers have fallen back on remastering their previous games, where they only need to upscale the graphics and can rely on an existing fanbase to buy the game again. This risk averse approach to publishing has led the current generation of consoles to be dominated by remasters instead of new AAA titles. Remasters can make old games more accessible, but recently they've been focused on simply updating last gen games that many people could still easily play. But truly old titles have become so out-of-date that any remaster would require the game to be built from the ground up, as we're seeing right now with the Final Fantasy VIII remake, and cost just as much as a brand new game. Despite the trend of games being remastered, then, many classic games are actually being ignored.

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25	Speedrunning - Games Done Quick and Developer Tips	2015-07-29
A passionate community has grown around speedrunning, when players try to find the fastest possible way to complete a run. Different types of speedrun may require the player to beat the entire game or allow them to take shortcuts enabled by glitches. Game developers may want to attract an audience for their game through a design that appeals to this community, but to succeed they should keep three factors in mind. First, focus on tight controls so the runner can focus on their path through the game. Second, allow them the versatility of multiple approaches, but make sure the game provides enough consistency that each performance of the same route can be executed in the same time (or close to it). Scripted enemies vs. AI that generates random responses help with that! Finally, be mindful of how patching affects the speedrunners who are learning your game: you can still patch, but try to patch in new options for the community along with your bug fixes!
24	Procedural Generation - How Games Create Infinite Worlds	2015-07-22
Procedural generation can be used to create almost any kind of content, but in games, we usually see it used to create levels, enemy encounters, and loot drops. This random element allows games like Diablo to offer players infinite replayability, since every dungeon run will both look different and yield different results. This approach does have its weaknesses, however. Handcrafted levels will always be better at delivering a powerful experience that's mapped to the game's story pacing. Procedural generation is also best thought of as an economy of scale: the more levels you have, the more worthwhile it will be to program a procedural generation system since it's a complicated undertaking that must check for broken, unplayable maps and special rulesets in certain areas. It's also possible to merge the two, by having a specific handcrafted experience like a boss fight in the middle of an otherwise procedurally generated world. Overall, as more games start to focus on creating infinite content to keep players engaged, we can expect to see more procedural generation in our games.
23	The New Future of Japan - The Auteur Movement	2015-07-15
Celebrity game developers from Japan have become frustrated with AAA development and begun breaking off to form their own, small teams. The AAA side of the industry is shrinking worldwide, focused solely on games that have marketability and thereby forcing derivative games with an emphasis on graphics over gameplay. In the US, this spurred small, relatively unknown developers to create games that succeeded on the back of innovations that broke with traditional rules. In Japan, however, it's famous developers who - frustrated with the limitations of large studios - have broken off to form small teams and return to their roots, perfecting old school game genres that they themselves created. While the success of this new direction is uncertain, the industry as a whole could stand to benefit from an increased focus on craftsmanship in our games.
22	The Witcher III - Wild Hunt - Best Detective Game Ever Made	2015-07-08
The Witcher: Wild Hunt distills all the best practices of hard-boiled detective novels and translates them brilliantly into a game. To understand how and why this works so well, we have to look at the origins of detective novels, going all the way back to Edward Allen Poe first showing us how feats of logic (as opposed to feats of raw strength) could be engrossing. Characters like Sherlock Holmes and authors like Agatha Christie turned that revelation into a formula, but one that often revolved around the English upper class or quaint country life with stories led by a detective who seemed outside and above it all. American detective novels like those of Raymond Chandler, whose essay in the Art of Murder could practically be a design document for the Witcher 3, broke with that tradition: they expanded the stories to not only show lower class people but humanize them, allowing the reader to learn and empathize with their stories through a detective who moves smoothly between both upper and lower classes with disdain for neither. The recent war upheavals in the Witcher create a society much like that in the hard-boiled detective novels, where everything and everyone is in flux. Geralt fits perfectly into the mold of the gritty detective, a sarcastic, unflappable person who can both give and take a beating but whose honor throughout is both unquestionable and unheralded. The main storyline of the Witcher III is a thread we follow as players, but the real value of the game lies in the stories we find along the way: the human moments we discover because the game gives us so much to explore.
21	Advanced Social Curve Design - Empowering the Community	2015-07-01
Social play allows players like Emily to take on greater challenges than solo play. With the player's confidence in the game's mechanical challenges well established, the design can now push them towards social challenges. For example, the player may recognize instantly how to beat a high level raid boss, but to succeed at their plan they need to recruit other players to form the right party. Their successes naturally lead to them making friends with players they get along with, and at this point the community takes initiative into its own hands as players elect to join guilds or even step up to leadership. At the peak of social curve design, the prestige players get from coordinated play (exclusive loot, titles, and other visible bragging rights for beating the most difficult quests) becomes more of a reward than stats alone. While the designer must provide tools to make it easy for those players to coordinate with one another, they should still avoid the pitfall of making interactions automatic since that would undercut the entire cycle of social challenge and reward.
20	Intermediate Social Curve Design - Introducing Cooperation Rewards	2015-06-24
Once players like Emily have gotten comfortable with the mechanics of the game, they're ready to dip their toes into the social features. Early social challenges should be easy to complete in a single play session, like small raids that can easily be defeated by a random pick up group. Instead of just ramping up the difficulty to force players into groups, though, the game designer should give bonus rewards to players who work together (even if it's something as small as increasing their chance of getting better loot) without making solo missions impossible. Hitting this balance between low effort social tasks and better game rewards makes the player feel comfortable and confident about reaching out to other players, which is crucial to move them onto the next stage of social curve design.
19	Social Difficulty Curve - Easing Players into Communication	2015-06-17
Designers graph gameplay engagement on a curve, making sure that new players have the time to learn and grow comfortable with the mechanics before introducing new ones. Yet for all that games have become more and more social with the spread of internet access, too many still bury new players in social mechanics while they're still trying to learn how to play. Just as games have tutorial levels, they should also ease the player into chat systems, auction houses, and guild participation one step at a time.
18	Exploration in Games - Four Ways Players Discover Joy	2015-06-10
Exploration appeals to basic human instincts, and the basic joy we get from discovery makes exploration a key element for many games. While the geographic discovery of finding new levels or zones is a great example of exploration in games, it's not the only type of exploration that exists. Among others, games can provide mechanical discovery, where players try new build paths or skill combos to increase their mastery of the game; content discovery, where players seek to unlock secrets or rush to open new packs to find out what they carry; and narrative discovery, where instead of being walked through a story the player must piece together backstory and lore from evidence they find around the world. This joy of discovery comes as much from the hunt as from the finding, but the designer must reward the player's successful exploration with new tools or insights to show that the game recognizes their efforts.
