Article Archive
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Armorer Game Design Document
You after a night of drinking, the god of the forge casts his hammer down to earth inadvertently striking a mortal, the player. One thing leads to another and the player character takes on their new role as a blacksmith, equipped with a divine hammer. Increasing their skills, crafting increasingly complex armor, weapons, and tools through a set of mini-games, and managing the expanding blacksmithing responsibilitie
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Microtransactions and Subscriptions
For nearly two decades, game publishers have leaned on microtransactions, subscriptions, loot boxes, and battle passes to maximize revenue, but these models are showing their limits. Practices like locking content behind paywalls, grind-gating, and manufacturing FOMO have damaged player trust while offering inconsistent value and little permanence. With lawsuits, regulation, and growing backlash, the cracks in this system are widening. Unless publishers adapt, the era of nickel-and-diming may be nearing its end.
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Chopping Block: September 24th 2025
Alan's Automation Workshop, Ixion, and Kingdom Incremental.
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Global Climate Change is so Much Worse
Rising CO2 levels highlight the long-lasting and often irreversible impacts of greenhouse gases. Even with global emissions halted, centuries of accumulated CO2 will linger, driving climate change through wildfires, hurricanes, ecosystem collapse, and ocean degradation. Natural carbon sinks like forests and coral reefs are in steep decline, while melting glaciers and abandoned gas wells continue releasing carbon into the atmosphere. Current carbon capture efforts remain negligible compared to the scale of the problem. While daunting, growing awareness and emerging solutions suggest humanity still has opportunities to innovate against worsening climate disruption.
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Bio Inc Redemption: Resource Spawner
Bio Inc.: Redemption stands out as a deeply engaging medical simulator that dares players to wield either white coats or dark intent. Its dual-mode format, layered tactics, and adaptive challenge structure reward both fleeting play sessions and committed strategists. Graphically striking and emotionally jittery, the game thrives on contrasthealing or harming, learning or manipulating, victory or failure.
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Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim dazzles with giant robots and monster mayhem, but beneath its stylish visuals lies a crumbling foundation of logic. This critique explores the films many narrative gapsfrom the nonsensical drift technology to the underdeveloped breach strategy and baffling military responses. Despite being a love letter to the mecha genre, the film's world building and science fall apart under scrutiny. Entertaining? Absolutely. Coherent? Not so much. Del Toros vision may be grand, but it's built on shaky scientific and narrative ground.
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News Update: September 2025
IkhanGames has completed a major site update, migrating from clunky GET-based URLs to cleaner "pretty" URLs. The transition included updating links, images, and sitemaps while maintaining backward compatibility. With Google Analytics integration underway, further editor improvements and WYSIWYG upgrades are planned into 2026.
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Dark Clouds Game Design Document
Pilot a sea plane around a fantasy world. Make harrowing cargo and passenger deliveries while avoiding the hazards of the sky while maintaining your plane. Upgrade to better protect your plane or improve your own skills and abilities. Explore and learn about the world while navigating the unfriendly skies.
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They Are Billions: Critique of the Horde
They Are Billions fused RTS gameplay with steampunk and zombie apocalypse horror, earning praise for its massive on-screen hordes and technical feats. Despite its stability and mod support, the game stumbled with a punishing difficulty curve, repetitive campaign design, and weak narrative. While the art, music, and UI were strong, mechanics like kiting, a limited tech tree, and lack of mission variety hindered the experience.
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The Death of the Cybertruck
Teslas Cybertruck rollout has been plagued by setbacks, exposing deeper flaws in EV design, infrastructure, and market positioning. Despite hype, battery limitations, environmental costs, and supply chain strains undermined its promise. As Teslas first true departure from its sedan-based lineage, the Cybertruck suffered recalls, poor build quality, and an identity crisistoo eccentric for luxury buyers, yet ill-suited as a practical truck. Regulatory hurdles abroad and unsold inventory at home compound its struggles. Ultimately, the Cybertruck illustrates the pitfalls of overambitious design colliding with market realities.
