Currently hanging out with Gale and Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Hey Designer,

Happy New Year and welcome to issue #10 of Signposted!

This issue is going to be a little bit different as we’ll be covering where Signposted is headed into 2024 instead of my typical analysis piece. In the best of section, I’ll be outlining some of my favorite channels/sources for game design media which I discovered in 2023.

If you enjoy Signposted please be sure to share it so more people can enjoy this content! 😁

Thanks and let’s get into it!

Bi-Weekly Analysis

Let’s talk about where this ship is sailing.

After the letter there is a quick breakdown of the most important points for anyone in a rush.

Signposted State of the Union

Hey Designer,

I wanted to take a minute to thank you for subscribing to Signposted. When I started this venture 6 months ago, I couldn’t have predicted the outpouring of support and amazing community this and my LinkedIn would bring together.

As many of you know I don’t do just blogs and Signposted, but infographics, LinkedIn carousels, and much more. Since all that content is on various platforms, I want to have one place that covers it all. That’s where the updated bi-weekly analysis section will come in. Starting with next issue it will be expanded and instead of covering only a new blog post every issue, it will cover all the content that has come out since the last issue. Don’t worry if you love the current format, there will still be blogs from time to time and the sparknote breakdowns of each piece is staying as well.

Thank you again for subscribing and being a part of this community. I look forward to continuing to serve you. 😎

Quick Takeaway:

• Thank you for Subscribing

• Signposted bi-weekly analysis is expanding

• It’s going to reference other content I make like carousels and youtube videos when they are released in addition to blogs

This Issue’s Community Question

The Best of Game Design

When I put together an issue of Signposted, there are a few sources which put out consistently fantastic work. Sometimes I need to pass on them, even though they are quite good or Signposted would be the same few sources over and over again. In this issue I’ve listed out some of those sources.

Note: I’ve avoided GDC, Game Developer, and GMTK as they are so massive, I don’t want to highlight them.

The Best of Written

Stanislav Stankovic

Stanislav’s work has appeared in a few issues of Signposted. He primarily leans into mobile and F2P games as his topic. Some of his more interesting topics have been how to make an ELO rating system and a glossary of game dev terms. But honestly he’s put so much into his writing it’s worth checking out his full library:

MY.GAMES

MY.GAMES is interesting because it’s not one person. They’re a European publisher/studio which gets the devs working for them to write about topics relating to game design. In particular I really like their level design series, a few articles which I featured last year are Answers to the level design questions you’ve always wanted to ask and Top-down shooter level design: how map design supports game mechanics. But don’t limit yourself to my recommendations, check out everything they have to offer here:

The Best of Video - Top Sources for 2023

🏆 Issue #10 Scott’s Pick 🏆 - Andrew Chambers Designing Play

By Andrew Chambers

Andrew Chambers’ channel is by far my favorite new design channel I’ve found in the last year. Not only does he go into detail about how designs work, but he takes it to the next level by having discussions with other designers in the comments. I featured his piece Enshrouded has a really interesting design mechanic a few issues back. But don’t stop there, his piece on Crafting a Billion-Dollar Extraction Shooter Game as well as the rest of his library are worth a watch when you have time:

AI and Games

By Dr Tommy Thompson

AI and Games has been up there as a favorite of mine since about the moment I started Signposted. Dr. Tommy’s work has been featured twice in previous issues, first with The Secret of Into the Breach's AI: Power in Simplicity and second Calculating Flow Fields for Rats in 'A Plague Tale'. His work has been consistently opening my eyes to trying different ways to solve AI issues in games.

BONUS Source: Masahiro Sakurai

He doesn’t need much of an introduction, but if you didn’t know, Masahiro Sakurai makes youtube videos. These range from design to team management and are wonderfully charming and informative. I’m ashamed to mention I only learned of his youtube channel a couple months back, but I’m glad I did.

The Best of Audio - Top Source for 2023

Psychology of Video Games Podcast

By Dr. Jamie Madigan

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again, this podcast made me reconsider what I knew about finding the fun in games, specifically Episode 83 - Grinding. I look forward to this podcast on a monthly basis and struggle to not simply throw it in every issue. 😅 Here's a link to all the episodes, you can't go wrong wit Dr. Jamie Madigan's work:

And that’s it for Signposted #10. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a happy new year!

Scott

If you enjoy Signposted please be sure to share it so more people can enjoy this content!