The Nameless Quality
A game design blog by veteran designer Max Nichols. I talk about my experiences working in a variety of genres and roles, and the design of my favorite genres like RPGs and Action Adventures.
- Created by Max Nichols
- March 2011
- Free
Recent posts
August 5, 2026
A short awhile ago I was interviewed by Play Sense, a game marketing company that, on the side, has a series of interviews with folks in or around the games space with. It was a really fun chat with Sandra Mad. We touched on my own history with Zelda and game development, why this website exists,…
July 30, 2026
I present to you: a huge flowchart showing all of the confirmed (and some of the speculated) influences on the first Legend of Zelda title. And then, for good measure, 5000 years of those influences' influences. See below for a list of citations demonstrating all of these connections!
July 22, 2026
Every game has what I call a “surface area” for its gameplay systems. At a fundamental level, what we are doing when we design progression systems is deciding how we want to dole out access to that surface area as rewards. So today I want to talk about the concept of a game’s surface area, and how…
