3 Bit Design

Tristan and Oliver are cursed to deathlessly roam the barren plains of Mordor cultivating nemeses as they take a stab at Monolith Productions’ Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor with these three bits:

1. Into The Deep End - Discussing the game’s wide range of objectives and the visual challenges of open world design

2. I Will Take It, Personally! - Forming personal connections with NPCs through the nemesis system

3. Assassin’s Arkham - Inspiration and improvements from the Assassin’s Creed and Arkham games

Let us know what you think:

Leave us a review!3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign

Oliver - @oliverwauters

Tristan - @theatrewalker

Or email - [email protected]

Shadow of Mordor Dev Made "Some Pretty Big And Painful Cuts" - Eddie Makuch, Gamespot (article)

Postmortem: Monolith Productions' Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Game Developer Staff (article)

How the Nemesis System Creates Stories - Game Maker’s Toolkit (video essay)

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Designers Reveal How They Made the Nemesis System (Mini-Documentary) - Game Brain (video essay)

Tristan and Oliver escape to the tall grass and enjoy the breeze on the painterly trees as they break down Wishfully’s stunning Planet of Lana into these three bits:

Cinematic Influence - Nods to Ghibli and masterful cinematography from a team with a film industry background

Care for your Companion - Exploring the relationship between Lana and Mui and how it augments the gameplay

The Art of Juxtaposition - How stark contrasts in the art, music, and design work together to augment the storytelling calibre

Let us know what you think:

Leave us a review!

3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign

Oliver - @oliverwauters

Tristan - @theatrewalker

Or email - [email protected]

Some references:

‘Planet of Lana’ — Running Towards a Dream - Hafsa Hashmey, Medium (article)

Exploring the art and animation behind hand-painted odyssey Planet of Lana - Chris Kerr, Game Developer (article)

Planet of Lana | Developer Commentary Demo - Thunderful Games (video)

SGC21 - The Making of Planet of Lana - Sweden Game Arena (video interview)

Planet of Lana: Exploring the Ghibli-inspired world with game director Adam Stjärnljus - Alicia Haddick, Epic Games Store (article)

Tristan and Oliver find themselves locked in a dimly lit cabin putting their trust into talking cards, as they sacrifice Daniel Mullins’ Inscryption into these three bits:

Let us know what you think:

Leave us a review!

3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign

Oliver - @oliverwauters

Tristan - @theatrewalker

Or email - [email protected]

Some References:

Good Game Design - Inscryption: Dismantling a Genre - Snoman Gaming, video essay

Inscryption Game Designer Daniel Mullins chats with BAFTA Young Game Designers winners - Young BAFTA, video

How Inscryption Compels You With Meta Game Design ft. Daniel Mullins - The Escapist, video essay

Inscryption — How and Why - Mike Shepard, Medium (article)

How a game jam on "sacrifices" became Inscryption - Joel Couture, Game Developer (article)

How Inscryption breaks all the game design rules and prospers - GLHF, USA Today (article)

Tristan and Oliver catch each other’s drift on Summoners Rift as they break down Riot Games’s multiplayer sensation League of Legends into these three lanes:

Let us know what you think:

Leave us a review!

3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign

Oliver - @oliverwauters

Tristan - @theatrewalker

Or email - [email protected]

Some References:

Unsolved League of Legends Mysteries With Lead Designer Greg Street - Ars Technica, video interview

How Learning League of Legends Helps Me Understand Game Design - Bryant Francis, Game Developer (article)

Riot Games | Game Design Masterclass - BAFTA Guru (video)

Game Design: Every Game is an Epic Quest - Riot Games (video)

Creating League of Legends Champions: Our Production Framework Revealed - GDC talk (video)

An MDA Analysis of “League of Legends” - David Tran, Medium (article)

Design Club - League of Legends: Summoner's Rift - Level Design Analysis - Extra History (video essay)

Balancing League of Legends for Every Player, from Bronze to Bengi - Greg Street, GDC talk

Tristan and Oliver are once again joined by very special guest Ioana-Iulia Cazacu, as they open the wonderful box of wonders that is Witch Beam’s Unpacking to unpack it into these three bits:

Let us know what you think:

Leave us a review!

3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign

Oliver - @oliverwauters

Tristan - @theatrewalker

Or email - [email protected]

Some references:

Let’s Unpack That - Disegno Journal, article

The Design of "Unpacking" Broken Down by its Developers - NoClipCrew, video documentary

Unpacking | Dev Diary - Humble Games, video

'Unpacking' the design pillars of a chill puzzle game - Danielle Riendeau, Game Developer (article)

Tristan and Oliver are sure to stay sharp and pointed, as they slice through Terri Vellmann, Kitty Calis, DOSEONE and Jan Willem Nijman’s clever dodge-em-up Disc Room into these three bits:

Simple Hand-Crafted Levels - Discussing learning from prototyping and why the developers opted for curated level spawning over procedural randomness

Forgivingly Hardcore - Balancing frustration and exhilaration through alternate avenues, rapid replayability, and occasional rewarding 

One Button Variety - The abilities and the three ways the game leverages them to keep things fresh; disc variety, goal variety, and level variety

Let us know what you think:

Leave us a review!

