"It should seep in by osmosis, minimize the amount you take the player away from the gameplay," says game designer Brian Reynolds in a PCGamer feature about how devs write good flavor text in games. ...

At GDC 2018 game designer Jennifer Scheurle showcases some of her favorite examples of the ways games "trick" players, cherry-picking from the tricks and secrets she got from fellow devs. ...

Game develoer John Krajewski pens a fascinating blog post about how the creation and growth of an economy as a tool for achieving your goals forms the backbone of multiplayer play in his game Eco. ...

Vlambeer's Rami Ismail posed a fun question on Twitter this morning: "What is your favorite or most surprising "hack" solution to a game development problem you've personally used or implemented?" ...

The team is looking to offer grants of up to $20,000 to three to six designers from traditionally underrepresented groups. ...

Game dev Soren Johnson (Offworld Trading Company) writes about why it's important for game makers to understand what their work inherits from the past. ...

This week's highlights include the current fate of Michel Ancel's WiLD, a 'state of eSports' profile, Super Mario RPG archival interview goodness, & much more. ...

"Original Sin 2 was the first time where we had sufficient resources to do everything well, and even then we had to scramble," studio founder Sven Vincke told PCGamer in a new postmortem feature. ...

The museum will be hosting an exhibit that seeks to explore recent evolutions in game design innovations and their growing impact on players and communities. ...

"Fishing is probably the most common mini-game in gaming history," writes game dev Davide Aversa. "How can we classify them? Can we create something new?" ...