Gamasutra Expert Blogs: From Difficulty Curves To The Essentials Of Marketing

In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including difficulty curves, the return of the 8-bit aesthetic, and the essentials of good marketing. 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. Here are the top blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Expert Blogs - Difficulty Curves Start At Their Peak (Jon Brown) Jon Brown takes a look at difficulty curves, examining how and when games adjust difficulty to create a good experience for a player, and how balancing difficulty can go horribly wrong. - Too Big To Succeed (Alan Youngblood) Drawing several comparisons to our economy science, and more, Alan Youngblood argues that smaller teams and projects are the most able to adapt to new circumstances and find success as the industry evolves in unexpected ways. - Minecraft And The 8-Bit Revival (Ted Brown) With the growing success of Minecraft, Ted Brown breaks down the appeal of tile-based 8-bit and 16-bit games, and wonders whether the industry will see a revival of the now retro aesthetic. - It’s Not That Hard – Focus On Features (Brian Dreyer) Frustrated that most games focus on drawing inspiration from films for new content, Brian Dreyer suggests that designers focus on implementing new forms of interaction in their games rather than focusing on aesthetics and production values. - Marketing Is Creativity (Nicholas Lovell) In response to a blog post by Stew Hogarth, Nicholas Lovell examines the necessity of marketing, and explains that it is not about spending money on ad placement, but about understanding and communicating with an audience.