Reading List (June 2017) (Patreon)

Hello! I've got a bumper list of goodies for you this month. I ruthlessly curate this list to make sure it's stuff I can heartily recommend you read and watch, so I hope you dig in and find some new stuff to enjoy.

I'm always looking for more, so do send stuff my way. The best way to reach me is probably a Twitter DM.

Oh Hey it's Mark

[Video] Mark at Gameecon - It turns out that my Gameecon talk was recorded - on some dude's phone. So you'll have to deal with portrait view and second-hand audio. But hey, give it a watch. See me spill water down myself.

The Indiepocalypse

TumbleSeed Postmortem - This has been a bit of a depressing month for indie games. It started with Aeiowu talking about Tumbleseed's tricky launch, and its plans to fix the game's difficulty problem. (I'd call it a "fun" problem, but that might be harsh...)

Prison Architect dev Introversion reflects upon Scanner Sombre, which "bombed in a big way" - And then you've got Introversion, going from the 2 million hit Prison Architect, to 6,000 bucks on its weirdo light scatter adventure Scanner Sombre.

Your indie game will flop and you will lose money - Cliff Harris (Democracy) tried to reset expectations, talking about how most indies will never see the sort of success enjoyed by Playerunknown's Battlegrounds.

Lol we're all poor - And Robert Yang put a very different twist on the issue: appealing for developers to find other ways to measure success when it comes to game development.

"What I'm saying is: we should try to feel less shitty / embarrassed / ashamed about making no money from our personal projects -- and for our own health, some of us may need to start seeking fulfillment (and maybe rent money) in other ways."

How Games Get Made

Defining Environment Language for Video Games - Uncharted 4 designer Emilia Schatz talks about guiding the player's eye and making environments clear. Some nice development shots, and a good tip about buffer zones (which I just typo'd as "bugger zones" - a very different thing).

[Video] The sound design secrets of Horizon Zero Dawn - Patron Robin turned me on to this channel. It's full of videos focusing on the sound design behind big games - from Zelda to Halo to Dark Souls. A worthy follow.

Tom Hall: 5 key design lessons I learned directing Wolfenstein 3D - Not the most revealing post mortem, but some nice stories and tips from that other pioneering first-person shooter.

[Video] How Overwatch Animation Conveys Character in First Person - Overwatch is known for its awesome animations in poses and POTG stingers. But Dan goes a different direction, and looks at how character comes through even when you can only see a pair of hands.

[Video | CC] Final Fantasy XIV Documentary - Noclip travels to Japan to talk about the MMO that fell into development hell. 

BBT Development: Level Design - Someone gave me this in response to my Donkey Kong video. It's from The Behemoth, looking at the level design for BattleBlock Theater. Some good talk on the whole "explore the crap out of a single idea" type design.

What’s in a Box? - Miyamoto's translator man Bill Trinnen talks about the box garden Bonsais that have inspired Mario and Zelda. Cute.

[Podcast] Designer Notes - George Fan - I listened to this podcast on the plane to Prague. It was an all-around interesting chat, and encouraged me to slip an extra slide on Plants vs Zombies into my presentation.

Deep Dives 

The best video games of 2017 so far - The Guardian's got a list of games worth checking out. It's missing lots of cool stuff, if you ask me, like Yakuza 0, Snake Pass, Hollow Knight, The Sexy Brutale, Statik, Prey, and Little Nightmares. But, hey, it's a start.

[Video] Ghost in the Shell: A Gaming Overview - Ghost in the Shell has inspired a bunch of weird and interesting games. Raycevick charts the history of this license.

[Video] The Lost Soul Arts of Demon's Souls - Matthewmatosis talks about how the weird and unusual design of Demon's Souls got rounded down in the later Souls games - and not always for the better.

The Occupation is a politically-charged thriller that pits you against the clock - Here's a game to keep an eye on. A sorta Sexy Brutale-esque temporal adventure set during the 80s. I never played the team's previous game, Ether One. Any good?

[Video] Why Metroid: Zero Mission Works - Patron James has just started his video essay career. Here, he looks at remakes and Metroid. Give him a watch, and maybe some feedback!

[Video | CC] You Need To Play Dead Cells - Snoman takes a deeper look at this intriguing game and genre mash-up (roguelike! Metroidvania! Dark Souls!) that's currently bouncing around in Steam early access.

[Video] Road to the Rocket Launcher Episode 1 - Charlie from TheGamingBritShow is doing a Boss Keys-style breakdown of the game and level design in all the major Resident Evil games. We start with a look at the Spencer Mansion in Resi 1.

Eleven Flavors of Frustration - Bennett Foddy (QWOP) talks about the good side of frustration, with lots of nice examples.

"A game that is completely devoid of frustration is likely to be a game without friction, without disobedience. Games that are perfectly obedient are mere software."

[Video] Iconic Video Game Sounds Explained by Experts - Bit of a silly one. Some audio experts from around the industry talk about the design of different bleeps, bloops, and explosions. Here's part two.

[Video] The Rise and Fall of Command & Conquer - If you enjoyed my Dead Space series, you might like this Command & Conquer retrospective. Same topic (EA strangling a series to death), but with more twists, turns and a deep American voice man. 

[Video] The Art of Video Game Loading Screens - NakeyJakey is well on his way to being the next Dunkey. It's happening. Here, he goes deep on loading screens. Yes, you can go deep on loading screens.

Choices, Consequences and the Ability to Plan - An interesting thesis on how letting the player make plans (big and small) and then see their consequences play out, is integral to good games. 

Other Nonsense

[Video | CC] How fan films shaped The Lego Movie - A rad look into the homemade movies that inspired the blockbuster. Heh. Blocks. Get it. I guess they're bricks. Blocks is more of a Minecraft thing. FINE. I'm sorry.

[Video] Two Worlds Any% - Okay. Okay, hold on. This is amazing. This is the unbridled joy of systemic games. A guy finishes Two Worlds in about two minutes by, well, just watch it.