Exploration is a critical component of many games, and it can take several different forms. Some games encourage players to explore their world. What might be over that next mountain? Will I find rare resources or some beautiful new scenery? Other games want players to explore their mechanics. What happens if I choose skills two […]
I’ve been playing JRPGs for many years now. It is a great genre for those of us who like to explore and strategize. You get to discover new worlds, meet interesting characters, and customize a party of combatants to overcome various challenges. While I have seen a huge diversity of wonderfully creative combat systems, these […]
It’s common in JRPGs for players to fight dozens of the same monsters and humans. This works fine for games where you will have hundreds of battles or where grinding is required. For Alarial’s Blessing, we’re going in the opposite direction. We want each fight to feel different and engaging. One big part of that […]
Immersion is such a personal thing that it’s impossible to define one set of rules that would apply to everyone. For me, I would say a big part of immersion is staying consistent. This applies to the rules of your world or the characters themselves. As much as I love JRPGs they are frequently guilty […]
Starting a job at a video game company made me view games in a different way. It made me think about what I did like about games in general. I realized I really love games where I can interact with a lot of things and hear what different characters have to say. It’s things like […]
When I was younger, it was a given that each new video game was going to get at least two playthroughs. The number of games I owned was very small and I couldn’t buy new games whenever I wanted. Life was hard as a young gamer. As I got older, I eventually got to the […]
The Golden Rule may not be perfect, but the general idea of it is spot on. As this company grows, we want to make sure to never forget the things we love and hate as gamers ourselves. It seems like so many studios out there lose focus of this and it’s always to their long-term […]
At HexaNeph games, we strongly believe that the best video games are the most immersive ones. Many games can have great mechanics, good art, or enjoyable music. The best games, however, can pull off the ultimate magic trick: they distort time and space itself! A truly immersive game can make hours turn into minutes and […]
Video games are great. They’re a ton of fun to play and can be a cheap way to occupy your free time. They help people stay in touch with friends or even make new friends. Games are a far more interactive form of entertainment than just watching TV or movies. They keep your brain engaged […]
For my very first post, I wrote an article critiquing common design shortfalls of phone games. For this article I want to talk about how I plan to avoid each of the mistakes I listed there while making Hint. Before we get too far into this article, however, consider yourself warned that there might be […]