3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign

Oliver - @oliverwauters

Tristan - @theatrewalker

Or email - [email protected]

Some references:

Designing for death and difficulty in Disc Room - Joel Couture, Game Developer (article)

Anyone could make Disc Room, but only the creators of Minit ever would - Jonathan Holmes, Destructoid (article)

Disc Room: Who knew a hard game could be so relaxing? - PC Gamer (video review)

Disc Room designer on its granular difficulty options: 'accessibility helps everyone' - Natalie Clayton, PC Gamer (article)

Designing player death: Using intention and meaning to add depth - Jay Johns, Game Developer (article)

The only guests Tristan and Oliver are joined by this time are the unwanted ones in their head, as they focus Ninja Theory’s Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice in on these three elusive bits:

The Furies - The iconic voices in your head and how audio replaces the traditional HUD in Hellblade;

Outmersive Game Design - Framing the player as an onlooker, and three Cs of the coinhabited avatar;

Lies & Deception - Unreliable narrators, the rot, and other fabrications of the mind;

Let us know what you think:

Leave us a review!

3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign

Oliver - @oliverwauters

Tristan - @theatrewalker

Or email - [email protected]

Some references:

Rotten and Possessed - Control and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice as Models of Outmersive Game Design (academic paper)

Framing Mental Health Within Digital Games: An Exploratory Case Study of Hellblade - Joseph Fordham and Christopher Ball (academic article)

“Understanding” Narrative; Applying Poetics to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice - Eoghain Meakin, Brian Vaughan, Charlie Cullen, Game Studies: International Journal of Computer Game Research (academic article)

Exploring the Mindset Behind Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice - De Daniel Kayser, Unreal Engine Blog (article)

Hellblade Development Diaries - Ninja Theory (video playlist)

Tristan and Oliver delve into the crow’s underbelly together with special guest, gameplay guru, Adam Pearce, as they harvest Acid Nerve’s Death’s Door into these three soulful bits:

A Puzzling World (aka Worldy Vibes) - Exploring the game’s unique small ghibli-esque worldbuilding, and how it blends a variety of genres

Dash & Slash - Talking all things combat; iconic bosses and how refining a limited moveset over elaborate combat depth plays to the game’s strengths

The Little Things - Highlighting some of the little unsung details and tidbits that make the game such a joy to play

Let us know what you think:

Leave us a review!

3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign

Oliver - @oliverwauters

Tristan - @theatrewalker

Or email - [email protected]

Some references:

Acid Nerve developers David Fenn and Mark Foster on making ‘Death’s Door’ - NME (article) 

Oddly Enough, Death’s Door Started With The Concept Of A Door - Well Played (article)

Death’s Door is simple yet difficult and incredibly fun all at once [Review] - GStyle Magazine (article)

Death's Door Developers Explain its Design & Philosophy | Noclip - Noclip (documentary)

Crafting Death’s Door’s intricate environments - Unity blog

Death’s Door — Inspiration Overtaken - Mike Shepard, The Medium (article)

Death’s Back Door: The Pros and Cons of Acid Nerve’s Crow-centric Reaper Simulator Death’s Door - The Gemsbok

Tristan and Oliver strap on their Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device and bask in the rays of Nintendo’s Super Mario Sunshine, refracting it into these three bits:

Swimming in Secrets - How the game drives innate player curiosity through its Shine, level, and Coin placement;

FLUDD - Breaking down the splashy mechanics provided by Mario’s unique AI sidekick;

Stages of Insanity - Diving into the platforming stages and how their punishing nature contrasts with the rest of the game.

Let us know what you think:

Leave us a review!

3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign

Oliver - @oliverwauters

Tristan - @theatrewalker

Or email - [email protected]

Some references:

Concept to Console: ‘Super Mario Sunshine’ - Reece Goodall (blog)

Super Mario Sunshine: The Mario That Should Have Been More - themancalledscott, WizardDojo (blog)

The Complex Beauty of Super Mario Sunshine - Skyehoppers (video essay)

Breaking Down Bianco Hills | A Super Mario Sunshine Deep Dive - 2CPhoenix (video essay)

Game Design | Super Mario Sunshine VS Super Mario Galaxy | How Controls Define a Game - Aggressively Medium (video essay)

Tristan and Oliver put on their comically oversized toques and tuck their legs in as they scramble for tips in Ghost Town Games’s Overcooked, finely chopping it into these three bits:

The Art of Readability - Exploring the game’s purposefully chunky art style and bold colours

Well-orchestrated Nonsense - Breaking down how the game naturally encourages cooperation through the evolving level design and mechanics

Three Star Mastery - Why Overcooked is one of the best references to date when it comes to star ratings

Let us know what you think:

Leave us a review!

3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign

Oliver - @oliverwauters

Tristan - @theatrewalker

Or email - [email protected]

Some References:

How Overcooked’s Kitchens Force You to Communicate - Game Maker’s Toolkit (video essay)

Overcooked: How Design Creates Teamwork - Abhishek Iyer, Medium (article)

Overcooked — The Other as Gameplay - Yvens Serpa, Medium (article)

Development by expo: How Ghost Town built Overcooked -  Christopher Dring, GamesIndustry.biz (article)

A Simple, Yet Effective Game Design Method - Overcooked - Pixel Soup - The Indie Game Detective (video essay)

The UX of Overcooked: From umami to unexpected design principles - HeyMilou, Medium (essay)

How overcooked thrives on simplicity? The BENEFITS of shallow gameplay - Game Design with Michael (video essay)