Gamasutra Expert Blogs: From Cloning Games To Exploding Demons

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 official posting guidelines. In this latest round-up, industry notables write about cloning in games, developing Explodemon, storyboarding, Korean social games, and game structure. Here are the top blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Expert Blogs - Game Cloning and Pay with Facebook and Why Pigs Fly (Greg Costikyan) Designer Greg Costikyan delivers not just one whammy but two, with this pair of posts outlining the longtime game development practice of cloning success, and what specific concerns surround the burgeoning social game space in particular. - On Game Structure (Adam Saltsman) What do the structures of Braid and Infamous have in common? Not much, except that they both to some extent work against the goals of their lower-level gameplay mechanics, argues frequent contributor Adam Saltsman. - Social Network Games in Korea: An Overview (Simon Lim) Korean gamers love online games! My difficulties in the current StarCraft II beta can attest to that. But game enthusiasts over there don't just spend their time forcibly entering my apparently-not-very-well-defended bases, they also love those wacky social games that are becoming so popular these days. Simon Lim explains how the Korean social game scene differs from its Western counterpart. - Bringing Down the Hairy Elephant: The Ancient Art of Storyboards (Paul Culp) You should be storyboarding your games. Paul Culp will accept no excuses for ignoring this valuable process! He explains why in detail. - The Explodemon Saga - Part Five (Jonathan Biddle) Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a London development team to raise an exploding superhero. Curve Studios' Jonathan Biddle continues his ongoing postmortem series of the company's upcoming game, discussion how the studio obtained valuable design feedback.