Reading List (October 2018) (Patreon)

Note: I failed to mention that two of the video in this Reading List - on Mario's Hair and Spider-Man 2's Web Swinging, were made by Nick Robinson: a journalist who was dismissed from Polygon due to the way he has treated women online. I'm going to keep them in and tag them clearly, but will be more careful about who I feature in upcoming reading lists. Sorry!

Hello! Welcome back to your Patron-exclusive reading list. This is 30 videos and articles that I think GMTK fans will enjoy.

Some big stuff has happened in games since the last Reading List.

Telltale Games shut down, and the studio bosses received criticism for trying to save the fate of The Walking Dead, before its own staff members. And then Rockstar said it was working 100 hour weeks to finish Red Dead Redemption 2.

So let’s start with some stories about the human cost of making videos.

Captain Crunch

[Read] Despite Resistance, Crunch Continues to Define the Video Game Industry - Variety looks at how crunch (working long hours at the end of a project) is still a big part of game development, and what can change in the future.

[Read] Devs highlight their crunch-free games following Rockstar fuss - While Rockstar bragged about 100 hour weeks, indie devs on Twitter told stories about how they made their games without working overtime.

[Read] Why Crunch Modes Doesn't Work: Six Lessons - The funny thing about crunch is, it doesn’t even work. Here, the IGDA busts the myths of working overtime to get games made.

[Watch] How Telltale Went Broke - Telltale’s downfall certainly features crunch, but there’s much more to it - as Super Bunnyhop reports.

[Read] When did we forget people - not brands - make games? - “When did the fate of corporate logos become a bigger deal than the fate of the people who crunched to make those logos mean something?” asks Eurogamer.

[Read] Games by humans - Which reminded me of this piece from 2014, about the frustrating reaction to the news of Ken Levine’s new post-Bioshock studio at 2K.

Violent Ends

[Read] Can there ever be a big-budget action game without violence? - It’s a topic I desperately want to tackle next year. For now, here’s Keith Stuart on some of the challenges and opportunities of making games with guns (and other-such tools of destruction).

[Read] Tomb Raider’s grisly death animations are outdated - Hey, I wrote this! Polygon asked me to talk about the torture porn death animations in the recent Tomb Raider games, and how they clash with other parts of the design. 

Spidey Sense

[Watch] Spider-Man PS4: Combat, Context, Legacy - Charlie from The Gaming Brit looks at the combat in the new Spider-Man game. The stuff about having Spidey get locked into combat animations, instead of just performing general attacks, is really interesting. 

Please see note above - [Watch | CC] Spider-Man 2's Web-Swing Designer Plays Spider-Man (PS4) for the First Time - Does what it says on the tin!

[Read] They made that one videogame again but this time it’s called Spider-Man - This one hits home for me. Matt Leslie argues that Spider-Man isn’t so different to every other games we’ve been playing in the last few years. I’m sure this wasn’t the most popular piece among certain circles, but I found a lot to agree with.

Post Mortem

[Read] The Making Of Hollow Knight - Team Cherry details the creation of this astounding title. 

[Read] How Yacht Club Games Created Shovel Knight's Tinker Knight Boss - And here’s some straight-from-the-devs boss breakdown stuff to get your teeth into.

[Read] Nintendo Developer Talks About The Process Behind WarioWare's Nose-Picking Game - Sometimes we break down whole games, or detailed systems, or complex levels. Sometimes we just look at a nose-picking micro game.

Design ‘Em Up

[Watch] 7 Mega Man Mechanics Keeping the Series Fresh - For the release of Mega Man 11, Skip the Tutorial looks at how this storied franchises has kept things fresh over the last three decades.

[Read] One of Breath of the Wild's most modest features is also one of its best - Spoiler alert: it’s pins. It’s a whole article about pins. And it’s great.

[Watch] How Halo 3 Builds Large-Scale AI Battles - Tommy Thompson started his AI and Games series by looking at behaviour trees in Halo 2. Now see how they were adapted for Halo 3’s epic battles.

[Watch | CC] Items Are Boring - Razbuten argues that picking up loot and other junk in open worlds needs an overhaul.

[Watch] Inside Inside's Puzzle Design - Breakdown takes notes from my puzzle design videos and applies them to some head-scratchers in Inside.

[Watch] Deus Ex - The Mission you are Supposed to Fail - I never actually realised how reactive the first mission in Human Revolution was. Really interesting analysis. You can also watch the old version of this remastered video to see how a video editor improves over time!

[Watch] Mega Microvideos - Matthewmatosis takes inspiration from WarioWare, to do a quick fire series of game reviews. 

Art and Aesthetics

[Watch] Why does Snake fight like that? - Polygon’s got a whole series of videos looking at the real life inspirations for video game fighting styles. Here, they look at CQC in Metal Gear Solid.

Please see note above - [Watch] The Problem with Mario's Hair - Really funny pastiche of Vox-style video essays, looking at a disturbing Nintendo trend. 

[Watch | CC] How The Sims Made New-Age Jazz Piano the Soundtrack of Our Lives - I love The Sims soundtrack. That is all. 

Looking Back

[Watch] The Rise and Fall of Skate - What the world needs now is Skate 4. That would solve climate change, fix economies, and heal our fractured political landscape.

[Watch] The DNA of Red Dead Redemption 2 - Red Dead will certainly be Rockstar’s biggest and most ambitious game yet (I’d bloody well hope so, with those working hours!). Gamespot looks back at how previous Rockstar games led to this point.

[Watch] Do You Remember: Brutal Legend? - I do! I didn’t really like it. So I’m glad Super Butterbuns made this video and I don’t have to go back to the game myself.

[Watch | CC] Why gamers use WASD to move - I didn’t know this! Like a lot of things in the world of FPS, this came from fans and was canonised by developers.

Beyond Games

[Watch] There is no perfect video - True dat.

[Watch | CC] Doctor Who could change how women are portrayed in sci-fi - A compelling argument about how female characters work in science fiction. 

[Watch] Disney - The Magic of Animation - KaptainKristian returns from the dead. He probably spent the first 9 months of the year rotoscoping all these Disney scenes.