What makes a game difficult, and what attracts different players? A look at how to ensure your game has mass appeal, and what separates casual and hardcore...

Skill themes are collections of levels which require the same player skills to beat them. They are the highest meaningful level of content in the Super Mario...

Now that we know about the existence of the evolution and expansion challenges in Nintendo games, how can we use these concepts to design coherent,...

Fill your levels using a systematic method that was originally developed by Nintendo. Learn how Super Mario World introduced a system of specific techniques...

If we want to play a game, we first need to learn the rules. But reading tutorials is boring... so how can we make sure we don't scare off the player? In...

The possibility of death in game design is often a necessary evil to give the game some stakes, but the player's death is usually not fun in itself—unless...

Making good artificial intelligence for computer opponents is difficult, but it's often difficult for the wrong reasons. What makes an AI fun, and should we...

Shovel Knight, one of the most popular indie games of the summer, does a lot of things right in its design. In this article, we'll take a look at what it can...