Hacker News with Generative AI: Game Design

Ask HN: What do you think of this idea for a chess variant? (ycombinator.com)
This chess variant has one king and fifteen queens per side, and a piece may only move if it is adjacent to another piece of either color.

Chess, Games, Game Design

5 points by amichail 8 days ago | 9 comments

Ink and Switch Constraint System (2023) (inkandswitch.com)
At the beginning of phase 2, we weren’t sure what to do about constraints. Based on past exploration, constraints seemed to hold a lot of promise but were notoriously unreliable. A good constraint system could unify and power a number of key aspects of the dynamic medium we seek. It would allow for mechanical constructions, like a rope and pulley, that feel physically correct.

Software Development, Constraints, Game Design

89 points by mpweiher 8 days ago | 13 comments

Chess324 – A Chess Variant to Reduce Draws (chessprogramming.org)
Chess324, (or Kaufman Random Chess) a chess variant invented by Larry Kaufman, introduced on Aug 12, 2022 in CCC, [1]. In the variant, all Kings, Rooks, Pawns are in their original locations as chess but other pieces are placed randomly in their first and last ranks, with no symmetry requirement between two sides, with the only restriction for bishops of each side must be on different colored squares.

Chess, Game Design, Artificial Intelligence

28 points by Mr_Minderbinder 27 days ago | 49 comments

Real Time Chess – A physical chess board without the concept of turns (github.com/misprit7)
Chess is boring. I'm boring too so I enjoy it anyways, but I can't help but think "I could design it better." Normally in chess players move sequentially in turns, but this introduces a huge latency bug that the developers of chess forgot to patch: you spend literally half the time waiting for your opponent!

Chess, Game Design, Software, Hardware

262 points by dschuessler 28 days ago | 42 comments

Solitaire (localthunk.com)
I have cited a few games as inspiration for Balatro in the past, but I wanted to talk about one in particular that hasn’t been mentioned much that arguably is the most important.

Gaming, Game Design, Strategy Games

463 points by goles 58 days ago | 158 comments

Keep Driving's perfectly annoying hitchhikers are a game-design master class (polygon.com)
This road-trip sim is a great storytelling system about a joyfully wasted youth

Video Games, Game Design, Storytelling

4 points by vasco 65 days ago | 0 comments

Designer Diary: Panda Royale (boardgamegeek.com)

Board Games, Game Design

18 points by Tomte 69 days ago | 0 comments

The Sims Game Design Documents (1997) (donhopkins.com)
NameLast modifiedSizeDescription

Game Design, History, The Sims

444 points by krykp 69 days ago | 60 comments

Postmortem: The singular design of Namco's Katamari Damacy (2004) (gamedeveloper.com)
In Katamari Damacy, the player controls a little lime green colored Prince, 5cm (approximately 2 inches) tall. The Prince's father, the King of All Cosmos, accidentally destroyed all the stars in the universe, so it is now the Prince's job to roll up katamaris in order to re-create the night sky. The game then progresses based on this very weird story.

Game Design, Video Games, Retro Games, Postmortem Analysis, Game Development

180 points by danso 74 days ago | 53 comments

Ask HN: Do CS degrees avoid game design so CS majors don't lose interest in CS? (ycombinator.com)
Maybe teaching game design would lead too many CS majors to switch to a more creative major?

Education, Computer Science, Game Design, Career Choices

7 points by amichail 81 days ago | 25 comments

The Door Problem (2014) (lizengland.com)
"So what does a game designer do? Are you an artist? Do you design characters and write the story? Or no, wait, you’re a programmer?"

Game Design, Programming, Storytelling

28 points by bemmu 83 days ago | 5 comments

Standard patterns in choice-based games (2015) (wordpress.com)
When I was analysing the structures of CYOA works a few years back, I began to recognise some strong recurring design patterns.

Game Design, Choice-Based Games, Design Patterns

254 points by Ariarule 103 days ago | 69 comments

Coyote Time: What Games Can Teach Us About Forgiveness in Learning (blogs.bsu.edu)
Video games often strike a balance between challenging players and forgiving them for not being perfect. How might forgiveness in games lead us to new insights about learning design?