17	Force-of-Nature Villains - Giving a Face to Pure Evil	2015-06-03
Force-of-Nature villains embody pure evil, or chaos, or other forces that move the world beyond the hero's control. They're not traditional characters with motives, desires, and a backstory that makes it easy to understand them. They exist purely to drive an agenda. The force they represent (and push relentlessly onto the world) defines the hero's values by interaction, giving the hero's human flaws and virtues greater value when contrasted with the villain's single-minded purpose. These villains are frequently portrayed as gods or monsters, like Sauron, but when written as humans, like the Joker or the Illusive Man, they are usually written as insane or obsessed.
16	Rust - Representing Race in Games	2015-05-27
Rust assigns players a skin color on character creation, then ties it to their Steam account so they can never change it. This game design decision creates diversity in the player base and has forced many players to play as characters of an ethnicity different from their own. Since the game does not censor players' language, many of these players are hearing themselves called racial insults for the first time. While uncomfortable, this experience also pushes players who might normally be oblivious to those issues (or even participate in them) to consider things from a different perspective.
15	Paid Mods	2015-05-20
Valve's attempt to introduce a marketplace onto the Steam Workshop raises questions about the effect paid mods would have on the mod community and the game companies themselves. The modders get only a small percentage of sales, but that percentage is still better than the cost of licensing the game's brand or engine. Game developers must consider the risks of legal action if a modder sells content using copyrighted or trademarked material, because even if they had no direct hand in the content's creation, the fact that they make money from it may open them to lawsuits. It could also drive down the interest in DLC even further while driving up the demands on customer service, since players may have mistake bugs caused by their mods for bugs in the main game.
14	Hatred	2015-05-13
Violence lies at the heart of the Western tradition. Rage is an essential part of human nature, one that literature, art, and games can help us explore in healthy ways. It gives us an outlet to cool down and helps us address the question of whether violence can be directed to a good cause, like saving the world or freeing people from oppression. There's value in that, but there's no value in sadistic games like Hatred. These games revel in the pain we cause to others, crossing the line from violence to cruelty. These games have every right to be made, and calls for a ban would be misdirected, but they have no right to be rewarded for exploiting cruelty to create sensation. Do not buy them. Do not glorify them. Do not mistake sadism for expression.
13	On Classical Heroes	2015-05-06
The classic heroes whose stories have resonated through time have many features in common with each other. Whether it's strength or cunning or some other quality, they have greater powers than the average person - but they are not gods. They experience failure. This classical structure not only forces the character to recognize their own limits, it helps us relate to them as a human being and gives us a greater appreciation for their achievements. In video games, however, we see heroes who really can conquer every challenge. It lets us play out a power fantasy, but doesn't give us a meaningful story arc to watch the character grow. Studying classic heroes such as Achilles or Gilgamesh can help games improve their narrative by showing how we can write characters whose immense power and lust for battle can coexist with human failings that make a story more engaging.
12	Understanding Your Player	2015-04-29
How much time will players spend with your game in one sitting? The answer affects many aspects of your game's design, and you can remove the guesswork from it by thinking about the environment that surrounds your game and how that affects players' engagement with it. Are they at home, unwinding in front of their console? Or are they out for lunch, sneaking in turns between bites of food? Test the game in these environments, and learn how they affect the amount of time players are willing or able to put into your game. Then you can choose to design towards those constraints or perhaps decide that you need to move your game to a new environment (e.g. new platform, genre, or monetization method): in either case, recognizing those needs early will help you develop a better game.
11	Exit Points	2015-04-22
Part of treating players with respect is respecting the time they have to play your game. Exit points make sure your game offers players plenty of opportunities to put down the controller when they feel they have reached a good spot to stop. Gentle messages reminding them how much time they've played or offering accomplishments like new levels or zones can provide exit points. On the flip side, however, developers sometimes create unintended exit points with frustrating design choices. Long, punishing load screens in games where death is frequent may eventually cause a player who would otherwise want to continue decide to give up on trying more. Minimizing the number of unintended exit points while striking the right balance of intended exit points not only makes a game more humane, it also improves its design by preventing players from forming the negative impression of being "trapped" by a game.
10	Humane Design	2015-04-15
Games do not dictate our behavior, but they do affect us. They can affect us in positive ways, by letting us share experiences with other people or giving us a refuge from the troubles of our daily lives. They can also affect us in negative ways, however, by building Skinner Box traps that teach us to play for rewards, not for fun, and by monetizing our basic human interests instead of helping us explore them. While games are a business, that business is run by people who must take responsibility for the products they create and seriously consider the impact that games have in our society.
9	Romance in Games	2015-04-08
Games often focus on the flirtation and courtship of an early relationship, turning it into a game where saying the right thing means you will win over your romantic interest. These simple game systems fall far short of delivering on the complexity of human relationships. The player never has to face rejection, and they hardly ever find themselves on the receiving end of a proposition from an NPC companion whose feelings may be hurt by rejection (hi, Anders). Moreover, once the player's overtures are accepted, the game is "won:" very few games deal with break ups or the evolution of a relationship over time.
8	Awesome Per Second	2015-04-01
Game length does not matter. Game quality does. Keep your work focused and don't be afraid to cut content that's good but not great. Special thanks to our audience for sending us their photos for the #ExtraSelfies tag! Every person featured in this episode is based on a real life Extra Credits viewer.
7	Four Realistic Predictions	2015-03-25
During the convention season, games media often bursts with predictions about new trends and technology that will be the future of gaming - but many of those bold predictions never come to pass. Meanwhile, the small changes that don't make industry headlines have been building up, and right now in 2015 four patterns are clear. Asian markets in Japan, Korea, and China will expand into more parts of the West, especially as the cost to produce games gets so much higher than what their domestic markets can support. The short play sessions that have made mobile games popular with such a large audience will inform design even for traditional games in order to accommodate a maturing audience with less time to play. The power, flexibility, and above all usability of licensed engines will take over from in-house engines as they become too expensive to build with too few advantages. Finally, the rising cost of development will cause game assets to be re-used in spin-off titles that can help earn back the studio's investment in AAA titles.
6	Asymmetric Play	2015-03-18
Many multiplayer games have already embraced the idea of "soft" asymmetry, where different characters have skills and playstyles that make them unique but the overall game mechanics are the same. Recently, more games have begun to experiment with "hard" asymmetry where not only are individual characters different, but the game offers completely separate modes that interact with each other but share none of the same mechanics: for instance, a shooter (Dust 514) paired with a space exploration MMO (EVE Online). Where soft asymmetry promotes teamwork by giving players skills that work better when used with a team member, hard asymmetry has the potential to keep players (and their friends) invested in the same game even when they crave a different play experience.
