Game Design - Writing for ActiveTuts+

It seems my skills in having an eye for game design have paid off yet again. As you may have read, I’ve been doing  game consulting for the last few months, and it’s been going pretty well. Michael James Williams, head editor of ActiveTuts+, was looking to start a new article series on game design, and was in search of writers to take on the task. We’ve known each other for years through FlashGameLicense, wordpressging, etc, and he recently saw my post on my consulting service, and emailed me. He was specifically looking for someone to break down already released games, and for them to write articles that instruct readers on what developers did right, and what they did wrong. This was extremely close to what I was already doing with my consulting service, so he figured I was the perfect guy for the job. We talked it over through a few emails, and I willingly accepted. With that said, I’m now a published author on ActiveTuts+.

As of writing this, I’ve done two articles, one of which is published, and the other which is scheduled for release later this week. The first article I did was on Amorphous+, a game I’ve played a lot, and researched greatly during the development of Pixel Purge. I had a great time revisiting the game, and breaking it down yet again felt close to home with my consulting work. As I do with my consulting jobs, I break the game down into the following categories, Overview, Gameplay, Graphics, Audio, Conclusion, which tends to cover every design aspect of the games. All in all, I become a better game developer through analyzing the designs of great games, I improve my writing, I get more people to read my work, and I get paid, it’s a win-win-win-win situation for me.

Below is a short snippet from my article on Amourphous+. if you’re interested in reading more articles like this, check my Author Page on ActiveTuts+ now and again.

I’ve always been a fan of simple yet addictive games, especially those of the action genre. Amorphous+ is one of the most memorable browser-based web games to fit this criteria. It’s easy to pick up, quick to play, but very hard to master. There’s a lot Amorphous+ does right, a little bit it does wrong, and many things it could do better… CONTINUE READING