GMTK Digest - May 2024 (Patreon)

Hello!

Welcome to the first issue of the GMTK Digest. This is my expanded and improved 'Reading List', now for the $3 tier.

So you still get a whole bunch of article and video recommendations, but now you also get the month's big industry headlines and info on the month's new games - both the major releases and some under-the-radar recommendations.

I'm still figuring out the best way to present this so please do leave any and all feedback in the comments - I'll be happy to hear what you think and see what I can improve for the future.

Mark

New releases

[Early Access] Hades II

Supergiant's super horny mythological roguelike is back for another run through the underworld. This one stars Zag's sister Melinoë who has a whole new (and super fun) witchcraft-based combat system. It'll be very familiar to Hades superfans, but now there's just oodles and oodles more stuff to see.

Animal Well

This evocative Metroidvania got a big promotional push as the first game from Dunkey's new publishing branch. And gosh darn it, my fellow YouTuber picked an absolute blinder. This game is packed to bursting with secrets and collectibles. And as you uncover its cryptic rules, the game will constantly surprise and delight you.

Crow Country

SFB Games (Snipperclips, Tangle Tower) turn back time with this PS1-flavoured survival horror game. It's got all the trappings of an ancient Resident Evil game but with an even bigger focus on puzzles. You'll be zig-zagging around a creaky ol' theme park as you unlock doors, power up machines, and find floppy disks. There's also an engaging storyline with multiple endings.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

Simogo (Year Walk, Sayonara Wild Hearts) offer a similar pitch - but, this time, there's no combat whatsoever. Instead it's all puzzles - well over a hundred cryptic riddles, mazes, and memory tests. All wrapped up in a deliciously offbeat presentation that mixes up Twin Peaks and Killer7. Come for the puzzles, stay for the vibes.

Isles of Sea and Sky

This is a staggeringly good Sokoban adventure. You'll visit different islands, solving dozens of block-pushing puzzles in each place. And each one mixes up the rules: from sliding ice fields to explosive boxes. It's expansive, full of secrets, has a pitch-perfect difficulty (for me at least), and is just the right length. It feels like a retro Zelda adventure mixed with The Witness and it ended up being my favourite game of the month.

Other notable releases this month include Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, The Rogue Prince of Persia, Indika, Paper Trail, Braid: Anniversary Edition, and a Switch remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

The headlines

Xbox shutting down four Bethesda studios

Microsoft has killed off Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse. Dishonored, Prey, and Hi-Fi Rush are all-time greats, but apparently that's not good enough for penny-pinching Xbox.

Sony reverses unpopular Helldivers 2 decision after blistering player reaction

Sony tried to get Helldivers players on Steam to sign up for PSN, and delisted the game in 117 countries (because PSN isn't available there). This caused a megaton-level review bombing campaign which forced Sony to back down.

IGN Entertainment Acquires Eurogamer, GI, VG247, Rock Paper Shotgun, and More

Because acquisitions and mergers have gone so well when it comes to game developers - let's try it with games media! The layoffs have already begun.

Images leak of Valve's next game, and it's an Overwatch-style hero shooter 

Reports (and leaked playtest screenshots) suggest that Valve's working on Deadlock - a six-v-six shooter with lanes, heroes, and abilities. Sounds like a video game!

Nintendo makes first Switch 2 announcement

A Switch follow-up is long overdue. We now know that the console will be revealed this fiscal year - which means anytime before the end of March 2025. A Nintendo Direct's coming next month, but exclusively for games for the current Switch.

Reading List

Design

[Watch | CC | 2 hours] The 100 Games That Taught Me Game Design - In case you missed it: my epic feature-length deep dive into the games that have inspired Game Maker's Toolkit.

[Watch | CC | 13 mins] A Game Designer Ranks From Software's Healing Systems - From Estus flasks to blood vials to bits of grass. Which FromSoft game has the best potion?

[Read] Why Were Older Pokemon Games More Memorable? - "Adventure games become memorable when they take players through gameplay segments/vignettes that explore the edges of the game’s design space"

[Read] Lorelei and the Laser Eyes has a tampon because people carry tampons - "The more absurd and surreal components of the game feel even stranger when presented together with these ordinary elements"

[Watch | CC | 52 mins] Why Everyone* Was Wrong About Castlevania II: Simon's Quest - "Common Gamer Knowledge: Castlevania is a masterpiece, and Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest is a disgrace of a sequel. It's hogwash".

