Designing Differences Between Weapon Types
As I said in an earlier post, one of the things I wanted for Grrbls was every possible status effect possible and then a whole bunch of new ones. And since I'm adding a jillion status effects, it also makes
An Essay On RPG Battle Mechanics Redundancy: Intensity vs Expression
When I first came up with the idea for my hardcore tactical RPG loot game over 8 years ago, my goal was to take every cool core feature from every RPG I loved and cram it into a super awesome
Why Lock Picking Sucks And Should Be Abandoned
I know I'm not alone in feeling this way, but I hate hate hate hate hate hateeeeeee lock pick systems in RPGs. There are several problems with lock picking and locked chests in RPGs and I want to go over exactly
What Makes Loot Drops So Fun And Exciting?
It might seem like a simple answer at first glance. You might assume it's like a slot machine and it's exciting when luck turns to your favour. But I think there's a lot more to exactly what makes loot drop
What Makes A Good Loot Game?
I have been a wild fanatical fan when it comes to loot based games. I know there other crazy gamers like me, and Path of Exile is a great example of extreme loot drops and randomization in an ARPG. And
Determinism Vs Randomness
Randomness is an interesting thing in games but as a designer I personally dislike it. Perhaps it's my competitive nature too but I dislike like random chance determining the outcome. I don't mind unknown elements coming in to play randomly,
An Update On The Various Rarities And Editions
The loot system in Grrbls is constantly under flux. And for good reason, it's at the heart of the entire experience. I want the player to always have that rush of excitement of finding better loot but it also has
The Joys Of Character Creation
I have a confession to make. I'm a big fan of CRPG games like Bauldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity, and Never Winter Nights and all the other games of that ilk --- but I've never beaten any of them and
Why New Loot Feels So Good
The core desire I had for Grrbls was an endless-looter. Take the best of Diablo and Borderlands and cram it into a card themed game. I've been trying to hone in on exactly what makes loot focused games so fun.
What Makes A Class A Class
I was watching a GDC talk on Pillars of Eternity and in it the speaker mentioned how they worked on allowing multi-classing and that once you start allowing up 3 classes or more things start to get really weird. I