Indie Game Studio Risks Bingo Game

Bingo card squares show indie game studio risks including unclear USP, excessive backstory, solo development and perfectionism

Starting and running an indie game studio is no easy feat. Over the years, we have made our own share of mistakes and always tried to turn them into learnings. Like many indie studios, we learned most of our lessons the hard way: missed deadlines, underestimated marketing, over-scoped features. This bingo is our attempt to …

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Prognosis for the future of Serious Games

Friendly red robot exploring a bright futuristic landscape with wind turbines, solar towers, and a sandy path.

Serious games—games designed for educational, training, or health purposes—have become a vital part of digital learning and development. But how accurately have predictions about their future panned out, and what’s next? The game association published five theses on the future of serious games. However, this was eight years ago. In this blog post we’ll take …

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More Than Just Fun: How games move us

Illustrated woman in a yellow scarf leaps through a city street as musical notes and sound waves surround her.

Have you ever been completely gripped by a video game? Has a game put you in a difficult situation and you still remember how you struggled to find a way out? Or maybe you’ve built up a friendship with a video game character. Games have a unique ability to evoke emotions in players that can …

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Games and Narration

Civilization VI game map showing coastal cities, farms, ships, mountains and a pyramid.

At the heart of video gaming’s uniqueness lies its interactivity. Unlike traditional media, games invite players to shape the narrative, leading to a dynamic storytelling experience. This interactivity transforms a straightforward story into a complex web of choices and consequences, embodying the idea that a game is, fundamentally, a sequence of compelling decisions. However, granting …

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Our favourite narrative Games

Cartoon game scene with masked characters in a subway, displaying the speech bubble “OUR MOTHERS TOLD US NOT TO TALK TO YOU.”

Finding a favourite thing proves to be a difficult task oftentimes, no matter the topic, and regarding videogames it might be even more difficult, because this medium is not homogenous in a bit.The utter pool of to the core different parameters that define a game, create an environment that makes even a simple comparison a …

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#OTBTplays AdvXJam 2021: Round 3 & 4

OTBTPLAYS graphic announcing AdvXJam 2021 Round 3 & 4, with Off The Beaten Track logo.

Here are the recaps of round 3 and 4 of the AdvXJam 2021! Find out more about the remaining 10 games, what made them stand out and why we liked them so much.

#OTBTplays AdvXJam 2021: Round 1 & 2

#OTBTPLAYS graphic announcing AdvXJam 2021 rounds 1 and 2.

Hello everyone! Earlier this year we played all the entries to the Adventure Jam 2021 – as you know, we are always terribly excited for narrative adventures! So we were delighted to see AdvXJam 2021 taking place, another two-week gamejam focused on narrative games. The AdvXJam 2021 was hosted by AdventureX, a UK-based convention that …

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