[Read] Manor Lords and a hidden risk of early access we don't talk about - "[When] developers open that door and let people in - into what was previously a guarded and protected creative space"

[Read] Does Mario Kart's Blue Shell even work? An investigation - "The question is whether it does what it's designed to do, and what people believe it does"

Development

[Play] Game feel demo - Ex-Dead Cells developer Sébastien Benard shows off his game feel techniques in a playable demonstration. Turn on and off features like screen shake and gun recoil.

[Watch | CC | 54 mins] F.E.A.R. - The Retrospective - "Almost 20 years later, Monolith's F.E.A.R. is still considered one of the best examples of AI for video games"

[Watch | 10 mins] Critical Lessons From My 4 Years as an Indie Game Developer - O. and Co. Games talks tips learnt while making game jam games and TetherGeist.

[Watch | 1 hour, 17 mins] How to make a Video Game - Godot Beginner Tutorial - Brackeys returns to YouTube - and has ditched Unity for Godot. This is his intro to the software - also check out his GDScript Tutorial.

[Watch | 7 mins] Recreating Balatro's Game Feel - "All those hours playing Balatro were purely research! I swear!" Mix and Jam makes cards feel good in Unity.

[Read] The secrets to gaming gravity - "The gravity in Apex is about twice that of normal Earth gravity. This, combined with similarly increased jump velocities, is one trick games use that can help to make the game feel faster while still feeling within the bounds of realism."

Business

[Read] Dishonoured - "Microsoft takes the industry's layoff mania to a new, unfathomable low."

[Read] The lost Ark - "This is how franchises are born: not in boardrooms, but between the folds of brilliant creative minds."

[Read] The history of Arkane Studios - "'That's where Ultima was made, that's where Deus Ex was made, something good will happen if I go there,."

[Watch | CC | 14 mins] Helldivers 2 and the Collective Power of Steam Reviews - "The recent Arrowhead situation alongside Escape from Tarkov's aggressive "non-DLC" release has forced the hand of players to not only shout on social media, but also vote with their wallets and reviews."

[Read] Deep dive: inside Manor Lords' 2 million-selling success - "How did a (largely) solo dev title that lacks any IP or ‘name developer’ background rack up so much interest and then convert?"

[Read] Indie Game: The Movie is only 12 years old, but it feels like a relic - "The world of indie game development has changed unrecognizably since then, and the fates of the movie’s main characters since tell a thorny, sad story that doesn’t fit the filmmakers’ aspirational narrative."

Culture

[Watch | CC | 33 mins] Inside the Peculiar World of Farming Simulator eSports - "Farming Simulator has a professional eSports scene with a prize pool of Є200,000! Chris decided to find a team and follow them across Europe as they competed for a place in the World Championship."

[Watch | 2 hours] The History of Tetris World Records - Summoning Salt returns with another rollercoaster tale of speedrun records. This time, for the block-dropping super puzzler, Tetris.

[Watch | CC | 11 mins] Recompilation: An Incredible New Way to Keep N64 Games Alive - "Introducing "static recompilation," a process that turns a ROM into a native port before you can say "Kooloo Limpah"".

[Watch | CC | 42 mins] You DON'T Need a Backlog - "Enough is enough, I've had it with the backlogs! We should all retire them and make our lives shine brighter than ever before. It's time to STOP!"

[Watch | 13 mins] Where Do Skyrim's Rivers Come From? - A chap with a green screen goes up and down Skyrim's waterways to see how Bethesda made its rivers.

History

[Read] Kim Kardashian: Hollywood has an unlikely, lasting place in gaming history - The story of a breakout mobile game. I remember covering this game (and its many spin-offs) at Pocket Gamer. What a curio!

[Read] The history of Tribes, the fastest shooter in the west - "'No, don't fix this. This is going to change how I design maps from this point forward.'"

[Read] Thumb Nation: How We Learned to Play With Our Fingers - "If you want to see how much technology has changed, you need look no closer than the user experience."

[Watch | CC | 13 mins] What genre is DOOM? - If first-person shooters are DOOM clones, what's DOOM?

Beyond Games

[Watch | 8 mins] Zoomin' in Movies - A look at the different types of zoom, and why most directors don't use them (except for that one special zoom. You know the one).

[Listen] Should this creepy search engine exist? - This podcast episode about a search engine for faces is a scary look at how AI is reshaping privacy on the internet.

[Watch | CC | 18 mins] "No CGI" is really just Invisible CGI - This four-part series looks at how CGI is used in movies - and, more importantly - movie marketing.