Today's challenge has a focus on seeing what's intuitive or frustrating about a website or app I normally use. I'll be using the budgeting app EveryDollar. To start, I want to highlight that the goals of this app is for budget tracking and seeing at a glance where your money is coming from and goingContinue reading "UX Design Challenge #1: Spot the Good and Bad"
Games for School
I provide child care for a few families in my area, and recently one of the 5th grade kids was doing homework through a game. He told me it was algebra, and it mostly looked like fractions using sides of a die. It seemed that the goal was to drag a static die to theContinue reading "Games for School"
The Shortest Look at Mechanics and Difficulty of Super Mario 64 (1996, Nintendo 64)
Super Mario 64 is one of the first video games I ever played. I remember the holiday season my brother got a Nintendo 64, along with games like Cruis'n World, GoldenEye 007, and Super Mario 64. I'm pretty sure I played on the system more than he did... The core mechanics of Super Mario 64 areContinue reading "The Shortest Look at Mechanics and Difficulty of Super Mario 64 (1996, Nintendo 64)"
Writing for tabletop RPGs
For Gen Con 2018, I was tasked with writing a guided mode for our game Apocrypha. Guided mode is very similar to any tabletop role playing game, just with the cards, and a guide leads the saints through the story by giving them omens when they take a turn (turn order is by player choice,Continue reading "Writing for tabletop RPGs"
Design Challenge: Dragon Age II Level Design Spec Sheet
I decided to do a level design challenge last month in which I had to modify a level in an existing game and here's what I came up with. The attached image is how I would present my work to a team! I wanted the bulk of it to be easy to comprehend and beContinue reading "Design Challenge: Dragon Age II Level Design Spec Sheet"
This weekend I gave a talk on tutorial design using rulebook writing techniques and tbh I've been too tired and sick to write up a post summarizing it, but have this picture of me talking with my hands about reference guides in games.
Gamification for Fitness Challenges!
One of my part-time jobs is teaching Krav Maga at a local martial arts school. I started teaching 7am classes a couple months ago because members said they would come to more classes if ones before work/school were offered. Using what I know abut game design and testing, I put together a survey to supplementContinue reading "Gamification for Fitness Challenges!"
My Meal Prep System
I love doing meal prep. It's probably one of the smartest habits you can form if you want to make a change in your diet and health, adjust your budget, and improve your time management during a busy work week. I started meal prepping because I wanted to eat healthier and I hate having toContinue reading "My Meal Prep System"
Caturday Blog
It's Saturday and it's been a very draining last few weeks. Please enjoy these pictures showing the rarely seen gamer side of my cat.
“To be useful, an item must be used.” – Francine Jay, The Joy of Less.
Something I like to think about when creating systems and content in games. This quote helps me when I'm feeling overwhelmed about all I want to do with my projects; I just need to think about the things that my players will find useful and enjoy. Don't confuse this for thinking of how games lookContinue reading "“To be useful, an item must be used.” – Francine Jay, The Joy of Less."
Aviva Schecterson 