5	Games You Might Not Have Tried #7	2015-03-12
For our long-running Games You Might Not Have Tried series, Extra Credits reviews and recommends a selection of video games that might have slipped under your radar. We've got everything from philosophical robots to roving Vikings!
4	The Fantastic	2015-03-12
Games often turn to sci-fi or fantasy settings tod raw players in to an immediately interesting and exciting world. But what about the potential of games set in our modern, very real world? They allow us to explore situations that may come up in our own lives, but they run the risk of being either too mundane to engage our interest or too metaphorical for us to relate to them. Tsvetan Todorov's literary theory of the Fantastic provides one solution. By adding a twist of the supernatural to an otherwise very ordinary world, we can create suspense as both the player and their character struggle to figure out whether this supernatural event can be rationally explained (the fantastic uncanny) or whether it represents some previously unrecognized twist to their accepted reality (the fantastic marvelous).
3	What Makes Us Roleplay?	2015-02-25
Games often condition us to go through the motions of solving the puzzle or saving the world without really asking us to take on the role of the character we're playing. But a few games, by intent or by accident, manage to make their world feel real to us, and invite us not just to play the game but to put ourselves in the same mindset as the people on screen. One of the biggest factors in creating that sense of connection is the existence of consequence: when a game makes it clear to us that our choices have an impact on the world that we're playing in and the people on screen can suffer for them, it compels us to consider every choice in terms of how it would affect the people we see in front of us. In causes us to get into character for whomever we are playing, and really put ourselves into their shoes so we experience their story as if it were our own.
2	No Gendered Mechanics	2015-02-19
Assumptions that certain games are only for people of a certain gender have driven game design decisions for years. Genres that are stereotyped as male, such as first person shooters, are surrounded by the trappings of a supposedly male identity: guns, warfare, and so on. Games that are stereotyped as female, such as match three games, are decorated with gender signifiers like gems and jewelry. This creates a self-perpetuating cycle as designers see mostly people of the gender-targeted audience buying that type of game and so they double-down on the stereotyping, but this approach causes games as a whole to miss out on many opportunities for creative new games even within established genres. By eliminating our assumptions that certain mechanics only appeal to certain genders, we can create new experiences and find new audiences.
1	A Question of Empathy	2015-02-12
Many studies have investigated whether or not there is a link between video games and violence, but few have looked at the bigger picture. What is the correlation between video games and empathy? Since games put us, as players, in the role of characters who are not ourselves, asking us to understand their situation and the problems that they face, they have the potential to teach us about how to empathize with others. While many gamers have anecdotal evidence about games that made them feel a character's pain, there's a disappointing lack of formal studies into that side of the question.

Season 9 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	Launching! How to Market Your Game	2015-02-04
Before you finish your first game, even before you're ready to publish it, you should plan your marketing and PR campaign. Being an independent game designer means it's up to you to get word out about your game! Start by thinking about what makes your game great and finding a way to say that. Once you've figured out your pitch, put together a short trailer and website so you can contact every news site, big and small. Remember, they want content, too! Entering your game into contests like the Independent Games Festival can help you get additional press if your game does well. Don't be afraid to call on favors, reach out to influential game designers, and join podcasts or livestreams to help you find your audience. And finally, think broadly about where you will publish your game. There are more digital distributors than ever, and they're more accessible than you may think!
24	Minimum Viable Product - How to Scope small and Start Right	2015-01-28
When you're making your first game, we've told you to start small, but that may leave you wondering: just how small should you be planning for? This brings us to the concept of minimum viable product: figuring out exactly which features your game needs to be fun. It's often fewer than you think! Paring a game down to its basic mechanics has many advantages. It stops you from getting stuck in development, working on features too complex for your skill level. It ensures that you make visible progress towards a concrete end goal. And best of all, it allows you to focus on the core mechanics to make sure your gameplay alone is engaging.
23	Practical Rules - Setting (and Keeping) Goals	2015-01-21
Now that you know the basic principles of how to make your first game (remember: start small!), it's time to break that down into a process you can follow to finish your first game. These tips will move into the details: how to plan your production schedule for your game, what to do when those plans go haywire, and more. Above all, it's important to understand that every step of making your first game will teach you something important, and that the learning process doesn't stop when development ends: show your finished game to other people, get their feedback, and be proud of what you made!
22	Basics - How To Start Your Game Development	2015-01-14
Making your first game can be difficult. Remember that your goal is to make a game, any game, not necessarily a complex game like the ones professional teams of game developers in a studio can produce. By starting small and focusing on the basic gameplay, a new game designer can learn a lot about their skills and build on that for their next game (or the next version of their first game). That way, you can actually complete a playable game instead of getting stuck on the details as so many first time game makers do.
21	Snakes and Ladders	2014-12-24
Snakes and Ladders, or Chutes and Ladders, has been around for generations, going back perhaps 2000 years to its invention in India. Though simple - or perhaps through its simplicity - the game conveys a deliberate message about life that has stood the test of time. Snakes and Ladders requires no skill, relying purely on luck to demonstrate to the player that fate is beyond their control, and that they will stumble upon both sins that bring them down (snakes) and moral actions that lift them up (ladders) on the passage towards their goal in life.
20	Mechanics and Tone	2014-12-17
Game mechanics often come "first" in the development phase, with a narrative being tacked on later. But when game mechanics become separated from story, the disjunct makes for a bad experience as players become impatient or disinterested. However many of the best games, from Shadow of the Colossus to Dark Souls, have mechanics that enhance the mood created by the story and the characters, and visa versa. Achieving that synthesis is key to the field of narrative design in video games.
19	Global Games: Norway	2014-12-10
Norway faces a unique set of challenges when it comes to developing its role in the games industry. Despite some notable successes, the Norwegian game industry has yet to make its mark on the world stage. While the country has a very healthy economy and government support for games as a growing industry, Norway's population is too small to support a game industry by itself. Because of this, game companies must succeed in the global market despite a lack of dedicated business and marketing infrastructure on the publishing side.
18	How Games Scratch Your Multitasking Itch	2014-12-03
Games that ask the player to do nothing more than wait while numbers increase have seen a surge in popularity. They fill a developing modern need for activity, giving players a window in their browser they can compulsively check while cycling between other interests. The fact that they ask for so little makes it easier for them to fulfill a multitasking impulse, scratching the player's itch to feel like they're accomplishing many tasks when their main focus (like listening to a lecture or working at their desk) requires them to sit still.
17	How to Approach Game Difficulty	2014-11-26
Games often start by asking the player, "What difficulty would you like to play on?" But how is someone who has never touched the game before supposed to figure out whether they want to cruise along on easy mode or challenge themselves with hard mode? Even the idea of dynamic difficulty adjustment, which modifies the game based on how well the player is doing, can be frustrating for players whose efforts to get better at a difficult section are cut short as the game suddenly drops their difficulty rating. Dark Souls 2 provides in-game mechanics to let players choose their own difficulty preferences and adjust them on the fly simply based on the items and skills they choose - and in this episode, we give you the secret to playing Dark Souls II on easy mode!
