

Crawford On Making Balance Of Power 15
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to GameDev.net's excerpt from the new Chris Crawford On Game Design book, in which the famed strategy game creator and writer of The Art of Computer Game Design discusses the development of his classic '80s cold-war strategy game Balance Of Power, from initial concepts ("A game, like a story, must have a conflict") through execution ("Polish, polish, polish! Take a minimum of six months after alpha for polishing.")
Polish (Score:1)
6 months of improvement? (Score:3, Informative)
Here's the short, fun way:
1) Come up with great game idea
2) Draw ideas up in PowerPoint
3) Present ideas with any working demos or mockups to investors
4) Get money (PROFIT!)
5) Develop game to Alpha stage
6) Release and gauge market response
7) Continue improving game if market likes it, drop development like a hot potato if the market thinks your idea sucks
8) ???
Re:6 months of improvement? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:6 months of improvement? (Score:2)
If it tests negativly you realease the alpha as a finished product, DUH.
Blood Sweat and Tears (Score:3, Informative)
Crawford did some great stuff back when b&w bitmaps were considered state-of-the-art graphics. I remember his games fondly.
I think some of Crawford's games would do well today. I'd love to get a version of Balance of Power that would run on Mac OS X.
His advice is pretty spot on as well. Of course, on Internet Time 6 months to polish is simply not realistic. The advice is clear: a good game is simple, but not trivial to create.
Re:Blood Sweat and Tears (Score:1, Interesting)
Balance of Power didn't sell very well, but this guy writes so many articles. Why should we believe he knows what he's talking about?
Re:Blood Sweat and Tears (Score:1)
This is his company site [erasmatazz.com]. Several of the games he has written are available for download for free, and he has essays and information about the ones that aren't there.
The site also has lots of information about his latest work, which seems very interesting but so far hasn't really taken off. Not because of lack of promise, but because it's simply breaking too new ground.
As for
How do u sell 6 months of polish? (Score:1)
Wanted to love Balance of Power (Score:1)
Re:Wanted to love Balance of Power (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember that, when I played as the US, I could blow up the world by objecting to the invasion of Afghanistan (fair enough). But when I was the USSR, the US would also object if I invaded Af
Re:Wanted to love Balance of Power (Score:1)
The game builds on very simple and fundamental aspects of international diplomacy and influence, and does a very good job of it. The main reason I don't play it now is that the
I'm sorry but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'm sorry but... (Score:2)
And quite right too. I think you missed the whole point of what Balance of Power was about. If there's a nuclear war, EVERYONE LOSES.
Re:I'm sorry but... (Score:1)
And last time I watched it, War Games would also have been "essentially over" if a nuclear war had actually started