Stories about game craft

Stories tagged game craft

1. 01

   Colour in game design: contrast, meaning and emotion

   What colour psychology can and cannot tell game designers, why contrast matters more than hue, and how to make coloured pieces readable for everyone.

   OutBrick Editorial Desk · 6 min read

   
2. 02

   Why we get attached to game characters, even silent ones

   Players admire, worry about and miss game characters. Research on attachment, parasocial bonds and cuteness explains why, and what designers owe players.

   OutBrick Editorial Desk · 5 min read

   
3. 03

   Loot boxes, variable rewards and ethical monetisation

   Loot box spending is consistently linked to problem gambling. What the studies show, what makes monetisation predatory, and a fair test for any game.

   OutBrick Editorial Desk · 5 min read

   
4. 04

   The sound of success: how game audio shapes player experience

   Sound changes how immersed, tense and competent players feel, and music can even bend their sense of time. What the research shows, and how to design for mute.

   OutBrick Editorial Desk · 5 min read

   
5. 05

   Game tutorials that teach without telling: what works

   A study of 45,000 players found tutorials only paid off in complex games. What research says about teaching through play, hints and the first hour.

   Mourad Hamdi · 5 min read

   
6. 06

   Dynamic difficulty adjustment: should games adapt to you?

   Many games quietly tune themselves to your skill. What studies say about adaptive difficulty, why it can leave players overconfident, and the case for asking.

   OutBrick Editorial Desk · 6 min read

   
7. 07

   How computers generate puzzle levels, and why checking matters

   Procedural generation can make endless puzzles, but a board that is merely solvable is not a good one. How generators work, and where they fall short.

   OutBrick Editorial Desk · 6 min read

   
8. 08

   Game feel and juice: why a satisfying slide matters

   Juice is the extra feedback that makes a tap feel good. Studies with thousands of players show it helps, up to a point, and then starts to hurt.

   Mourad Hamdi · 6 min read

   
9. 09

   What makes a puzzle feel fair? Difficulty, failure and trust

   Hard is not the same as unfair. What research on challenge and failure says about the puzzles players trust, and the ones they quit in frustration.

   OutBrick Editorial Desk · 6 min read

   
10. 10

    How to build a kinder difficulty curve

    Challenge should stretch the player’s attention without making the relationship with the game feel brittle.

    Mourad Hamdi · 7 min read

    
11. 11

    Tetris proves that simple rules can keep opening up

    A look at constraint, rhythm, and the endless variety inside a very small ruleset.

    Mourad Hamdi · 6 min read

    

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