Dani Moreno

Designer. Games developer. Maker.

Latest posts from Dazlog

• Exposure

  Jan 24

  We have been led to believe that work without clicks, views, or likes is a failure. But that makes sense only if visibility is the purpose. Not learning, expression, enjoyment, or self-exploration. If visibility were the only measure, then everything created in private would be meaningless. Every draft never published. Every unpublished sketchbook. Or songs and poems made solely for the person making them. Making things changes you, even if no one watches. You don't walk away empty-handed only because an algorithm didn't pick you. Some things are worth doing just for the pleasure of doing them. Value comes from you first.

  

• Only one run

  Nov 08

  Imagine a bullet hell game. One of those games where the screen is full of enemy fire, and you have to shoot enemies while dodging their bullets. The most fun way to play would be bouncing between enemies, dodging shots, and pulling off some stylish moves along the way. But if the player discovers the best strategy is to camp in a corner and shoot enemies from there, the core fun gets wasted. Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game. – Soren Johnson, Water finds a crack I often flip on a screen when I’m bored. It rarely delights me, it’s not fun, it just an easy way to make the hours fly by. But it is the same idea as camping in a corner, and shooting enemies. It’s the most effective way. In a game, the designer can introduce things to avoid this exploit. Maybe the ammunition is limited so the player is forced to move, or there are ranged enemies that punish standing still. Heck, the designer can even kill the player and they will learn next round. The problem is that, by the time I’m dead in real life, the lesson arrives too late. There is no second chance to learn. The best I can do is track my own score and get out of the corner.

  

• Mainstream

  Oct 31

  When Red Dead Redemption II came out, I refused to play it. I was too cool to like what everyone else was raving about. I usually play indie games! Years later I played it. It became one of my favorite games. These days, I try to meet popular things with an open mind. Who am I to decide that meditating, practicing gratitude, or whatever is trending, isn’t for me without even trying? If something resonates with so many people, the least I can do is be humble enough to test it. Maybe I won’t like it, but I’d rather discover that than be “too cool” to find out.

  

• Places to inhabit

  Oct 28

  I remember as a kid how I used to roam Hogwarts, hunting for the perfect hideout, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on the original PlayStation. The game didn’t ask for one. There was no reason at all to have one. As a kid, I was treating video games as any other space: a place where you exist and hang out. I don’t play this way anymore. Because I’m an adult. Now I mostly try to make progress, to finish the game. Adults tend to play games moving from objective to objective, measuring games in percentages, rather than moments and places. We still like testing the edges of a world, but we explore to advance, not to belong. Only a kid would care about having a hideout in a game that is not designed at all to support it. So I started playing differently. We are no better than NPCs following their loops if we can’t forget about missions and actually react to what is in front of us. If I find a cozy spot, I claim it for a minute. If rain hits a tin roof just right, I stand and listen. I let myself be part of that place. Games can be places to inhabit.

  

• Unpredictable as clouds

  Oct 27

  You can stare at clouds, and most are not worth a second glance. But every so often, you spot a cloud with a shape that grabs you. You tap your friend’s shoulder and go “hey, look, that cloud looks like a thing!”. Maybe they don’t see it. Maybe they don’t care. Just as with clouds, there are millions of movies, songs, and games that we don’t talk about. Maybe, most of them are not worth caring about. When I started making things, I thought the hard part would be to figure out how to actually make something. Now I know that anyone can make basically anything they want, with enough practice. The real challenge is to make something a stranger will care about. It’s easy to have ideas. It’s hard to have good ones. And you won’t really know you have one until you tap your friend’s shoulder and make them look. Ideas are as unpredictable as clouds.