Signals and Light

Video essays analyzing game design, narrative, and media ◦ 2023 - Present

Overview

This channel is comprised of media and game analysis video and text essays. Some of it is strongly tied to my work in the game industry as a designer, but future content will regard broader cross-media and writing topics.

Game Design Analysis

A Comprehensive Overview to Creating Satisfying Game Combat

This is an article written for Alexander Brazie's GameDesignSkills.com. It provides a high-level but expansive overview of the field of combat design as it applies across many genres of games. It breaks down the responsibilities of a combat designer across topics as broad as input design, camera design, character design, ability and attack design, itemization, systems design, balancing, AI and enemy design, and hit reaction design.

Career of Combat Design

Game Design Skills

Enemy Combat Design

Combat Design - What is Enemy Attack Cadence?

The channel's first videos on game design cover the concept of "enemy attack cadence." This defines the number, frequency, and basic properties of incoming enemy attacks in action games, and the essay digs through the history and scope of how action games approach all elements of this topic through a series of pillars: Timing, Proximity, Concurrency, and Direction.

The series is currently 6 parts (one linked below; check out the channel for more.)

Defining an Enemy Attack (Enemy Combat Design II) - 2024

Animal Well - The Cost of Discovery

Status: In Progress

The next essay discusses the game Animal Well and other games like it (Outer Wilds, Antichamber, Fez, and The Witness). It breaks down some of the core design principles in these mysterious discovery-driven games in an effort to more clearly classify what sets them apart from other puzzle games.

Discovery-Driven Design

Narrative Analysis

What is "Worlds Beyond Number" Actual Play?

This video essay reviews the podcast "Worlds Beyond Number" and uses it as a lens to analyze the medium of actual play, looking at five other major shows as well (including Critical Role, Dimension 20, NADDPOD, VtM: LA By Night, and Rude Tales of Magic).

It dissects the nature of players and GMs as performers, and it features dozens of clips to properly contextualize and celebrate this amazing medium. The essay tackles topics that should be interesting for both fans of the medium and for people who might be curious about how this medium works and why so many shows can be so different from each other.

Analyzing Actual Play

What IS "Worlds Beyond Number" Actual Play? (Narrative Craft) - 2023