Game Design

Hideo Kojima Directed Team to Make Death Stranding 2 More Enjoyable So “more people finish the game”

Hideo Kojima has directed Kojima Productions to make Death Stranding 2: On the Beach more enjoyable and accessible to increase player completion rates. Lead level designer Hiroaki Yoshiike revealed that the team focused on streamlining the experience and making worldbuilding more optional, balancing depth with approachability. This design shift aims to broaden the game's appeal and improve player engagement compared to the original Death Stranding.

Hideo Kojima Directed Team to Make Death Stranding 2 More Enjoyable So “more people finish the game”

Hideo Kojima has directed Kojima Productions to make Death Stranding 2: On the Beach more enjoyable and accessible to increase player completion rates. Lead level designer Hiroaki Yoshiike revealed that the team focused on streamlining the experience and making worldbuilding more optional, balancing depth with approachability. This design shift aims to broaden the game's appeal and improve player engagement compared to the original Death Stranding.

SHINONOME ABYSS Dev Clarifies: It’s Not DLC, It’s a New Game

Developer KGL003 has clarified that SHINONOME ABYSS: The Maiden Exorcist is a standalone new game, not DLC for the original SHINONOME. The new title features a transformation mechanic, new enemies, items, and dungeons, offering a more action-oriented experience distinct from its predecessor.

Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned attempts to strike fear in the heart of gods

The article discusses the challenge for Borderlands developers in making players, who are already powerful, feel vulnerable. It questions how to achieve this sense of vulnerability within the game's design.

Jesper Kyd interview - ‘I am in love with video game music’

Composer Jesper Kyd discusses his lifelong passion for video game music, tracing its evolution from the early demo scene to modern orchestral and electronic scores. He emphasizes the importance of melody and originality, drawing inspiration from his formative years with the Commodore 64 and Amiga. Kyd also touches on his work across various titles like Assassin's Creed and State of Decay 3, his approach to scoring open-world games, and his thoughts on the future of music composition in the industry, including the role of AI.

Rhell: Warped Worlds and Troubled Times Review - Cracking codemancy

Rhell: Warped Worlds and Troubled Times is an indie puzzle adventure from solo developer SlugGlove, featuring over 100 million spell combinations to solve challenges in an open world. The game offers a charming, colourful presentation with witty writing and a complex rune system that blends logical precision with creative freedom. Despite some awkward controls and camera angles, its satisfying puzzles and unique mechanics make it a standout indie gem.

A Game-Changing Monetization Experience?! Ragnarok Origin Classic Is Set to Revolutionize the MMO Market in the Philippines This Time

Ragnarok Origin Classic has announced a significant update removing all paid in-game content that affects numerical growth, retaining only a limited Monthly Pass. This change aims to eliminate pay-to-win disparities and refocus on core MMO elements like exploration and teamwork. The game also features unified attributes for cosmetic items and offers generous free rewards, challenging traditional monetization practices in the Southeast Asian MMO market.

Marathon Review - Actions Have Consequences | Game Informer

Marathon is an extraction shooter that emphasizes player choice and the consequences of each run, according to Game Informer. Bungie's expertise in audio design, gunplay, and raid-like level design from Destiny contributes to a special experience, proving the studio remains at the top of its game.

ARC Raiders Developer Wants Players That Have Done Everything Else to “Have More to Do”

Embark Studios production director Caio Braga discussed challenges in keeping players engaged with ARC Raiders, particularly those who have completed existing content. The studio is focusing on impactful updates, game balance, and introducing new challenges to retain players. Nexon also promoted CEO Patrick Söderlund to executive chairman.

If Pragmata's fake New York looks AI-generated to you, good, it's meant to, but the tech itself hasn't touched the game

The game Pragmata intentionally features a distorted, AI-generated-like New York to create an uncanny feel, according to director Cho Yonghee and producer Naoto Oyama. While the developers painstakingly recreated this effect without using actual AI technology, the article discusses the broader implications of AI in game development and its potential to create unsettling results.

If Pragamta's fake New York looks AI-generated to you, good, it's meant to, but the tech itself hasn't touched the game

The game Pragmata features a New York setting intentionally designed to look AI-generated, with distorted elements and uncanny errors to convey its artificial nature. Developers meticulously incorporated mechanisms to express this AI-like feel without actually using AI technology in the game's development. This approach is discussed in the context of the broader industry's conversation around artificial intelligence in game creation.

Ed Annunziata Fire & Ice RGX 2026 Guest of Honor

MLB The Show 26 Review — Sliding Into The Same Base | Console Creatures

MLB The Show 26 offers a solid baseball simulation experience on PlayStation 5, introducing new mechanics like Bear Down Pitching and Big Zone Hitting. While the Legacy system in Road to the Show adds depth, the game suffers from a dated UI, uninspired cutscene animations, and disappointing World Baseball Classic content, making it feel like a single rather than a home run.

As Arc Raiders gets stale for some, lead dev says players "reaching the end of our content" are a top focus:…

Embark Studios production director Caio Braga acknowledges that some long-term players are reaching the current content limits of the live service game Arc Raiders. The development team is focusing on addressing player feedback regarding endgame repetition and content longevity ahead of the March 31 Flashpoint update.

A New Endgame Challenge news - The Pale Piper

The Pale Piper has received its largest update since launch, version 1.1, introducing a new endgame Gauntlet challenge designed to test player mastery of mechanics and movement. The update also adds a new NPC with a unique mechanic, initial language support for Simplified Chinese, Portuguese, and German, and announces an upcoming sale for the game.

Why a Basic Fortnite Tweet Got 5K Likes and What It Says About Gaming

A simple two-word tweet, "Fortnite (2017)", unexpectedly went viral, resonating with thousands of gamers due to nostalgia for the game's early Battle Royale days. The article explores why this minimalist post achieved high engagement, contrasting the 2017 experience with the game's current state and discussing the broader trend of social media nostalgia bombs for older games.

Donkey Kong Bananza has a big-brained approach to asset recycling

Nintendo programmer Tatsuya Kurihara detailed Donkey Kong Bananza's voxelization pipeline, which allows for the creation of destructible terrain from 3D assets. This system enables artists to efficiently reuse models, expanding their lifecycle beyond their original conception and integrating them into core gameplay. The discussion highlights a growing trend in sustainable game design through asset recycling.

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn devs "do not think of ourselves as a successor to the Mass Effect series," even if the Owlcat team "really enjoyed" and take "great inspiration" from BioWare's sci-fi RPGs

Owlcat Games' upcoming RPG, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, draws significant inspiration from BioWare's Mass Effect series, particularly Mass Effect 2's suicide mission. However, the developers emphasize that they do not consider their game a direct successor, aiming to create their own distinct identity.

The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2077 dev would've loved to playtest the original Dark Souls or Demon's Souls: "Where do you draw the line between challenge that motivates you?"

A user experience researcher from CD Projekt Red expressed a desire to have playtested the original Demon's Souls or Dark Souls to understand the balance between challenging gameplay that motivates players and frustrating difficulty. The discussion touches on the extensive internal debates FromSoftware likely had during the development of these influential titles.

"Pretend we kept patching Oblivion. What would we have done if we kept supporting it?" – Todd Howard explains the "thought exercise" Bethesda went through for its remaster

Bethesda boss Todd Howard explained the studio's thought process behind remastering The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. He described a hypothetical scenario where the team considered what features, like sprinting and adjusted skill systems, they would have added if they had continued patching the original game.