Education, Learning, Game Design, Forgiveness

20 points by CharlesW 105 days ago | 4 comments

Cuttle – a MTG like game using a standard 52 card deck (pagat.com)
The exact origin of this unusual two-player game is unknown. Dating from the 1970's at the latest, it is the earliest example I have found of a combat card game. The aim is to be the first build a layout worth at least 21 points. Cards can be used for their point value, or to attack your opponent's layout by destroying or capturing cards.

Card Games, Game Design, History, Gaming

384 points by 7thaccount 106 days ago | 94 comments

2DGD_F0TH A compendium of the community knowledge on game design and development (github.com/2DGD-F0TH)
This project aims to be a Creative Commons Licensed body of knowledge about game design and development.

Game Design, Game Development, Open Source, Community Resources, Knowledge Management

56 points by linkdd 109 days ago | 3 comments

The Final Hours of Half-Life 2 (gamespot.com)
The newest installment in Geoff Keighley's Behind the Games series covers the turbulent development of Half-Life 2. This special feature takes you behind the scenes on the development of the game at Valve Software, including exclusive details on the infamous source code leak.

Video Games, Development, Game Design, History, Leaks

12 points by ydnaclementine 160 days ago | 1 comments

Dobble (The Mathematics Of) (2018) (petercollingridge.co.uk)
Dobble (also called Spot It!), is a card game that uses special circular cards, each with a number (8 in the standard pack, 6 in the kids pack) of symbols or image. There are various ways to play, but they all the games involve finding which symbol is common to two cards. The cards are designed so that any two cards will always have one symbol in common.

Game Design, Mathematics, Card Games

71 points by alexchamberlain 167 days ago | 8 comments

Unbounded: A Generative Infinite Game of Character Life Simulation (generative-infinite-game.github.io)
We introduce the concept of a generative infinite game, a video game that transcends the traditional boundaries of finite, hard-coded systems by using generative models.

Generative AI, Video Games, Game Design, Artificial Intelligence

4 points by xnx 183 days ago | 0 comments

The Mathematics of Dobble (2018) (petercollingridge.co.uk)
Dobble (also called Spot It!), is a card game that uses special circular cards, each with a number (8 in the standard pack, 6 in the kids pack) of symbols or image. There are various ways to play, but they all the games involve finding which symbol is common to two cards. The cards are designed so that any two cards will always have one symbol in common.

Mathematics, Game Design, Card Games

20 points by phreeza 217 days ago | 2 comments

D&D is Anti-Medieval (blogofholding.com)
You can be forgiven for thinking that OD&D is a medieval European fantasy game. After all, Gary Gygax himself says so. He describes the original D&D books as “Rules for Fantastic Medieval War Games” (on the cover) and “rules [for] designing your own fantastic-medieval campaign” (in the introduction). However, in the game itself, there’s precious little to suggest feudalism, Europe, chivalry, a post-imperial dark age, or even the existence of a monarchy at all.

D&D, Fantasy Games, Medieval History, Game Design

306 points by bookofjoe 223 days ago | 404 comments

The quest for a Wiki-less game (stackexchange.com)
I often see that a community will make a wiki for games that have a large amount of elements, I am attempting to create an in-game application of a "wiki" keeping track of what has been found or done to remind you of something you may have forgotten without having a 'terraria problem' where you need it to do anything.

Game Development, Community, Game Design

48 points by azeemba 228 days ago | 109 comments

Supporting game design with evolutionary algorithms (gamedeveloper.com)

Game Design, Evolutionary Algorithms

75 points by kevthecoder 253 days ago | 57 comments

Why is 'Left Stick to Sprint' so unpleasant in games? (aria.dog)

Video Games, Game Design, User Experience, Accessibility

29 points by todsacerdoti 262 days ago | 26 comments

Metropolis 1998 lets you design every building in an isometric, pixel-art city (arstechnica.com)

Game Design, Pixel Art, City Planning, Retro Games

8 points by YesBox 267 days ago | 0 comments

Game Designers Run Your Life (scientificamerican.com)

Game Design, Life, Artificial Intelligence, Society

23 points by gautamsomani 282 days ago | 3 comments

Baba Is You: A puzzle game where the rules are objects you can manipulate (hempuli.com)