Reading List (August 2017) (Patreon)

Hello! Loads and loads of links for you this month, and tonnes of videos. Turns out, lots of people are making videos about games now! Eek! Better step up my game!

Tacoma

[Video] Gone Home's Indie Rebellion - GameSpot talks to Fullbright about the making of Gone Home, and how the idea evolved into Tacoma. 

Thoughts on Tacoma - Ian's got some good thoughts on Tacoma's mechanics, story, and relationship to Gone Home.

Behind the scenes of Tacoma - GamesTM interviews the developers behind Tacoma.

Here's why players can complete Tacoma by standing still - Makes sense, actually! Though, read Ian's piece to see why maybe it doesn't work from a narrative perspective. 

Sonic Mania

[Video] Shhh...I've Never Played Sonic The Hedgehog - Razbuten tackles the original Sonic the Hedgehog, just in time for Mania. 

[Video] Did Sonic Mania Get it Right? - There have been loads of Sonic Mania videos but I'm giving the nod to Dan Root. I like how he focuses on the little things, like the extra animation frames.

Hellblade

[Video] Hellblade Development Diary - Here's a reminder that there's almost 30 videos on Ninja Theory's channel, talking through the complete development process of Hellblade. A wonderful resource.

[Video] Mental Health in Video Games - Mitch takes a look at how Hellblade tackles mental health and psychosis. 

From the designers

The Process - Sean Vanaman (Walking Dead, Firewatch) sends an open letter to a fellow designer about the struggles of making something new.

Specter Knight Mobility Design - Yacht Club Games talks about how they made Specter Knight feel and move different to Shovel Knight. I finished this DLC this month, it was fun!

Déjà View: How Architecture Influences Our Favourite Game Worlds - Kotaku talks to environment artists on The Witcher, Uncharted, and Dark Souls about using real-world references.

[Video] How Firaxis saved XCOM from complete disaster - Eurogamer recaps a conversation with Jake Solomon, about how the excellent new XCOM games were almost total rubbish. Unreleased stuff from the early builds, too.

Reexamination

[Video] A Critical Reexamination of No Man's Sky - Hamish Black returns to No Man's Sky, one year after the game's (disastrous) launch. This is before the humongous new update, but still worth a watch.

[Video] RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 | Canvas Games - Hepyrian coins the term Canvas Game, to talk about games that let players express themselves creatively. I like that. 

[Video] Jalopy: Car as Companion - Chadunda introduces us to an interesting driving game that turns your crappy ol' car into a pal and makes us think about the disposability of vehicles in other games.

[Video] In Defence of Metal Gear Solid 4 - Ya boy GamingBrit makes a heartfelt tribute to the unloved MGS game. Good to see Charlie just gushing about a game he loves, again.

[Video] The Problems with Star Fox - HeavyEyed looks over the history of his favourite franchise, Star Fox, to look at the design issues that plague this series of muppet-based space shooters.

[Video] Deus Ex - It's always a good time when Errant Signal gets to go deep on a game as rich and storied as Deus Ex. Also, he gets in deep trouble with the commenters! Eek!

[Video] What Happened to Paper Mario? - Man oh man, few series have had such a sad decline as Paper Mario. Just hearing HyperBitHero talk about the majesty of Paper Mario 2 bums me out.

[Video] Scoring Ori's Ginso Tree Escape with Level Design - Mah boy Game Score Fanfare coincidentally did an Ori video just as I was doing one - and on the exact same bit! But we tackle different topics and even have different opinions on some design choices, so do watch both.

[Video] Crash: The N-Sane Trilogy - The good, the bad, and the franchise - B-Mask takes an in-depth look at the Crash remake. Funny and insightful, a delicious mix!

La Li Lu Le Lo

Even Simple Jokes are Tough to Translate - You know I love translation tidbits. And this one about a tiny joke from Bowser's Inside Story shows the challenges faced by localisers.

[Video] Final Fantasy VII: English v Japanese: Cloud Introduces Himself - Tim Rogers kicks off a series where he looks at the nuanced changes between the Japanese and English versions of FF7.

The games business

[Video] Sad State of Game Preservation - A topic near and dear to my heart. This industry is terribad at saving its own history. We're leaving preservation to the pirates, really.

[Video] Shadow of More Dollars - Jim Sterling tackles the micro-transaction controversy in the new Mordor game, and crushes the weak justifications for their existence. Go Jim, go.

[Video] How American Game Companies Avoid Paying Income Tax - Bunnyhop looks at how, well, American game companies avoid paying income tax. Good games journalism from George, as per usual.

How Pokémon Go's disastrous first fan gathering undid months of goodwill - I really enjoyed this vivid retelling of the awful Pokemon GO live event. Wow, sounds like a disaster. Also: remember Pokemon GO?! 

Design think

[Video] Roguelikes and the Modular Genre - More stuff about genres and roguelike, if you wanted more from my Soulslike video.

[Video] Zelda: The Peak of Climbing - Danny O'Dwyer takes a break from jetting around the world like the mad rockstar he is, to look at how climbing works in games. Plus, plenty of Breath of the Wild loveliness. 

[Video] The Stanley Parable, Dark Souls, and Intended Play - Dan Olson follows up his ludonarrative dissonance video from the last reading list, with one on breaking rules and intended play. 

[Video] Game AI - Funtelligence - Some more good stuff on AI, this time from Extra Credits. 

[Video] How Cover Systems Ruined Shooters - Turbo Button returns, with a look at how the cover mechanic has changed the way we murder virtual dudes. From Uncharted to Vanquish to Quantum Break, this is one extensive video. 

[Video] Analysis: The Simplest Fighting Games - Core-A Gaming, one of my favourite channels, talks about the different skill levels in fighting games and dealing with accessibility. 

The rest

[Video] What I found by watching a twenty-year-old Doom II deathmatch - Ancient Doom deathmatches can be watched now, in perfect quality, thanks to the way the games stored the replay as a series of input commands. So here's a good'un from the archives.

[Video] Lawbreakers in an oversaturated market - Crowbcat does his thing, this time giving some context to Lawbreakers's unfortunate sales flop.

Non-games

not here to make friends - A behind the scenes look at how an article is made. Specifically, an extensive exploration of the work of Charlize Theron. I dunno, I find this stuff fun, maybe you will do.

[Video] How Not To Adapt a Movie - Nerdwriter really dives deep on why the Ghost in the Shell adaptation blows chunks.

[Video] A Tribute to Punching in Movies - A punch is never just a punch. How a fist fight conveys information. Lovely stuff.

[Video] The sound illusion that makes Dunkirk so intense - Man, Dunkirk really was intense. I saw it on the biggest screen in the UK, which was neat and terrifying. Anyway, this Vox video also features Super Mario 64, which is amazing. 

[Video] The Fall of the Simpsons: How it Happened - A man with a soothing Irish voice talks to us about that oh-so-often discussed topic, why The Simpsons sucks now.