16	Interactive Video	2014-11-19
Early games like the 7th Guest mixed film footage with the interactivity of video games, but the poor quality led to bad results that deterred other games from following their lead. Cloud Chamber, a "massively multiplayer story game" released in 2014, revives the idea of interactive film by centering its action on the players' response to the movies, taking advantage of people's natural inclination to want to discuss what they've seen by developing in-game message boards. Thus Cloud Chamber is able to make videos interactive without the age old flaws of intrusive action menus or pace-breaking player actions.
15	Video Game Rating Systems	2014-11-12
Games are becoming more common than ever, but the time-consuming and expensive methods to rate them for mature content haven't grown along with them. Small games, especially indie games, cannot afford the fee charged by organizations like the ESRB or PEGI for a full rating which requires someone to review the game's content and mark it by hand. Allowing developers to submit their own games which are then subject to consumer review for accuracy would make it possible even for small games to get content ratings, however platforms such as Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, and even the App Store would need to encourage developers to use the system.
14	Shiver with Antici-pation	2014-11-05
Good horror games have their own pacing that's unique to the genre. To keep the player scared, games use a cycle of tension and release that keeps the player on the edge of their seat. Not knowing when the next scare will hit, but constantly reminded of the danger around them by small clues like scratching noises and dark corridors, players effectively begin to frighten themselves as they wonder what will happen next.
13	Horror That Lingers	2014-10-29
Too many horror games rely on "cheap" frights like jump scares or cliche monsters like zombies. While they may succeed in making the player afraid for a few moments, they rarely leave a lasting impression once the game is over. More horror should make use of the uncanny, creating scenes and characters that seem mostly normal but are just "off" in a disturbing way. This technique gives players something they can relate to and makes the game world real enough that it seems almost possible that the terror in the game could actually be part of our lives. Plus: Mass Effect costumes for Halloween!
12	Plan, Practice, Improvise	2014-10-22
Successful game design requires focus, which means the designer must understand what types of play best suits their game and make sure that all the game mechanics support it. Planned gameplay allows many different solutions but gives players time to review their options, practice gameplay encourages strategic thinking within fixed maps or rules, and improvised gameplay forces players think on the fly to adapt to random elements. While some games use one category exclusively, most combine them to different degrees and find success in developing systems focused on a primary type of play.
11	Digging Deeper	2014-10-15
Our brains have a tendency to gloss over the minute-to-minute action in video games, leaving us with a few minutes of distinct memories after hours of gameplay. Unlike with books or movies, we have been trained to turn our brains off or "veg out" during our game time, causing us to miss out on the full range of experience games have to offer. We can change this by making a conscious effort to focus on our games, especially when they bring more complex narratives or themes to the table.
10	Big Bad II	2014-10-08
Villains are people too. A compelling narrative villain does not just do evil things for the sake of being evil, but because their view of the world or the actions they've taken within it drive them to make choices which they see as necessary, or even good. Instead of just a big boss monster to defeat, these antagonist types force the protagonist to make choices and challenge how they see the world.
9	Big Bad I	2014-10-01
Video game villains that don't match the overall tone of the game distract the player and can become more of a laughing stock than a threat. Game designers must understand the two basic categories of bad guys (mechanics villains and narrative villains) and know not only when to use them but how to approach their design.
8	Shovelware	2014-09-24
Games based on popular movies or books often turn out to be disappointing for fans of the original material. These poorly made cash-in games often spend most of their budget buying a brand license and then rush through development in order to match release deadlines. Especially now when they are moving to the growing mobile and handheld markets, their poor quality leaves a potential new base of consumers with a bad impression of games. Special thanks to Scot for the suggestion! Thanks for supporting us, Scot!
7	MMO Economies	2014-09-17
Every quest reward or sellable item in an MMO generates more gold that goes into the economy, causing inflation as the gold becomes more common and less valuable. There are several ways that MMOs can drain that money out of the economy by creating "gold sinks."
6	Historical Games	2014-09-10
Historical games can be a great way to learn while playing, but giving the player choice means not re-enacting history as it happened. Systems and mechanics can make the player's choices feel like the choices of a historic figure.
5	Free to Play Is Currently Broken	2014-09-03
Squeezing money from their highest spending players causes most free to play games to push out the majority of their playerbase.
4	First Move Advantage	2014-08-27
In turn-based competitive games, the player who goes first gets initiative. Designers must find ways to balance this advantage and keep track of win rates for both players as the game changes over time.
3	Games You Might Not Have Tried: Humble Bundle	2014-08-21
Extra Credits reviews and recommends a selection of video games that might have slipped under your radar.
2	Randomness in Esports	2014-08-13
Skill should be the determining factor in Esports, but many competitive games include a random element such as critical strike chance or card draw that can change the outcome of a match.
1	Too Many Games	2014-08-06
The number of games coming out has hugely increased thanks to distribution platforms like Steam and the App Store, but storefronts have become a cluttered mess with inadequate search options.

Season 8 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	How Far Have Games Come Since 2008?	2014-07-30
For our 200th episode, we take a look back at all the good things games have accomplished, as an industry and a community, since Extra Credits started in 2008!
24	Choices vs Consequences	2014-07-23
Games give players the agency to make decisions, but whether they highlight choices in advance or deliver consequences after the fact changes the experience and the game design itself.
23	Open World Design	2014-07-16
Open world games offer players great opportunities to explore, but developers must figure out how to organize their team to create an immersive experience across so many hours of content.
22	The Waiting Game	2014-07-09
Games like Candy Box, Frog Fractions, and a Dark Room uproot traditional game design that relies on spectacle and action. Instead they build an interest curve by appealing to our natural curiosity.
21	Early Access	2014-07-02
Many developers have adopted the trend of giving players early access to a game that's still in development, gaining funding through sales at the high potential cost of a good first impression.
20	Why the Vita Failed	2014-06-25
The PlayStation Vita tried to create a high end mobile gaming solution, but failed to achieve even a fraction of the sales of low end systems like the Nintendo 3DS or even the iPhone.
19	The Fighting Game Problem	2014-06-18
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18	Roguelike Returns	2014-06-11
Games like Spelunky and FTL led a revival of the roguelike genre. Techniques adopted from other genres simplify the learning curve and make these games accessible again for modern players.
17	Minecraft Generation	2014-06-04
Games like Spelunky and FTL led a revival of the roguelike genre. Techniques adopted from other genres simplify the learning curve and make these games accessible again for modern players.
