Reading List (April 2019) (Patreon)

Hey Patreon people! Got a bunch of articles and videos for you. I’ve mostly been watching GDC talks (got some great research for future videos) but found time to read and recommend this lot for you.

Top Pick

[Watch | CC | 4 mins] I Drove My Childhood Favorite Racing Game In Real Life - Tom Scott rents a car in Canada and drives down the roads that inspired a forgotten Need for Speed game. A lovely little video.

Critical Hit

[Read | 8 mins] How Journals Are Bringing Humanity to Video Games - Characters like Nathan Drake and Arthur Morgan have taken to writing journals about their adventures. USGamer explores the history and importance of journaling.

[Read | 9 mins] Crazy Taxi Tycoon and the Art of Selling Out - A deep dive into this weirdo clicker game, where lefty politics and capitalistic game design butt heads. 

[Read | 2 hours] Red Dead Redemption 2: six months later - A huge critique of RDR 2’s design, by Film Crit Hulk. It touches on some of the stuff I talked about in my review, and more. Grab a drink, this one’s long.

[Watch | 1 hour] Devil May Cry 5 Review - There’s no one I trust more to tell me about DMC than The Gaming Brit. He’s over the moon with the game, and his enthusiasm is infectious. 

Design of Everyday Games

[Watch | 6 mins] Using Narrative as Context - Balancing Gameplay and Story Elements - Extra Credits talks about the contextual benefits of storytelling and setting.

[Watch | 28 mins] What Does It Mean To Player Character? - Errant Signal looks at the different ways that RPGs can have you embody a character. 

In the Trenches

[Watch | CC | 11 mins] Unboxing BOXBOY! - A Character Controller Cover - A game developer (and GMTK Patron!) learns about character movement, by cloning the 3DS game BOXBOY! Surprisingly engrossing.

[Watch | 18 mins] What I learnt by making 30+ GAMES in UNITY! - Blackthornprod looks at every game he’s made in the last 2 years, and talks about what he learned during the making of each one.

[Read | 13 mins] How Fortnite’s success led to months of intense crunch at Epic Games - While millions of kids gobble down new content for smash hit Fortnite, dozens of Epic devs are burning out with long hours.

[Read | 4 mins] Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job - See above.

Looking Back

[Read | 11 mins] Shenmue's Much-Hated Forklifts Feel Revolutionary Today - How Shenmue’s themes and plot can be tied to those bizarre forklift bits.

[Watch | 11 mins] How Cuphead was Created - Another great game creation documentary from Thomas, this time about how Cuphead bounced between various different art styles.

[Watch | CC | 12 mins] The Best Mystery Game With Teens Solving Petty Crimes - You’ll know I dig Eagle Eye Mysteries if you watched my video on detective games. So watch Pushing Up Roses do a full review of the game.

[Watch | 35 mins] We showed Peter Molyneux every game he's ever made - Molyneux is a lovely chap. I’ve interviewed him a number of times. So I enjoyed this video of him reminiscing about his old games and also a giant ceramic frog. 

[Watch | 12 mins] The Origin Of The Term Gamer - Where did the term gamer come from? Find out!

[Watch | CC | 4 mins] Why does "1UP" mean "extra life"? - Where did the term 1UP come from? Find out!

[Read | 5 mins] Ogre Battle 64 and the Cost of Revolution - There was a surprisingly interesting story hidden in this obscure N64 game.

[Watch | 6 mins] Obscure in the West, Big in Japan - Ooh this is fun. A dude plotted loads of games’ “cultural impact” in both Japan and the west. Now we can see, say, which Zelda games are loved by westerners and shunned by the Japanese, and the other way around. Spoilers: Japan loves Zelda 2?!

Art and Aesthetics

[Read | 8 mins] Exploring the vast mythology of the Persona series - I am thou, thou art I.

[Watch | CC | 11 mins] Creating a Likable Video Game Villain - Razbuten looks into the making of a likeable bad guy. Not a good bad buy, or an effective bad guy - a likeable one. 

[Read | 6 mins] The Morality of Anti-Heroes in Video Games: Why it's Fun to be the 'Bad Guy' - And then Katrina Filippidis looks at what it means to play the bad guy. 

[Watch | CC | 6 mins] How Final Fantasy defined weird JRPG fashion - The many sources that lead to Final Fantasy’s bonkers garments.

[Watch | 11 mins] Why Can You Tell Who's on the Thumbnail? - RelaxAlax talks about the importance of strong silhouettes in fighting games - especially one as fast-paced and intense as Smash Bros. 

[Watch | CC | 10 mins] The Beauty of Parallax - Parallax scrolling makes 2D worlds look deep and real. But it can also go horribly wrong, as Dan explains.

The Thrill of Play

[Read | 5 mins] No-one looks good playing VR - VR has many challenges to overcome. None as important as the fact you look like a complete berk when you play Beat Saber.

[Read | 3 mins] The Sims Freelancer Career Sucks And Also Owns, Just Like Real Life - A freelance writer reviews the work-from-home career option in The Sims.

[Read | 12 mins] Sekiro and Difficulty: Why Cheese is Far Worse than an Easy Mode - An interesting article that explores the types of difficulty adjustment that gamers do and don’t condone.

Beyond Games

[Watch | CC | 10 mins] One Marvelous Scene — Spider-Man: Homecoming - A bunch of YouTubers did videos about Marvel scenes to celebrate the release of Endgame. This one on Homecoming’s tense car ride scene is my favourite.

[Read | 9 mins] Why do so many animated films have great stories? One secret: storyboarding - Video game writers could probably learn a lot from the storyboarding processes used at Disney, Pixar, and so on.

[Read | 3 mins] Monotype launches the first redesign in 35 years of the world's most ubiquitous font, Helvetica - You know you’re a huge nerd when you enjoy reading articles about fonts.