Luck Manipulation
I've always been interested in the mechanics of luck in videogames, and I think it's one of the most misunderstood elements of game design. So I spent a long time researching and writing an article explaining the applications of Pseudorandomness and Luck Manipulation for game designers and players. The article is now published on Game Developer and Medium, and you can read it if you'd like.
The article focuses on explaining the history, elements, and design applications of PRNGs and luck manipulation. Here are some fun facts I discovered in my research:
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The RNG Engine in Oracle of Seasons only cycles on very specific actions like sword swipes and screen transitions
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Conway's Game Of Life and other cellular automata rulesets have been used for real PRNG cryptography stuff.
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There's at least a few people who claim to be able to control the results of their dice throws in real life
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The article also received a bit of attention on Gamasutra and I got some excellent comments giving me even more great sources and opinions on the subject.
The project also spawned a number of interesting game ideas that I explored to varying states of completion in order to fully understand the ideas:
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Diagrams and mockups used for the article to explain concepts
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A prototype of a sokoban game using Game Of Life rules as a puzzle mechanic, which eventually became "Life In Captivity"
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"Try", a Ludum Dare puzzlescript game that makes use of the narrative implications of randomness and impossible puzzles.