16	Why Games Do Cthulhu Wrong	2014-05-28
H.P. Lovecraft and the Call of Cthulhu have inspired many horror games, but the power fantasy that drives most games conflicts with the unfathomable, unreachable terror of Cthulhu.
15	Education: Agency	2014-05-21
Games show us the immediate, direct impact of our choices in a way that teaches us to plan for our goals and take control of our future. No lesson could be more valuable for a student.
14	Education: 21st Century Skills	2014-05-14
Games give players agency and teach the core 21st century skills of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity better than any traditional program of rote learning can.
13	Education: Responsive Learning	2014-05-07
Games that can track player behavior down to the last click can also keep teachers informed about their classes' progress and give them time to work one-on-one with struggling students.
12	Education: An End to Fear	2014-04-30
Traditional education focuses on assessment, giving students one chance to get their homework right. Games can provide immediate feedback and teach core problem solving skills.
11	Candy Crush's Success	2014-04-23
Match three games like Bejeweled have spawned many clones, but none as successful as Candy Crush. Love it or hate it, it's helpful to understand why so many people play it.
10	Comedic Games	2014-04-16
Comedy relies on timing, but video games can go beyond the scripted scenes of films or television to create interactive "comedy by choice" that lets each player discover humor on their own.
9	Doing Free to Play Wrong	2014-04-09
Comedy relies on timing, but video games can go beyond the scripted scenes of films or television to create interactive "comedy by choice" that lets each player discover humor on their own.
8	Net Neutrality	2014-04-02
The debate about net neutrality rages on, but the meaning of "open internet" vs. "closed internet" is seldom explained. Without an open or neutral internet, corporations like AT&T or Comcast can restrict bandwidth and charge people extra for faster connections or limit access to their competitors' services altogether. In the United States, a January 2014 ruling from the DC Circuit Court determined that the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) had no authority to enforce its previous rules about net neutrality. This opened the decision about how to govern the internet's future up to law makers in the US Congress.
7	Designing for Youth	2014-03-26
Good games inspire children to learn through play, whether in the classroom or at home. Understanding the educational needs of different age groups, from kindergarten to middle school, allows designers to create games that give children the opportunity to explore and grow.
6	Collectable Games (Part 3)	2014-03-19
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5	Games You Might Not Have Tried: Cyberpunk	2014-03-12
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4	Quest Design (Part 2)	2014-03-05
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3	Quest Design (Part 1)	2014-02-26
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2	Simulation Sickness	2014-02-19
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1	Growing With Our Heroes	2014-02-12
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Season 7 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	Fail Faster	2014-02-05
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24	Affordances	2014-01-29
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23	The Magic Circle	2014-01-22
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22	Games You Might Not Have Tried: Collectable Games	2014-01-15
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21	The Good We Do	2014-01-08
This week, we discuss some of the positive impact our community has on the world.
20	Incentive Systems and Politics (Part 3)	2013-12-25
This week, we conclude our series on design problems in the US political system.
19	Incentive Systems and Politics (Part 2)	2013-12-18
This week, we continue our series about design problems in the U.S. political system.
18	Incentive Systems and Politics (Part 1)	2013-12-11
This week, we start a series looking at design problems in the US political system.
17	What Is a Game?	2013-11-27
This week, we discuss the debate over what does and doesn't qualify as a "game".
16	Community Management	2013-11-20
This week, we discuss the under-appreciated role of the Community Manager.
15	Collectable Games (Part 2)	2013-11-13
This week, we continue our discussion of Collectable Games, their benefits and their potential dangers.
14	Collectable Games (Part 1)	2013-11-06
This week, we begin a two-part series on the Collectable monetization model.
13	Games You REALLY Might Not Have Tried	2013-10-30
This week, we pull out some creepy games you REALLY may never have heard of.
12	Spectacle Creep	2013-10-23
This week, we discuss the increase in franchise scale and spectacle over time.
11	Competitive Storytelling	2013-10-16
This week, we examine the difficult challenge of storytelling in a competitive game space.
10	Overlooked	2013-10-09
This week, we familiarize ourselves with an often-ignored game genre.
9	Negative Possibility Space	2013-10-02
This week, we conclude our month-long discussion of Choice in video games.
8	How Much Agency Do Games Need?	2013-09-25
This week, we attempt to reframe the question of how much choice a game needs to successfully engage the player.
7	The Illusion of Choice	2013-09-18
This week, we discuss the use of the illusion of choice in game design.
6	The Feeling of Agency	2013-09-11
This week, we kick off a series of episodes on Choice in games.
5	Games You Might Not Have Tried #6	2013-08-28
This week, we bring you a fresh batch of interesting games worth checking out.
4	Myers Briggs and Character Creation	2013-08-21
This week, we discuss a handy method for broadly defining one's characters.
3	A Case for Board Games	2013-08-14
This week, we discuss the importance of board games in the study of game design.
2	Games in Education	2013-08-07
This week, we discuss some of the difficulties of integrating games into our education system.
1	So You Want to be an Indie	2013-07-31
This week, we offer some tips on how to be a successful indie game developer.

Season 6 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	Game Compulsion (Part 3)	2013-07-24
This week, we return to the subject of Game Compulsion and its causes.
24	A Little Bit of Yesterday	2013-07-17
This week, we try to figure out why it is we cherish that "retro" era of games so much.
23	Designing for a Touch Screen	2013-07-10
This week, we lay out some basic guidelines for designing a game on touch devices.
22	Used Games	2013-07-03
This week, we talk some more about the used games issue.
21	Not a Babysitter	2013-06-26
This week, we talk about how games can be a shared experience between kids and their parents
20	When Difficult is Fun	2013-06-19
This week, we discuss how to make a game challenging, yet still enjoyable.
19	In Service to the Brand	2013-06-12
This week, we discuss Bioshock Infinite and the problem with clinging to "the brand"
18	Moving Forward	2013-06-05
This week, we discuss the need to change the conversation around video games.
17	Dansky	2012-05-29
This week, we talk about an early example of games attempting to push boundaries and do good.
16	Toxicity	2013-05-22
This week, we discuss how members of the gaming community treat each other.
15	The JCPenney's Effect	2013-05-15
This week, we examine the pros and cons of Firefall's loot system design.
14	Global Games: Mexico, Argentina & Chile	2013-05-08
This week, we take a look at some more Latin American nations and their potential for game industry growth.
13	Like a Ninja	2013-05-01
This week, we talk about how to make good stealth games.
12	Games You Might Not Have Tried #5	2013-04-24
This week, we list off a few more interesting games you may not have looked into yet.
11	Minority	2013-04-17
This week, we conclude our little series about The Walking Dead's numerous strengths.
10	For Whom the Bell Tolls	2013-04-10
This week, we talk about one of The Walking Dead's major themes.