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When Sharks Break Physics: Revisiting Deep Blue Sea
Deep Blue Sea (1999) is a cult-favorite shark thriller that blends horror with sci-fi. While the film impressed with strong production values, convincing VFX, and memorable performances from actors like Samuel L. Jackson and Stellan Skarsgrd, its scientific foundations are riddled with flaws. From implausible genetics and shark behavior to laughably impractical engineering at the Aquatica research station, the film is a patchwork of contrived plot devices. Yet despite its pseudo-science and plot holes, Deep Blue Sea remains an entertaining, if campy, entry in the shark-movie canon.
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Golem Mancer: Layered A.I
In developing Golem Mancer, Im experimenting with a layered enemy AI system designed to scale difficulty dynamicallyeschewing traditional stat boosts for adaptive tactics. Inspired by RTS and advanced AI in games, this approach uses multiple AI layers that share data and learn over time, with persistence increasing by difficulty. Easy AI adapts only within a stage, while medium and hard AI persist across levels or the whole game, evolving strategies to counter player habits. The goal: create enemies that feel intelligent, forcing players to continually adapt without resorting to artificial difficulty imflation.
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Chopping Block: August 11th 2025
Aperture: Desk Job, Enotria: The Last Song, and First Class Escape: Train of Thought.
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Assassin's Creed Rogue: Totem Puzzle
Assassins Creed Rogue bridges the narratives of Black Flag and Assassins Creed III, telling the story of Shay Cormacs shift from Assassin to Templar during the Seven Years War. Built on Black Flags framework, it delivers tight naval combat, engaging upgrades, and an intriguing moral twist, though it offers little innovation beyond its predecessor. The North Atlantic, River Valley, and New York provide diverse exploration, but the shorter runtime make it feel more like a refined expansion than a fully-fledged sequel.
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Assassin's Creed: Black Flag - Upgrade Pop-Up
Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag refines the series' formula by combining strong naval combat, polished stealth mechanics, and a compelling pirate narrative. Set in the vibrant 18th-century Caribbean, players follow Edward Kenways rise from privateer to pirate amidst legendary figures and sprawling sea battles. The game improves upon its predecessor with smoother tutorials, immersive sound design, and dense side content. Despite some dated systems and defunct multiplayer features, Black Flag stands outboth as an Assassins Creed entry and a standout pirate adventure.
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Assassin's Creed III - Broadside Cannon Aiming
Assassins Creed III marks the end of Desmond Miles arc and introduces players to colonial America through the intertwined stories of Haytham and Connor Kenway. While the game innovates with dynamic naval combat and refined stealth mechanics, it stumbles with clunky systems, rigid mission design, and an underwhelming conclusion to the overarching narrative. Despite its technical polish and excellent sound design, many elementslike tutorials, assassinations, and Desmonds finalefeel constrained or rushed. Still, the naval aiming system stands out, offering an intuitive mechanic worthy of deeper exploration.
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Lord of the Rings
Peter Jacksons The Fellowship of the Ring is a cinematic masterpiecebut even masterpieces arent perfect. This critical essay highlights overlooked plot contrivances in the first Lord of the Rings film, from the unquestioned plan to destroy the One Ring to the Fellowships vague route choices and the Ring wraiths lack of determination.
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The Sinking City: Lovecraft
The Sinking City is a Lovecraft-inspired horror mystery by Frogwares, following private investigator Charles Reed as he explores the flooded, monster-infested city of Oakmont. Blending detective gameplay with cosmic horror, the game features compelling storytelling, disturbing hallucinations, and a haunting atmosphere. While rich in world-building and atmosphere, it struggles with clunky combat, obscure puzzles, and tedious traversal. Despite its flaws, the game delivers a unique and unsettling experience.
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Chopping Block: June 23rd 2025
Icarus, Killer Frequency, and Madness: Project NEXUS
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News Update: June 2025
I'm shifting focus from broad game analysis to concise, code-centered content for Games.design articles. A small update regarding changes to the site Backend improvements, better tools, and SEO enhancements. Site search and organization issues were also addressed, aiming for a more efficient flow.
