Reading List (August 2019) (Patreon)

Hello! 

Another bonkers month for me - this time, renovating a house while simultaneously hosting a massive game jam. Phew!

I’m on my holidays at the moment to close off this crazy chapter of my life and recover from the madness, and then I’m back in September for normal progress to resume! 

Top Pick

[Watch | 30 mins] The Bizarre Modern Reality of The Simpsons - Instead of wallowing in the misery of Season 30 episodes, Super Eyepatch Wolf looks at the bizarre, surreal, and surprising afterlife of Simpsons memes.

GMTK Game Jam 2019

[Watch | 10 mins] Making of LIFE IS SNOT - A number of Game Jam participants chose to document their experience. Here’s a handful I found, starting with Blackthornprod.

[Read | 5 mins] Making-of Blobby the Level Shrinker - Another from Lucas Delvallet.

[Watch | 7 mins] How I made a game in 2 Days - One from Tantan

[Read | 5 mins] Surprise Game!! TIME SKIPPY and the Joy of Game Jams - One about Time Skippy

[Read | 17 mins] The Making of Kickochet, a GMTK2019 Jam Game - Kickochet was one of the top 20 games, so this post mortem should prove useful.

[Read | CC | 1 mins] GMTK Jam - over halfway - And finally, one from Matt Glanville. 

[Read | 1 mins] How to Jam! - If you need tips for future jams, Extra Credits has you sorted. 

Playing Games

[Read | 6 mins] Live, Die, Repeat - Jordan Erica Webber looks at the games that take a Groundhog Day approach to structure, and ask you to revisit the same day over and over again.

[Read | 7 mins] Gardening games are blossoming in turbulent times - Over at The Verge, Lewis Gordon looks at the trend of peaceful games about tending to plants and flowers

[Watch | 18 mins] Nintendo's Forgotten Point and Click Adventure Series - The Gaming Brit wants us all to remember CING’s short-lived Another Code series. Not one I’ve had the pleasure of trying, myself.

[Watch | CC | 22 mins] The Decade-Long Quest For Shadow of the Colossus’ Last Secret - An intricate and fascinating breakdown of how users uncovered Team Ico’s most well-hidden secret.

[Read | 7 mins] The psychological reasons certain games feel like coming home - A brain breakdown of the feelings we get from certain video game locations. 

[Watch | 15 mins] Custom Modes in Rainbow Six Siege (And Their Potential) - Raycevick argues that custom game modes were the driving force behind Halo and Smash Bros popularity, and looks at the limited options in Rainbow Six Siege. 

[Watch | CC | 22 mins] Rage 2 and Game Feel - Errant Signal had a similar experience with RAGE 2 as me: a pointless, joyless open world that is hard to put down because the gunplay feels so good. Chris dives deeper into what that actually means.

Making Games

[Read | 12 mins] The Door Problem of Combat Design - An interesting look at how level design actually happens. 

[Watch | CC | 29 mins] Revealing the Tricks Behind Hitman's Level Design - Noclip’s got a four-part Hitman documentary out now. Other episodes look at the choreography system, and the changes to Agent 47.

[Watch | CC | 33 mins] Sandbox Assassin: The AI of Hitman - AI & Games has also got the Hitman bug this month. This one focuses, naturally, on the way the NPC artificial intelligence works. 

[Watch | 14 mins] Did Nuclear Gandhi ever really happen in Civilization? - Chris Bratt goes on a journey to find out whether a famous trivia tidbit is actually accurate. 

[Watch | CC | 27 mins] Texture Creation Tutorial and Demonstration - This is surprisingly interesting. Nerrel shows his process for updating textures for a Majora’s Mask fan remake. It looks like fun!

[Read | 18 mins] The bizarre, true story of Metal Gear Solid’s English translation - “The last time I saw Hideo Kojima, we were both naked” is one hell of a way to start an article. 

[Watch | 9 mins] Video Games Marketing 101: Launching Your Game - Okay, so you’ve made your game now. How do you actually go about launching it? Top tips from a man in the industry. 

[Read | 9 mins] The Video Game Industry Can't Go On Like This - Crunch, studio shutdowns, ballooning budgets. Where do we go from here?

Rei Tracing

[Watch | 12 mins] How much Neon Genesis Evangelion is in Metal Gear Solid? - Super Bunnyhop is the perfect man for this explanation.

[Watch | CC | 22 mins] Exploring the Strange World of Evangelion Games - And if you need more NGE after that, Hamish looks at the video game adaptations of this famous anime. 

Soundscape

[Read | 9 mins] 2019’s Best Videogame Soundtracks So Far - From the twangy ear-worm on Outer Wilds’ title screen to the throwback synthwave of Katana Zero. 

[Watch | 17 mins] What Makes Metroid Music Sound Like Metroid Music? - Oh man, now I’m humming the Kraid theme from Metroid 1.

Beyond Bytes

[Watch | CC | 12 mins] 7 Commandments of Film Editing - Some of these tips are handy for any creative work, including game development and YouTube vids.

[Watch | 13 mins] Humanity's Losing War on Litter - This channel, Ordinary Things, is a very funny look at objects you almost never take the time to think about.

[Read | 9 mins] A woman's greatest enemy? A lack of time to herself - Important read.

[Read | 9 mins] I was owed more than $5,000 from late-paying publications - As a former freelancer, I can relate to the pain of chasing payments. This woman was more proactive than me, and fought tooth and nail for her cash.

[Watch | 5 mins] The Problem Solving of Filmmaking - The director of Shazam talks about one of the many tiny problems he needed to solve when making the movie.

[Watch | 13 mins] How I Made A Documenary In A Month - Austin made a short YouTube documentary about voice mails. This video documents his process. It’s a documentary about a documentary. We’re through the looking glass, people.