GDKeys

Game Design Knowledge From Our Members

Nicolas Kraj

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A vault of knowledge from the amazing members of our community: articles, videos, deep dives, secrets… This is amazing content and I can’t advise enough to check them all!

Game Development Process: Keys for a Better Pipeline

Nicolas Kraj

A solid production pipeline is often what separates great game from unpolished, delayed, or canceled ones. Here are all the keys you need to start your game on the right footing.

Live Games: How to Prepare for the Long Run

Nicolas Kraj

The industry changed drastically in the last decade, from one-shot releases to Live, game-as-a-service games. In this article, we explore what it takes to make a successful Live game, and the various pitfalls you may encounter on the way.

Interface In Game: Interview With Nicolas Kraj

Nicolas Kraj

In this interview, we discuss the difference between UX and GD, what it means to be a designer in the video game industry, and what it means to design for real players.

The Design of the Royal Game of Ur

Nicolas Kraj

What if we were to look at the design of the oldest board game in the world with our modern eyes: would the design still hold strong? What could it teach us? Join me in a dive through the History of games and the secrets of the Royal Game of Ur.

How to Answer a Game Design Test?

Nicolas Kraj

A 2 months long experiment aimed at giving you all the keys to answer game design tests and land a job in the industry! Comes with its custom GD test for you to practice on!

Design Tool: Designing an AI Decision Tree

Nicolas Kraj

How do we create and implement AI intelligence? What is the best approach? What are the important steps to follow? In this article I give you my personal approach and tools for you to achieve state of the art enemies.

AI: Keys to Believable Enemies

Nicolas Kraj

What makes an enemy feel smart and believable? In this article we detail clear, actionable ways to bring our AI to the next level without breaking the bank!

The 8 Components of Timeless Board Games

Nicolas Kraj

Bridge, Mahjong, Poker, Rummy, Belote… All these games have been an inherent part of the social fabric of our societies for centuries. What made them stand the test of time? What do they have in common? What can we learn from them?

Keys to Economic Systems

Nicolas Kraj

Currencies, sources, sinks, inflation, economic tools, currency protections, economic pillars… In this extensive “Keys to” article we tackle everything you need to know to create your very own, efficient, and self-sustaining economic systems!

A Story of Boxes, and How Players Can’t Think Outside of It

Nicolas Kraj

Games are known to be very directive, sometimes to an extreme. But even if a game was truly giving freedom to players, would they embrace it?

Introduction to Players Motivation

Nicolas Kraj

Skinner Boxes, Carrot and Stick, Bartle’s Taxonomy of Players, Self-Determination Theory, Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivations… In this article, we dig into the finesse of behavioral psychology applied to games, with one focus in mind: Player’s Motivation, and how it is the key to player engagement and retention.

Tips to Apply for a Game Designer Position

Nicolas Kraj

If you are trying to land a job as a game designer, this article will definitely help you: it goes over the biggest mistakes I have noticed in candidates as a game design recruiter in AAA companies for the past 10 years and how to avoid them.

The Organic Teaching of Exophobia: a Doors’ Story

Nicolas Kraj

In this article, we dive into the world of Organic Teaching and Mental Models to give you the first bricks of understanding on how to create powerful invisible tutorials. We will then apply this knowledge on the demo of Exophobia, one of the games of our community, that did a fabulous job at it.

How to Onboard Players

Nicolas Kraj

Making an efficient trailer, a powerful demo, or creating engaging first contact is a pretty difficult thing to do.

In this article we discuss the players’ first contact with a game and what are the 6 essential elements they need to understand as fast as possible for an efficient onboarding.

The Card Games UI Design of Fairtravel Battle

Nicolas Kraj

How to design card games User Interface? What makes the UI/UX of the best games so efficient? What can we learn from them?

In this Stream and article, we dig into the world of card battlers and redesign live the UI of Fairtravel Battle, one of the games we follow on GDKeys!

Game Design Dirty Little Secrets

Nicolas Kraj

When game designers decide to cheat too. Let’s dive into the world of hidden mechanics and rules-bending to understand how to play with our players and ultimately give them the best experience they could get!

Keys to Combat Design: Anatomy of an Attack

Nicolas Kraj

The first article on a series dedicated to combat design, dissecting what an attack is and identifying what creates rewarding, fair, and engaging fights.

Menus & HUD: the Temporality Perspective

Nicolas Kraj

A break-down article on the treatment of UI in your games through a unique personal approach: time.

Design Tool: Enemy One-Pager

Nicolas Kraj

The One-Pager I am using for years every time I am starting the design of a new enemy. I give you the template files, as well as all the details you need to know in order to build unique, meaningful enemies.

Keys to Meaningful Skill Trees

Nicolas Kraj

In this “Keys to” article, we dig into the components and theory of a good Skill Tree. Analyzing the trees themselves but also the skills they contain, and opening on uncharted design opportunities.

Keys to Rational Enemy Design

Nicolas Kraj

A very rational approach to enemy design: we will talk about player abilities, challenging specific skills, player behaviors and diversity. This article will lay down the different possibilities and questions you need to ask yourself to start a new enemy design confidently.

Design Tool: Signs & Feedback

Nicolas Kraj

In this article, I give you one of my personal tools to develop, create and iterate on a solid Signs & Feedback system. I give you the base template as well as my step-by-step methodology to make it your own.

The Unique Selling Point of Weaving Tides

Nicolas Kraj

In this game Dive-in, we are going to dissect the unique selling point of Weaving Tides, talking about 3Cs, design priorities, adding player friction, gameplay mastery and design by absence.

Keys to Efficient User Interfaces

Nicolas Kraj

In this article, I give you my thought process while designing or reviewing a game’s UI: the questions I want to answer myself, the big categories of UI and why using one instead of the other, the tests I perform to challenge it, etc. At the end of this article, you will have a base of theory as well as your first keys to design and challenge your games’ UI!

Keys to Signs & Feedback

Nicolas Kraj

In this piece, we will talk about what are Signs & Feedback, and break down the 7 categories to consider to design and iterate on your very own Signs & Feedback system, a core topic to consider and understand in video game design.

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