9	Raising the Dead	2013-04-03
This week, we begin a three week series on various topics relating to Telltalle's The Walking Dead.
8	Differences in Scale vs Differences in Kind	2013-03-27
This week, we discuss two fundamental game design principles (the ones in the title).
7	Why Console Specs Don't Matter	2013-03-20
This week, we enjoy some speculation on Sony's Playstation 4.
6	Intrinsic or Extrinsic	2013-03-13
This week, we explain the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.
5	Word Choice	2013-03-06
This week, we continue talking about effectively handling exposition in games.
4	More Than Exposition	2013-02-27
This week, we discuss some basic story principles as they apply to games.
3	Funding XCOM (Part 2)	2013-02-20
This week, we conclude our musing on the need for a real XCOM program.
2	Funding XCOM (Part 1)	2013-02-13
This week, we entertain ourselves by pondering the question: "Should we fund a real-life Xcom?"
1	Global Games: Brazil	2013-02-06
This week, we begin a series on the potential for game industry growth in new regions around the world. First up: Brazil!

Season 5 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	The Beast Macabre	2013-01-30
This week, we do a (somewhat premature) Horror Monsters episode.
24	How to Start Your Game Narrative	2013-01-23
This week, we explain why settling on a story before you've started your game may be a bad idea.
23	Depth vs. Complexity	2013-01-17
This week, we talk about the importance of balancing a game's Depth and Complexity.
22	God Does Not Play Dice	2013-01-09
This week, we address the rather large reaction to our previous episode.
21	Religion in Games (Part 2)	2012-12-19
This week, we talk a bit about Faith in games.
20	Religion in Games (Part 1)	2012-12-12
This week, we start discussing religion in games. Finally.
19	Balancing for Skill	2012-12-05
This week, we talk about the factor of player skill when balancing multiplayer games.
18	Combining Genres	2012-11-28
This week, we discuss the best way to approach genre blending.
17	Counter Play	2012-11-21
This week, we discuss the design concept of Counter Play (with thanks to Tom Cadwell).
16	"My Name Is Ozymandias…"	2012-11-14
This week, we discuss the unfortunate lack of preservation for gaming's history.
15	Horror Protagonists	2012-10-31
This week, we talk about the importance of protagonists in the horror genre (and wear costumes).
14	Demo Daze	2012-10-24
This week, we explain why you don't see more game demos being released.
13	Aesthetics of Play	2012-10-17
This week, we talk genres and some game design theory.
12	Beyond Fun	2012-10-10
This week, we explain why games shouldn't be constrained exclusively to "Fun".
11	Mailbag #5	2012-10-03
This week, we are reminded once again that Mailbags are a thing we do.
10	Digital Rentals and the Online Arcade	2012-09-26
This week, we discuss two alternate monetization methods that could work for certain games.
9	Starting Off Right	2012-09-19
This week, we talk about the crucial "first five minutes" of a game.
8	Energy Systems	2012-09-12
This week, we talk about those playtime-limiting systems often found in social games.
7	On Game Schools	2012-09-05
This week, we give a step-by-step guide on how to choose a good game school.
6	Spec Ops: The Line (Part 2)	2012-08-29
This week, we continue our dissection of Spec Ops: The Line (SPOILERS AHOY).
5	Spec Ops: The Line (Part 1)	2012-08-22
This week, we talk about what makes Spec Ops: The Line so great (without spoilers).
4	Mechanics as Metaphor (Part 2)	2012-08-15
This week, we finish discussing how games can convey meaning through mechanics alone.
3	Mechanics as Metaphor (Part 1)	2012-08-08
This week, we discuss how games can convey meaning through mechanics alone.
2	Digital Resale	2012-08-01
This week, we speculate on the future possibilities of reselling digital copies of games.
1	Games You Might Not Have Tried: 16-bit	2012-07-25
This week, we list some under-appreciated titles from the beloved 16-bit era.

Season 4 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	Perfect Imbalance	2012-07-18
This week, we discuss the benefits of subtle imbalances in games (and welcome our newest team member)!
24	The Hero’s Journey (Part 2)	2012-07-11
This week, we conclude our two-part series on the Hero's Journey as applied to games (like Journey).
23	The Hero's Journey (Part 1)	2012-07-04
This week, we begin a two-part series on the Hero's Journey as applied to games.
22	Power Creep	2012-06-27
This week, we finally get around to talking about the trouble with power creep (with special guest)!
21	Games You Might Not Have Tried #4	2012-06-20
This week, we recommend some more interesting, "under the radar" games.
20	Politics	2012-06-13
This week, we offer a handy guide to making your voice heard in U.S. politics (with special guest)!
19	Hard-Boiled	2012-06-06
This week, we discuss the AAA industry's trend toward hard-boiling its franchises, and what it means to be "mature".
18	Spectrum Crunch	2012-05-30
This week, we discuss a major bandwidth problem we're about to run into.
17	EC Fund Update	2012-05-16
This week, we give a progress update on the EC Indie Fund.
16	ARGs (Part 2)	2012-05-09
This week, we conclude our discussion on ARGs, this time with Augmented Reality Games.
15	ARGs (Part 1)	2012-05-02
This week, we begin a two-part discussion on ARGs, starting with Alternate Reality Games.
14	Harassment	2012-04-25
This week, we tackle the rampant bullying, misogyny and hate speech that occurs within the gaming community.
13	Crowdfunding	2012-04-18
This week, we discuss the exciting possibilities of crowd-funded games.
12	Kinect Disconnect	2012-04-11
This week, we look back on the last year and a half of Kinect and offer some new observations about the device.
11	Games You Might Not Have Tried #3	2012-04-04
This week, we rattle off yet another list of games worth checking out.
10	TransGaming	2012-03-28
This week, we try (and fail) to contain our excitement about connected gaming experiences.
9	Mass Effect 3 DLC	2012-03-21
This week, Mass Effect 3 gives us a chance to talk some more about DLC.
8	Western & Japanese RPGs (Part 3)	2012-03-14
This week, we conclude our series on Western RPGs and JRPGs.
7	Western & Japanese RPGs (Part 2)	2012-03-07
This week, we continue discussing (and defining) Western RPGs and JRPGs, this time with a special guest!
6	Western & Japanese RPGs (Part 1)	2012-02-29
This week, we begin a three-part series discussing (and defining) Western RPGs and JRPGs.
5	So You Want to be a Developer (Part 2)	2012-02-22
This week, we finish discussing the skills it takes to be a great developer (with lots of help from the folks at Stack Exchange).
4	So You Want to be a Developer (Part 1)	2012-02-15
This week, we discuss the skills it takes to be a great developer (with lots of help from the folks at Stack Exchange).
