Distributing Skill Checks in Games

As a RPG player i love when skill checks are sometime used for a "surprise" branch (like lockpicking something that for once is not a door or a chest...) and/or you feel you've stumbled on this particular use case by accident and it's rewarded by a funny outcome or as a new side-technique. Even if it's not cRPG Zelda has very many good examples of this with items. In cRPG with active skills/spells i can think of Divinity's telekinesis or BG3/DnD's "wizard's hand". Those could be used more often with skill checks.

I'm subscribed for Sesame, but Josh's developer insight is always interesting, too

0:01 Punished Sawyer can't hold back his Phantom Pain any longer

That last little addendum is solid gold advice. So obvious, yet I never thought of it.

the man the myth the legend im always glad to see him still active

I love how yall did the start of Fallout New Vegas. Replayed it 9 times over the years and always appreciated how there was something for EVERY since skill.

If i had 50 million on my pocket, i would make it happen lol, Pillars 3 made by this guy.

Always appreciate and love these insights into the game development process!

I like your comment on context. I actually enjoy the occasion skill check that's rarely used to the point of being questionable. Gives me a counterintuitively Aha! I knew it would be useful! feeling (as long as the payoff is good or something).

Looks like you're the only one rewarding anyone for their study in metaphysics. I mean I suppose metaphysics are a reward in themselves, but thanks anyway.

Truly love these hands-on videos - thank you <3 Sounds very neat with a script tracker!

The amount of thought that is put in RPG games amaze me. I'd never think devs actually thought about these things that deep in details.

My favorite was when the geckos or the coyotes with rattlesnake parts would take off running after some damage... and they'd run toward a large hill... and they'd clip through it and keep going until they suddenly launched 1000 feet into the air only to come crashing down in some random spot. It just works

Wow, fastest I've been to one of the GOATs of industry's videos.

I would’ve like to see a round table with classic RPG designers, discussing things)

Love listening to you and Tim Caines vids ❤

I love the description 😂 Thanks for the video ❤

Hello! That's a cool cat! Would love to see stuff like this from you on Youtube more often, I can only assume the huge backlog of questions you have :) edit: Or actually, in case you would be interested in having new ones, what I personally found to be characteristic of games you worked on was that there were significantly more "factions" (or just non-aligned interests in case of Pentiment) than average. Do you have any tips on tangling them up correctly, apart from diligent tracking and a lot of writing?

love these insights into game design, thank you for sharing them

I've played F:NV since release and it's been my fav Fallout game since then. I learned about you and Chris (can he come back to the limelight already? we miss him) during the PoE Kickstarter and have valued your I/O since then. Recently, I've become a fan of Tim Cain as well, with his awesomely insightful videos he's been posting. I would like to ask, have you considered making similar videos where you share industry insights and answer questions? Would it even fit your schedule? Thank you for your work <3