Reading List (June 2018) (Patreon)

Hello everybody! June was a big month - I made two videos and went on holiday. But I still found time to read and watch interesting stuff on games (and more). Here’s what I think you should sample this month. 

Top pick

[Read] Playing Videos Games With My Son Isn’t What I Thought it Would Be - A really interesting look at how creative games, such as Minecraft, have changed the way children think about games.

Creation

[Watch] How Thief’s Stealth System Almost Didn’t Work - Ars Technica talks to Paul Neurath about the troubled development of Thief’s artificially intelligent guards.

[Read] Controller Rumble - God of War designer Vince Napoli goes deep on controller rumble. “rumble can be used pretty effectively as a communication device - signalling the completion of a charge, the replenishment of a cooldown, or a critical health state”.

[Read] How Minit’s team found creativity through limitations - Minit puts huge restrictions on the player (the game resets every 60 seconds). But the four person team also faced huge limitations.

[Read] Reading in strategy games - A quick read on how strategy games display critical information. A topic I want to cover in the future.

[Read] I Never Get Tired of Learning Game Dev Tricks and Hacks - Same, Danielle. Same.

[Read] What horror game creators think about jump scares - How to effectively scare the pants off your players.

Criticism

[Watch] Why You Should Play Yakuza - I love the wild, funny, super serious, super silly Yakuza games. Here’s a good primer for why you should invest a few hundred hours into this series.

[Watch] Wolfenstein 2 - How to Fail at Level Design - A very in-depth look at a level design mistake in Wolfenstein 2.

[Watch] Mario Tennis Aces As a Fighting Game - How does the new Mario Tennis compare to the likes of Street Fighter and Smash Bros? BriHard explains

[Read] The Bad Jokes Games Rely on Are Worse Than No Humor at All - Rob Zacny reckons humour more often hurts games than helps them.

[Watch] How Metroid Fusion Creates Fear - Dan Root continues his look at atmosphere in the Metroid games, this time looking at the spooky survival gem Metroid Fusion.

[Watch] New Frame Plus - And another Dan, Daniel Floyd (the ex-squeaky voice of Extra Credits) has launched his own animation channel. Subscribe now.

Culture

[Watch] Communities are Individuals - We often think of gaming communities as monolithic, singular entities. Raycevick argues against that view.

[Watch | CC] When BioShock Was My Only Friend - NakeyJakey spins a yarn about his childhood

[Read] Ubisoft games are political, says CEO - just not the way you think - Ubisoft has always said its games are apolitical, despite their settings, imagery, and timing. Here’s the pres on the company’s wishy-washy position. 

[Read] How to Start Speedrunning Video Games - Not sure I could ever do this hobby myself. But hey, knock yourself out.

Classics

[Watch | CC] Chicken-o-meter - Ahoy looks at the weird history of health bars in games. Bring back Chicken-o-meters, I say.

[Watch | CC] The History of Bethesda Game Studios - Another huge documentary from Noclip. Check the channel for more, on stuff like quest design in Elder Scrolls and the making of the upcoming Fallout 76.

[Watch | CC] The fist non-Valve game on Steam - Chris Bratt, of Eurogamer’s Here’s a Thing, has started his own channel. Here’s his first video.

[Read] Classic Games Would Be More Fun If They Copied Mega Man’s Rewind Feature - Patrick Klepeck enjoyed this interesting feature in the new Mega Man collection. 

[Watch] Pikmin's Interactive Soundtrack - “The music throughout the Pikmin series shifts and evolves naturally to fit the moment-to-moment action on screen”. Here’s how it works. 

Other media

[Watch | CC] When the Book is Better than the Movie - Lindsay Ellis teams up with PBS for a chat about adaptations. 

[Watch] Requiem for an Editor - Requiem for a Dream needed some seriously smart editing. Here’s how it went down.

[Watch | CC] The Ideology of the First Order - Lindsay again, this time talking Star Wars

[Watch] The Problem with DC Action Scenes - They suck, basically. 

[Watch] The Trouble With Hollywood’s Gender Flips - Changing Ghostbusters and burglars into women isn’t without issue.

[Watch | CC] Abduction as Romance - Another troubling trope from the world of movies, broken down by Pop Culture Detective.

[Watch] Animation is Limitless - A love letter to a medium where imagination can run wild. Applies to games too, ultimately.

Everything else

[Read] YouTube’s top creators are burning out and breaking down en masse - I’ve certainly had my own (minor) struggles with mental health on YouTube, so I found this very interesting.

[Read] The Right Way to Respond to Negative Feedback - I’ve also had to deal with my fair share of negative feedback, so this has proven useful!

[Read] Living alone and liking it - A Bachelor pad is a pretty normal thing for a man. For a woman? Something else entirely. Really interesting look at the history, architecture, and reaction to women who live alone.