Author Archives: Kory Heath

Monkey Traps

If you put a banana in a jar, and make a hole in the side of the jar that’s big enough for a monkey’s hand but not big enough for a banana, and affix the jar to a tree in … Continue reading

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My Imperfect Children

Over the years, I’ve banged the drum quite a bit in favor of perfectionism in board game design. Whenever I do so, I try to emphasize that, while I think “perfection” is the correct target to aim at, I don’t … Continue reading

Posted in Game Design | 15 Comments

Slow Internet Day

Nobody texts you; Email’s a chore; Tinder rejects you; And Discord’s a bore. Poker’s not lawful; Twitter’s a jerk; Facebook’s awful; You might as well work. —Kory Heath (with apologies to Dorothy Parker)

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Problem-Driven Game Design

In my experience, a problem-driven approach is the only reliable generator of high-quality game designs. The more time I spend focusing on specific, well-articulated problems and questions, the more likely it is that my final design will be novel, deep, … Continue reading

Posted in Game Design | 2 Comments

Katamari vs. Peggle

Katamari Damacy is a game built around a brilliant core concept, but its overarching goal structure nearly ruins the experience for me. Here’s the brilliant part: you push around a growing ball which can grab literally any object in the … Continue reading

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Blockhouse is Now Available

Blockhouse is now available on the iTunes App Store! Give it a download and let me know what you think. I’m working on putting up some solution pages here on the website, but in the meantime, if you get stuck … Continue reading

Posted in Blockhouse, iPhone | 32 Comments

Building Blockhouse

By the time I decided that I was going to implement Blockhouse as a commercial iPhone app, the game design was already done. Tilt or swipe in one of the four cardinal directions to cause all blocks to slide as … Continue reading

Posted in Blockhouse, Game Design, iPhone | 20 Comments

Welcome

Hi, I’m Kory Heath. Welcome to my new blog! I have a few year’s worth of pent-up thoughts to share about video game and board game design. Here they come.

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