6 Mistakes That’ll Drain the “Juice” Out Of Your Game

Juicebox Illustration by Mimi Chiu

 We game-devs love talking about “juicy games”. It’s a silly term, but players recognize "juice" intuitively: it’s a sensation that feels lively, satisfying, and well… juicy! To paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart: you know it when you see it.

Unfortunately, players are also familiar with the opposite sensation: “dry games”. Games that are slow, awkward, and stilted. If you fear your game is falling into that category, don’t panic! Here are 6 mistakes that could be draining your juice:

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Ludum Dare 47: Ants, Inc.

I just finished my second Ludum Dare Compo! I approached this jam more prepared than last time: I started with a plan, tried it, failed miserably, pivoted, pulled an all-nighter, and finally produced... Ants Inc.

📓 Sketchbook Sunday (Aug '17 - Oct '17)

I absolutely love sketchbooks. They aren't industry standard anymore, but I believe they're still one of the most important tools a game designer can use. Thinking on paper keeps me loose and helps me develop my best ideas. Plus, it's fun to stack up a huge bookshelf of my past work. That's why I thought it would be fun to share some of my sketchbooks on this blog. 

First up is a book from August to October of 2017. That was when I first started using the "sketchbook method". The entire sketchbook is devoted to the Space Squad Escape Room I built for Two Bit Circus. Take a look!

Ludum Dare 46: Ordinary Human Conversation

For the first time ever, I was brave enough to take on the Ludum Dare Compo. For those who don't know, LD is a 48-hour game jam where you have to produce your entire game solo. I fired up every program on my laptop and built... Ordinary Human Conversation. Here what I learned from each step of the process:

Global Game Jam 2020: Turkey's Revenge

It's Thanksgiving and you're a parade float. Break free from the shackles of oppression and destroy the city! Wreck as much havoc as possible before the Air Force shows up to pop you. The theme of this year's Global Game Jam was "repair", but I ended up making a game about the exact opposite of that.

This blog is back! 👶

Hello world! It's been a while. Since I last posted here, I've:

• Worked on mobile games for Zynga (2016)
• Designed educational minigames with Age of Learning (2017)
• Built two escape rooms for Two Bit Circus (2018)
• Founded an arcade gaming startup (2019)
• Been locked indoors for the last two months due to a global pandemic (2020).

It's been a wild ride. With the whole industry shaken up by Covid, my game dev career is going to look very different in 2021. I'll have a lot of skills to re-learn, and new ones to learn in the first place. So this seems like a great time to resurrect my blog, and get to work!

Welcome back.

This blog is retired 👴🏻

Hello! It's no secret that this blog hasn't been updated in quite some time. Since it's collecting dust and spiderwebs, I think I should officially call it "retired". But I'm still making games! Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or visit www.salyh.com. Thanks for playing!

Cheers,
-Mike