3	Mailbag #4	2012-02-08
This week, we return to the mailbag and answer a few more popular questions.
2	Mailbag #3	2012-02-01
This week, we suddenly realize that we haven't done a mailbag episode is AGES.
1	SOPA & PIPA	2012-01-25
This week, we give a (somewhat belated) criticism of SOPA and PIPA.

Season 3 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	Skyrim's Opening	2012-01-11
This week, we carefully examine and critique the first fifteen minutes of Skyrim's play experience.
24	Puzzle Games	2011-12-21
This week, we dissect a popular puzzle game to show just how complex and elegantly-designed even a simple game can be.
23	Playtesting	2011-12-14
This week, we explain the value of playtesting your game, and offer some tips on how to get the best data possible.
22	Technobabble	2011-12-07
This week, we examine that classic staple of mediocre science fiction: technobabble.
21	The Singularity	2011-11-30
This week, we begin our two weeks of "science distraction" by looking at what role games might play in man achieving technology singularity.
20	Deus Ex: Human Revolution	2011-11-23
This week, we try to figure out exactly what it was about the new Deus Ex game we liked so much.
19	The Diablo III Marketplace	2011-11-16
This week, we consider the intended goal (and possible results) of Blizzard's plan for a "real money" marketplace in Diablo III.
18	The Uncanny Valley	2011-11-09
This week, we explain the theory behind the Uncanny Valley, and how best to avoid tumbling into it.
17	Working Conditions	2011-11-02
This week, we take a hard look at just how miserable it can be to work in the game industry, and the causes behind these terrible conditions.
16	Zombies	2011-10-26
This week (for some Halloween fun), we decided to talk about zombies.
15	Call of Juarez: The Cartel	2011-10-19
This week, we further examine the "lazy design" we discussed last week by picking apart a specific title: Call of Juarez: The Cartel.
14	Propaganda Games	2011-10-12
This week, we consider the unfortunate potential games have as tools for propaganda.
13	So You Want To Be a Producer	2011-10-05
This week, we take a close look at one of the game industry's less-appreciated roles: the Producer. This week's guest art by LeeLee Scaldaferri! Check out her weekly webcomic, Name Game!
12	Games You Might Not Have Tried #2	2011-09-28
This week, we list off some more interesting games you might never have heard of (or gotten around to trying).
11	Pro Gaming	2011-09-21
This week, we consider the reasons why professional gaming hasn't really caught on in the West (yet).
10	Cutscenes	2011-09-14
This week, we discuss the role (and frequent misuse) of cutscenes in video games.
9	Pacing	2011-09-07
This week, we discuss proper pacing and it's influence on game design.
8	Let's Talk About Publishing	2011-08-31
This week, we get everyone up to speed on the Rockethub details. After that, we share our plans for the EC Indie Fund! Link to the EC Indie Fund rockethub page!
7	Game Addiction part 2	2011-08-24
This week, we conclude our two-part series on the much-debated topic of "Game Addiction" (in a very, VERY unusual way).
6	Game Addiction part 1	2011-08-17
This week, we begin a two-part series on the much-debated topic of "Game Addiction."
5	The MMORTS	2011-08-10
This week, we address the potential for the MMORTS genre, as well as the reasons why making one seems to be such a difficult challenge.
4	"Art" Is Not the Opposite of "Fun"	2011-08-03
This week, we address the common claim that advancing games as an art means making them less fun.
3	The Pre-Production Problem	2011-07-27
This week, we kick off the Guest Art Marathon with a discussion on why games really need to start making time for pre-production.
2	S.978 and Operation Rainfall	2011-07-21
This week, we share some of our thoughts on two current(ish) events: the dreaded S.978 bill and Operation Rainfall.
1	Microtransactions	2011-07-14
This week, we talk about microtransactions, and how they COULD be a pretty great thing if we'd just start doing them right.

Season 2 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	Sharing Our Medium	2011-07-07
Video games can actually be pretty intimidating to newcomers. This week, we offer some tips for how to introduce others to our medium.
24	Race in Games	2011-06-30
This week, we finally get around to talking about race in games, thanks mostly to the release of L.A. Noire.
23	Game Reviews	2011-06-23
This week, we talk about reviewing games, how to pursue a game reviewing career, and how game reviewing might be improved overall.
22	The Role of the Player	2011-06-16
This week, we get into a little bit of video game theory, discussing the creative contribution of the player to a game.
21	Our Oscars	2011-06-09
This week, we talk about the need for video games to have their own "Oscars", and what that show might look like.
20	Anonymous	2011-06-02
This week, we take a quick break from all the games talk to discuss Anonymous, and whether or not they were actually behind the PSN outage.
19	NOT a Security Episode	2011-05-26
Now that the whole PSN mess is (mostly) wrapped up, we discuss the changing relationship between corporation and consumer, and the trust that relationship is going to require.
18	The Myth of the Gun	2011-05-19
This week, we try to figure out why the U.S. has always produced more First Person Shooters than Japan.
17	Graphics vs Aesthetics	2011-05-12
This week, we define the difference between a games "graphics" and a game's "aesthetic", and why that distinction matters.
16	Gamifying Education	2011-05-05
This week, we offer some general examples for ways to improve education using game design techniques.
15	Learning From Other M	2011-04-28
This week, we discuss some of Metroid: Other M's failings, and how similar games might avoid them in the future.
14	Games You Might Not Have Tried (...or Heard Of)	2011-04-21
This week, we list a bunch of our favorite "under-the-radar" games.
13	Consoles are the New Coin-Op	2011-04-14
This week, we speculate that game consoles might soon be going the way of the arcade (and why that doesn't have to be a scary thing).
12	Metrics	2011-04-07
This week, we talk about the increasing focus on Metrics in the game industry, and the possible results this trend might have (both good and bad).
11	Gamification	2011-03-31
This week, we talk about the ways game systems are starting to be applied to real life, and what this means for the future. Also, we are joined by our first guest artist!
10	Tangential Learning	2011-03-24
This week, we talk about one of the ways games can teach us new things (without being boring about it).
9	Tutorials 101	2011-03-17
This week, as promised, we take a closer look at how to build a good tutorial.
8	True Female Characters	2011-03-10
This week, we look at what it takes to write a great female game character.
7	Ludus Florentis	2011-03-03
This week, we try our best to describe a big upcoming change in the world of video games, as well as what's causing it.
6	An Open Letter to EA Marketing	2011-02-24
This week, we turn a critical eye to some of EA's worst recent marketing campaigns.
5	Achievements	2011-02-17
This week, by special request, we finally get around to talking about achievements.
4	Playing Like a Designer Part 2	2011-02-10
This week, we finish talking about how to play games like a game designer, from which games to play to what you should watch for.
