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Understanding Game Genres: A Statistical Look at Popularity
A plain map of the main video game genres, how they blend together, and why claims about which genre is most popular are so hard to measure or trust.
How Games Are Made
Design and Genres
How genres, difficulty, length and AI shape games.
How Open World Games Are Designed
How designers fill large game spaces so exploring stays interesting: points of interest, landmarks, pacing, systems and the tradeoffs of scale.
Roguelikes and Roguelites Compared
How roguelikes and roguelites differ: both use randomized runs, but they split on what carries over after you lose. A plain comparison of the two.
The Evolution of FPS: A Statistical Look at First-Person Shooter Games
A careful history of the first-person shooter, from early maze games to modern titles, with the design ideas of each stage and how to read claims about the genre.
The Impact of Game Difficulty on Player Satisfaction: A Statistical Study
How difficulty is designed, why challenge can feel rewarding or frustrating, and how flow, adaptive difficulty and accessibility options fit in, without invented data.
The Impact of Game Length on Player Engagement: A Statistical Study
How designers think about game length, pacing, padding and replay value, and how to judge whether a game respects your time, without invented statistics.
The Role of AI in Gaming: A Statistical Analysis of Current Trends
How classic in-game AI works, from enemy behavior and pathfinding to state machines, and how it differs from modern machine learning, with no invented figures.
The Role of AI in Modern Gaming: A Statistical Analysis
How AI is used behind the scenes in making and running games, such as procedural generation, testing and anti-cheat, and the debates around it, with no invented data.
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