Gamasutra Expert Blogs: From Anti-Incest To Bad Console Ports

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including an anti-incest algorithm, signs you have a bad console port, ways to market your indie game, and why brainstorming is not game design.] In our weekly Best of Expert Blogs column, we showcase notable pieces of writing from members of the game development community who maintain Expert Blogs on Gamasutra. Member Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while the invitation-only Expert Blogs are written by development professionals with a wealth of experience to share. We hope that both sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information about the blogs, check out the latest official posting guidelines. Here are the top blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Expert Blogs Why Brainstorming is NOT Game Design (Adam Saltsman) Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman explores the role of ideas in game design, and argues that the brainstorming process should not be confused with game design. Three Ways To Market Your Indie Game (Nicholas Lovell) There is a battle royal brewing over the best way to market your indie game. GAMESbrief's Nicholas Lovell looks at the pros and cons of buzz marketing, metrics marketing, or permission marketing. Signs You Have A Bad Console Port (Josh Bycer) Cross-platform game production between consoles and computers has grown considerably in the last decade. With game development split between two different platforms, Josh Bycer looks at the bigger slip-ups designers forget for the PC version. Designing an Anti-Incest Algorithm (Lars Doucet) Brain Juice lead designer Lars Doucet describes an algorithm for detecting and preventing incestual pairings in a game about a small tribe of nomads. This algorithm could be applied towards any "virtual society" game, such as Dwarf Fortress, etc.