This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics ranging from the lenticular design of Nintendo games to the (literal) autoeroticism of Robert Yang's Stick Shift. ...

"My biggest mistake was to completely think that I only need to do the business side of it, and let everything else come together by just presenting a plan and let creative talents take over." ...

"A fast follower strategy can be a viable tactic. But not when everybody else and their dog is doing it. Developers seem to be in the 'let's make a game like DotA/LoL, just a little different' mindset." ...

We talk to Zach Barth about how making educational games has made him a better game designer, and why it's so hard to make educational games in the first place. ...

"Reports are indicating that the depiction of Deen in her game may be a potential copyright infringement. The caricature of Deen is a little too close to artist Jerrod Maruyama's drawing of her." ...

As part of the GDC 2015 Independent Games Summit, 80 Days writer Meg Jayanth spoke about how stories in games are uniquely able to engage, surprise, delight and discomfit players. ...

In this classic feature, PhD researcher and game designer Lucas Blair uses academic research to formulate tips and best practices for designing your in-game achievements. ...

"After I have become skilled enough, built a name for myself and the team, had built games that lots of people played and enjoyed -- then I'll be able to monetize." ...

"If you can represent something in that format, you can design and implement a game out of it. And if you can represent anything in that format, you can make a game out of anything." ...

From character modeling to dealing with deploying on multiple platforms, this exhaustive technical postmortem gives you a look at what it took to make Dadliest Catch. ...