Reading List (October 2022) (Patreon)

With October here and gone, that means it's time for a reading list! With the Nier video out of the way, we'll be returning to much more regular and shorter videos, but in the meantime, we've got a shotgun blast of articles all coming at the concept of time-approachable games from different angles, some hot takes on Scorn, the current game under the collective critical spotlight, and more!

Second Opinions

The Design of Neon White — Broken Down by its Developer by Noclip: Noclip caught up with the head dev behind the phenomenal Neon White and did an interview covering everything from the game’s inspirations to how it constructs its multi-path levels.

Still Thinking ‘Bout Time

As always, how games respect (or fail to respect) your time is an important topic I follow, and I'm not the only one talking about it. Here's a few other time-conscientious articles tackling the same ground I do!

Yes, Genshin Impact Controls My Life, but It’s Consensual by Ana Diaz: Diaz reviewed Genshin Impact after it’s had two years to develop, but what’s particularly notable here is the conversation about game’s incessant content grind that can a full-time job just to keep up with.

How Can Games Stay “Non-Intrusive?” Developers Weigh In by Barry Levitt: Levitt interviewed several indie developers about the challenges of making games that respect players’ time and money and don’t include onerous grind loops or microtransaction-based monetization systems.

This Early Access Space 4X Smartly Reinvents the Genre’s Early Game by Fraser Brown: Brown’s put a new 4x on my radar. The Pegasus Expedition is promising to flip the 4x genre on its head. Whereas most titles start with a blank canvas of infinite possibility that slowly gets funneled inwards to a predictable endgame, Pegasus starts with a somewhat scripted start scenario that you can then run with and branch out as you get deeper into the game.

Street Fighter 6 is a Fighting Game Newcomer’s Dream by Levi Winslow: Winslow’s impressions on the Street Fighter 6 beta position it as yet another phenomenal fighting game for folks like us without the time to overcome a steep initial learning curve, citing a robust training mode, its new powerful (and easy-to-use) drive mechanic, and wealth of in-game information that’ll spare you having to dig through a wiki to learn what abilities do what.

The Latest Hotness

Scorn was the big indie release that garnered industry-wide attention this month, proving itself incredibly divisive and prone to producing hot takes. We’ve got two essays on the game’s themes and its approach to horror.

We Scorn Friction at Our Peril by Steven Nguyen Scaife: Scaife uses the current discourse around Scorn to talk about friction in horror games, as well as highlight a few more obscure horror games that revel in their friction.

Another Corpse, Another Monument by Grace Benfell: Benfell manages to wring every last drop of thematic significance out of Scorn possible, talking about how the game relates to labor issues, the monuments left behind by dead civilizations, and numerous sci-fi stories that have come before.

Everything Else

Sometimes the Bodies Talk Back: The Mortuary Assistant by Errant Signal: Errant Signal covered supernatural horror indie The Mortuary Assistant, and did a phenomenal job selling it and why supernatural horror as a genre can be so appealing. Even just watching the video essay was properly skin crawly!

Stuck in the Mud: How a Tiny, Beloved Driving Game Sparked a Bizarre, Decade-Long Feud by Rebekah Valentine: Valentine follows the buckwild legal history of life sim trucking game Spintires, which after a decade of quiet feuding between almost everyone involved, finally burst into the open with the game getting delisted from Steam.

As It Adds New Regions, Genshin Impact’s Politics Only Get Messier by Rui Zhong: Zhong details Genshin Impact’s forays into representing foreign cultures as they introduce new regions to the game…and can’t help but notice how much less these cultures are fleshed out.

“There Has Never Been Anything Smaller Than Me:” Agent Black, Iconoclasts, and the Necessity of Grief by Aster Shen: Shen writes an elegy for one of Iconoclasts’ main villains, Agent Black, and the engrossing thematic ground her story covers.

Bayonetta 3: Voice Actors Detail Their Pay, Workload, and the Dangerous Race to the Bottom by Logan Plant: If you haven’t been keeping up with the latest in game controversies, Bayonetta 3’s launch got overshadowed by an incredibly messy tiff between the developer and the former-voice actress of the game’s protagonist. But rather than follow that drama, Plant rightly focuses on the professional environment that made this such a powder keg issue in the first place and forces most voice actors to struggle to make ends meet.

“I Want to Keep Being the First”: Hideo Kojima on Seven Years as an Independent Game Developer by Simon Parkin: Parkin sat down and had an interesting talk with Kojima about his work, including how it managed to predict recent life events for the developer himself after he got falsely dragged into the recent assassination of Shinzo Abe.

Sekiro’s Parry and Other Pursuits of Perfection by Jacob Geller: Geller went back to one of his favorite games and discussed its particular approach to “learning the dance” of a boss in action games.

How Game Designers Solved These 11 Problems by Game Maker’s Toolkit: Mark Brown went through the entire process of troubleshooting lackluster game design from start to finish with 11 anecdotes about how some of the best did it.

Why Classes Are D&D’s Best Idea by Adam Millard: Millard goes in-depth on the many positive ways that class systems improve the overall feel of a game, from helping strangers coordinate by giving clearly defined roles to making the same one set of hurdles feel personalized for different players.

Duskers and the Endless Breeds of Video Game Darkness by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell: Goes all the way back to review the phenomenal horror game, Duskers, talking all about its DOS interface, the tensely imperfect information your legion of drones provide you, and the game’s phenomenal use of darkness and audio cues. If you haven’t ever played, you should absolutely read about it and see if it might be for you!

Hotline Miami’s Ultra-Violence Has Influenced Games for a Decade by Diego Nicolas Arguello: Arguello looked back at the influence Hotline Miami has had on the industry, covering homages, stylistic and thematic influences of the medium at large, and a whole heap of developers who were inspired to start developing because of the game.

Modern Warfare 2’s Campaign is a Masterpiece, in the Worst Way by Ed Smith: Smith documented Call of Duty’s continuing propensity to regularly toe the line of actually saying something with its campaign only to obscure and bury it immediately.

Why Has Black & White Been Abandoned? by Noclip: Noclip’s latest documentary is on god game Black & White, covering both the game’s ambitious (and crunch-ridden) development as well as the game’s current copyright woes that keep it from being sold commercially.

The Lore Behind the Lore Behind the Lore of RPG Magic by Superbunnyhop: SBH went back to find the roots of the myths and beliefs behind all the stereotypical D&D-ified magic that is part and parcel of so many games today.