Postmortem: Infinite Interactive’s Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Infinite Interactive took a leap into the console market with Puzzle Quest, after years of dedicated PC focus. The much more casual title tore up the charts, due to the incredibly long period of time the company took to polish it. CEO and lead designer Steve Fawkner takes us down the path that led these hardcore veterans to casual glory.

Saving the Day: Save Systems in Games

Games are designed by designers, naturally, but they’re not designed for designers. Save systems that intentionally limit the pick up and drop enjoyment of a game unnecessarily mar the player’s experience. This case study of save systems sheds some light on what could be done better.

Saboteur: The Will to Fight

Pandemic’s upcoming title Saboteur uses dynamic color changes—from vibrant and full, to black and white film noir—to indicate the state of allied resistance in-game. It’s art as gameplay feature in this unique look at the design and technical challenges of an in-progress high profile title.

The Subversion Game: An Interview with Harvey Smith

By Brandon Sheffield

BlackSite: Area 51 began life as a rather straightforward first person shooter with aliens—then Midway Austin creative director Harvey Smith threw all that on its ear, adding a deeper story with a decidedly left-leaning political bent. In this interview, we discuss how to infuse political views into games without being heavy handed—while still making the game fun to play.