Nathan Savant
How Not To Need A Cutscene
In writing a novel, you’re often given advice that you must Show rather than Tell. This advice is given because if you show the objective...
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Nathan Savant
Mar 115 min
Story Beats - Mario VS The Simpsons
Frequent readers of this blog will no doubt know me for my deranged compare and contrast analyses and OH BOY AM I EVER ON ONE TODAY!! Hi...
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Nathan Savant
Jul 10, 202312 min
Foreshadowing in Tears of the Kingdom
In Breath of the Wild, we get a simple introduction to the world of Hyrule and how it is under assault by Ganon. We are told that years...
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Nathan Savant
May 11, 202313 min
Storytelling in Majora's Mask
Majora’s Mask is perhaps the most fascinating Zelda title in a series of excellent games. That’s not to say it’s better than the others,...
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Nathan Savant
Apr 11, 202318 min
Quest Design: Majora's Mask v Fallout 4
Last time I did a compare and contrast, it was Mario vs Armored Core in my unhinged attempt to pick apart the broad stroke differences...
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Nathan Savant
Nov 13, 202214 min
Rewarding Nonviolence
People talk a lot about nonviolent games. Indie devs of all kinds take it on themselves to rebel against the status quo and make the...
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Nathan Savant
Jul 19, 202218 min
Psychological Progression
Roguelike games are built on a premise of trying to reach the bottom of a dungeon (either literal or metaphorical) by building up powers,...
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Nathan Savant
Jul 6, 202216 min
Elements Of A Hero
In past blog posts I have analyzed the game mechanics of Magic the Gathering to better understand how that game tells us about its...
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Nathan Savant
Mar 22, 202220 min
Narrative Design In Elden Ring
Elden Ring is the latest in a series of extremely cryptic games from Hidetaki Miyazaki and the team at FromSoftware. Their worlds are...
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Nathan Savant
Feb 7, 202214 min
Fairy Tales and Breath of the Wild
Recently I’ve been investigating quest structures and design styles of many different open worlds in other media, which led me to do an...
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Nathan Savant
Jan 15, 202212 min
Quest Layers in Avatar The Last Airbender
After my recent explorations of quest design structure in various games, and trying to apply that to various films and tv shows, I have...
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Nathan Savant
Dec 13, 20216 min
Verb Directions in Quest Design
So a few months ago I wrote a blog post about verb directions in game design and how player abilities are interacted with in direct...
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Nathan Savant
Dec 13, 202112 min
Story Through Personal Growth
Humans are not trees. It’s a radical statement to make, I know, but try to bear with me while I explain this difficult concept! Humans,...
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Nathan Savant
Dec 13, 202111 min
Verb Directions in Game Design
A few months ago I looked at verb design in other media and as part of that blog post I briefly dipped into Magic: The Gathering, but...
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Nathan Savant
Dec 12, 202111 min
Quest Design Analysis - Mario vs Armored Core
There are days when a man must open his eyes and choose to punch the old gods in the face. There are days which demand violence. Today is...
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