3	Playing Like a Designer Part 1	2011-02-03
This week, we talk about how to play games like a game designer. At least, we start to.
2	Amnesia and Story Structure	2011-01-27
This week, we talk a bit about Three Act Structure, In Medias Res and amnesia as a plot device.
1	Piracy	2011-01-20
This week, we dive headfirst into the controversies of video game piracy.

Season 1 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
25	Non-Combat Gaming	2011-01-13
This week, we consider the neglected potential for game experiences that aren't combat based.
24	Mailbag #2	2011-01-06
This week, we answer some more of the popular questions from our inbox.
23	Choice and Conflict	2010-12-30
This week, we look at the many different ways choice exists in games.
22	A Season of Hope	2010-12-23
This week, we take a break from all the "art and design" talk to appreciate the Child's Play Charity Dinner Auction.
21	Narrative Mechanics	2010-12-16
This week, we look at a classic arcade game to show how games can express an idea using only their mechanics.
20	Sexual Diversity	2010-12-09
This week, we study a character from Persona 4 to demonstrate the benefits of sexual diversity in games.
19	Sex in Games	2010-12-02
This week, we talk about the troubled relationship between Sex and Video Games.
18	The Skinner Box	2010-11-25
This week, we talk about Operant Conditioning, and its unfortunate overuse in modern game design.
17	Easy Games	2010-11-18
This week, we talk about why games have been getting less challenging lately.
16	So You Want to be a Game Designer	2010-11-11
This week, we talk about what it takes to be a great game designer.
15	Facing Controversy	2010-11-04
This week we talk about standing up for our medium.
14	Symbolism 101	2010-10-28
For Halloween, we explore the use of symbols and psychology in horror games.
13	Mailbag #1	2010-10-21
This week, we answer some of the most popular questions in our inbox.
12	Diversity	2010-10-14
This week, we look at the lack of diversity in video games (and hint at numerous episode topics to come).
11	Kinect and Move	2010-10-07
This week, we look at Microsoft and Sony's new accessories and speculate on their chances for success.
10	Project Ten Dollar	2010-09-30
This week, we look at EA's "Project Ten Dollar" and suggest some alternatives.
9	Videogame Music	2010-09-23
This week, we examine the evolution of game music (and what our 8-bit roots can teach us).
8	Gamer	2010-09-16
This week, we discuss the problems surrounding the term: "Gamer."
7	Enriching Lives	2010-09-09
This week, we discuss a moral choice sequence in Mass Effect 2, and the power video games have to teach us about ourselves.
6	Free Speech	2010-09-02
This week, we discuss an upcoming Supreme Court case and what it could mean for the future of video games.
5	No Redeeming Value	2010-08-26
This week, we discuss the God of War trilogy's triumphs and failings as a narrative.
4	Where Did Survival Horror Go?	2010-08-19
Today we ask the question 'Where did the Survival Horror genre go?'
3	Innovation	2010-08-12
This week, we discuss the Indie and AAA branches of the game industry, and how joining forces might help them to drive innovation.
2	The Future of MMOs	2010-08-10
This week we explore why most modern MMOs fail and what the future of MMOs might be...
1	Video Games & Bad Writing	2010-07-29
This week, we discuss video game writing and the importance of narrative.

Season 0 (anzeigen/ausblenden)
21	Extra Politics #8: Fixing the Game - How to Patch Gerrymandering	2018-07-23
Today we talk about how to fix gerrymandering, which is probably the biggest exploit we have in US politics.
20	Extra Politics #7: Is the Game Broken? - Designer's Intent and the Triple Power Rule	2018-07-16
Today we discover why, if a rule is missing, any of our political "mini-games" (such as electing someone to office) can break the designer's intent.
19	Extra Politics #6: Who Writes the Rules? - Rules, Part 3	2018-07-09
Today we talk about how checks and balances in our government should work, and why they aren't right now.
18	Extra Politics #5: Cheating - Rules, Part 2	2018-07-02
Today we talk about what cheating in a political system looks like, and how we can counter cheating!
17	Extra Politics #4: The Rules of Society - Rules, Part 1	2018-06-25
Today we talk about why we need stable social rules in order for our political system to work.
16	Extra Politics #3: Catch-up Mechanics - The Role of the Press, Third Parties, and Money	2018-06-18
Today we're learning about the structural powerups built into US elections that give advantages to whoever is currently losing the race.
15	Extra Politics #2: Polls vs Win Charts - Positional Heuristics	2018-06-11
Today we discuss what a win chart is, and how win charts explain why election polls aren't always accurate--or in some cases, completely inaccurate.
14	Extra Politics #1: Points, Actions, and Marginal Votes - The Game of Elections	2018-06-04
Extra Politics is an 8-episode mini-series exploring the United States political system from a game design perspective. Today we're discussing why candidates spend their action points during the election cycle in bizarre but interesting ways.
13	Games You Might Not Have Tried #8 - Find New Games
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
12	Extra Remix - SGX - Electronic Dance Music and Video Games
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
11	Stand Together: The Gaming Community vs SOPA and PIPA	2012-01-18
Sign a petition to have the ESA remove their support from SOPA/PIPA. Ask your favorite gaming websites and youtube channel to join the cause by not attending and covering E3 this year until the ESA changes their stance on SOPA and PIPA! If they truly apposed this legislation the last thing they want to do is support an entity that spent $190,000 on PIPA lobbying.
10	Don't miss out on Extra Play!
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
9	Announcing the Extra Credits Store! Bring Home a GAME Plushie!
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
8	Announcement Extra Play and the Return of Side Quest!
Keine Beschreibung vorhanden.
7	PAX 2015 - Scott Explains How Extra Credits is Made	2015-09-02
Since artist Scott DeWitt couldn't join the rest of the Extra Credits crew for PAX 2015, he animated a short, educational video about how the show gets made and what it's like being an artist for EC.
6	PAX 2010: Rusel DeMaria Interview	2010-09-22
James interviews author Rusel DeMaria at PAX 2010.
5	PAX 2010: Richard Garfield & James Ernest Interview	2010-09-21
James interviews Richard Garfield & James Ernest at PAX 2010.
4	PAX 2010: Becoming a Game Writer Panel	2010-09-20
PAX 2010 Panel discussion on becoming a game writer.
3	PAX 2010: Jeff Pobst Interview	2010-09-17
James interviews Jeff Pobst from Hidden Path Entertainment at PAX 2010.
2	PAX 2010: Game Design 101 Panel	2010-09-16
PAX 2010 Panel discussion with James Portnow, James Ernest, Nicole Lazzaro and Steve Jackson.
1	PAX 2010: Backstage with Anamanaguchi	2010-09-15
James goes backstage to interview Anamanaguchi at PAX 2010.

(Quelle: thetvdb.com)

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