Reading List (May 2019) (Patreon)

Hello! Hope you've been enjoying the Patreon content for May. Here's the biggun: the reading list. Enjoy 30-odd handpicked articles and videos that I know you'll enjoy.

Top Pick

[Watch | CC | 26 mins] The Fall of 76 - The release of Fallout 76 is truly a spectacular disaster. From bugs that boot you into someone else’s character, to broken microtransaction promises, to a canvas bag debacle, this video charts the game’s apocalyptic debut.

Design of Everyday Games

[Read | 8 mins] Exploring the games that are trying to turn everyday life into a slapstick comedy - GamesRadar chats to the people behind Overcooked, I Am Bread, Job Simulator, and more to find out how to make funny games.

[Read | 17 mins] The Fight To Make Games Accessible For Everyone - A brief history of game accessibility, from grassroots movements to corporate decisions. 

[Watch | CC | 10 mins] Halo 2 Changed The Way I Look At Games - Razbuten explores the importance of providing customisation options in Halo’s multiplayer, and how that led to entirely new forms of play.

[Read | 10 mins] Designing Baba is You 's delightfully innovative rule-writing system - I’m still planning on a Baba video! For now, though, check out this interview on Gamasutra about the challenges of making a game where the rules can be broken.

[Watch | CC | 9 mins] Examining SUPERHOT's Innovative Action, Three Years On - Writing on Games returns to the shooter where time only moves when you do, to see where it succeeds and struggles.

[Watch | CC | 7 mins] Mental Health in Games - How We Can Do Better - Extra Credits explores the role games can play in talking about mental health, and shows games (like Hellblade) that have done a stand-out job.

[Watch | CC | 16 mins] The Brilliant Design of Left 4 Dead - I briefly helped Core Ideas with the structure of this video, which reveals the many design successes of Valve’s zombie co-op hit. 

Dev Cycle

[Watch | 6 mins] Breath of the Wild's Stasis Rune - Mix and Jam, my new favourite channel, recreates game mechanics and effects in Unity. Here, he’s remaking Zelda’s stasis rune. In another, he recreates Red Dead Redemption's Dead Eye.

[Watch | 13 mins] Shovel Knight is a 3D Game? Its Own Developer Explains - Probably not that surprising to any devs in the audience, but the nostalgic 2D platformer Shovel Knight is actually a 3D game, with its parallax layers existing on different 3D planes.

Audio and Aesthetics 

[Watch | 12 mins] Atmosphere and Motivic Development in Hollow Knight's Soundtrack - 8-bit Music Theory kicks off a month of Hollow Knight music analysis. First up, he dissects the City of Tears, Soul Sanctum, and Soul Master themes.

[Watch | 7 mins] This 80's Song Inspired Mario's Music - Thomas Game Docs shows off the jazz, fusion, and rock music that inspired Koji Kondo’s most iconic Mario and Zelda music. 

[Watch | CC | 10 mins] TIMING - The 12 Principles of Animation - Over at New Frame Plus, Dan’s doing a video a piece on the 12 Principles of Animation. Starting with timing, looking at how Shadow of the Colossus uses speed to convey scale.

[Watch | CC | 5 mins] Alucard's Running Animation - Dan Root closely examines the floaty run cycle of Symphony of the Night’s Alucard - does it look like a dude on a treadmill, or is it perfect for this vampiric hero?

Mining the Past

[Watch | 10 mins] Exile: The 8-Bit Metroidvania You've Never Heard Of - Only released in Europe, this ambitious game pushed the antiquated hardware of the BBC Micro to its limits to create emergent gameplay that would still impress today.

[Watch | 9 mins] Inside This Epic 1,700+ Pinball Machine Collection - Wired talks to Michael Schiess, “a pinball enthusiast who collects and repairs old machines in an effort to preserve them for future generations”.

[Read | 3 mins] 28 years later, hacker fixes rampant slowdown on SNES‘ Gradius III - A smart chap effectively puts a late-era SNES co-processor chip into the earlier Gradius III, to make it run buttery smooth.

The Biz

[Watch | 9 mins] How I got into the AAA game industry (As A Sound Designer) - He’s done sound design for Just Cause 4. Now, Waveform’s Marshall McGee shares his journey into the biz.

[Watch | 1 hour] Jonathan Blow - Preventing the Collapse of Civilization - That’s quite a title! It’s really about the concerns programmers have about code and computers… I think.

[Watch | 10 mins] Video Games Marketing 101: Marketing Plan and Campaign - Liked my video on trailers? Subscribe to this chap, who shares marketing tips in short video essays.

[Watch | CC | 1 hour] Telltale: The Human Stories Behind The Games - Noclip’s done a grand job of capturing the heartfelt reactions to Telltale’s closure, by its staff.

Culture Shock

[Read | 6 mins] Rage 2 is a fun game that makes me feel like garbage - Chris Plante talks about how his birth defect is used to signify evil mutants in Rage 2.

[Read | 2 mins] World Of Warcraft Classic Beta Players Are Reporting Bugs That Are Actually Just Features From The Past - Bringing games back from the past always presents a huge challenge: which issues to fix, and which to leave alone?

[Watch | 16 mins] Analysis: Why Button Mashing Doesn't Work - So this is why I’m so bad at fighting games.

[Read | 5 mins] So That Bloodstained Trailer Was Weird, Right? - Bloodstained made a trailer that promoted the game’s new art style… but crapped all over its old one. It was a little odd.

[Read | 4 mins] Pokémon characters have their own pea-sized region in brain, study finds - Just like how London cabbies have a drawer in the brain for “The Knowledge”, us Pokemasters have a special slot for storing Doduo, Snorlax, and Alakazam. 

Another Castle

[Watch | 24 mins] How Aladdin Changed Animation (by Screwing Over Robin Williams) - The voice sin animated films went from voice actors to, like, Patrick Stewart as a poop emoji. Lindsay Eliss shows how Aladdin (and a selfish decision by Disney) was the catalyst.

[Watch | CC | 5 mins] The Pokemon almost cut from Detective Pikachu - Mr. Mime steals the show in Detective Pikachu. But he almost didn’t make it into the movie.

[Watch | 21 mins] The Cultural Significance of Cyberpunk - Bone up before Cyberpunk 2077!

[Read | 6 mins] A supposedly great article I’ll never read the same way again - David Foster Wallace was a renowned journalist. But he’s one of many to simply make stuff up for his articles. 

[Watch | CC | 13 mins] 10 Famous Characters You Technically Own - Want to make a game (or movie) but can’t be bothered to dream up a new character? Here are 10 public domain heroes and villains you can nab.