Reading List (October 2020) (Patreon)

Hello everyone!

The clocks have turned back, the leaves have changed colour, the shops are full of Halloween and Christmas stuff. The end of the year is fast approaching. So settle down with a cup of hot chocolate and 30-odd highly recommended articles and videos, picked by yours truly.

Design of the Times

[Watch | CC | 8 mins] How to Write a Game Design Document in 2020 - PlayStation Studios designer Chris Muriel walks you through a design document. And even provides a handy template to download.

[Watch | CC | 18 mins] How Do You Design a Hub World? - Design Doc looks at the level-select areas of games such as Mario 64, Spyro, and Hades.

Critical Hit

[Watch | CC | 1 hour, 14 mins] An in-depth look at the games of Supergiant Games - NeverKnowsBest looks at Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, and Hades, to see how Supergiant's design has changed and evolved.

[Watch | 15 mins] Wildfire | A Love Letter To Stealth Games - Stealth Docs looks at the recently-released 2D immersive sim, Wildfire.

[Watch | CC | 11 mins] Size Matters - Exploring Scale in Games - Maria chats about games that play with size and scale, from the teeny tiny Chibi Robo and Moss, to the titans of Shadow of the Colossus.

[Read] Marvel's Avengers Is Fantastic Once You're Fully Powered Up - Kotaku says "Marvel’s Avengers became the game I wanted it to be, but I had to work for it."

[Watch | 52 mins] Naughty Dog's Game Design is Outdated - Nakey Jakey gives his take on The Last of Us Part II. Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain is a serious condition.

[Watch | CC | 47 mins] Death Stranding Review - I love the way Matthewmatosis calls Kojima's latest a "Noby-like" with a completely straight face.

Culture Club

[Watch | 17 mins] What is "Blaseball" and why is it taking over the Internet? - Everyone's yapping about this weirdo fantasy baseball game. Quinns from People Make Games explains all.

[Read] ‘Realistic’ Game Environments Don’t Acknowledge Disabled People - Video game spaces rarely feature cut curbs, ramps, or people with visible disabilities.

[Watch | CC | 13 mins] Can flight simulators solve the pilot shortage? - Might be handy when people starting flying to other countries again. Remember that? That was fun.

[Watch | CC | 21 mins] Art Restoration (and the Biggest Mod in Resident Evil History) - Jacob Geller asks what it means to change a game's art style.

[Watch | CC | 18 mins] What Virtual Reality Is Like For Someone Who Doesn't Play Games - Razbuten continues his informal experiment, by asking his wife to play a bunch of VR games.

[Read | Long Read] How I Infuriated A Few Hundred Final Fantasy Fourteen Fans To Death Threat Levels - A monster essay on writing about games.

[Watch | 16 mins] Hades & The Gods - Super Bunnyhop continues his exploration into Ancient Greek history, by talking about the story and themes of Hades.

Code Monkeys

[Watch | 29 mins] How Spherical Planets Bent the Rules in Super Mario Galaxy - An in-depth look at the gravity and physics engine that shaped Mario's intergalactic adventure.

[Watch | No Vocals | 49 mins] Return of the Obra Dinn - Schematic Timelapse - Lucas Pope recorded himself building Obra Dinn's ship, which results in this amazing blueprint breakdown.

History Corner

[Read] Make Love, Not War: Five Years Of 'Undertale' - NPR talks to Toby Fox (and others) about the cult classic RPG. "People need things to give them hope, and sometimes that can be games".

[Watch | CC | 17 mins] The Real Horrors of Silent Hill 3 - Maria again, this time looking at "how Silent Hill 3 plays on a lot of my fears, both conscious and subconscious."

[Watch | 1 hour, 17 mins] Yet Another Ocarina of Time Retrospective - Sure, why not.

[Watch | CC | 23 mins] Big Boxes. - Trust Ahoy to make an interesting video about cardboard boxes.

[Watch | CC | 24 mins] The Final Tour of Oakland's Video Game Museum & How We Can Save It - Oakland's video game museum "The MADE" is closing for the foreseeable future due to Covid-19. Noclip takes a tour.

Indie Nation

[Watch | CC | 5 mins] Why Among Us Took 2 Years to Take Over The World - Among Us is the hot new game of… 2018?! Why did this smash hit languish in obscurity for so long?

[Read] PC gaming is really unpredictable right now and it's fun as hell - Right now everyone's streaming a game from 2018, playing a free-to-play gacha RPG, and screaming at a VR horror game. The PC games biz is weird.

[Read] Getting Your Game Noticed (Is Very, Very Hard) - Ex-RPS man John Walker shares some top tips on getting your game noticed by busy journos.

[Read] Mike Rose on Twitter - No More Robots boss (and my old colleague) Mike Rose gives the lowdown on his Switch sales figures.

Art and Audio

[Watch | 10 mins] Why Nintendo didn't Smashify Steve (and some ways they could have!) - Minecraft's main man turned up in Smash Bros with zero change to his design. This great video shows how Nintendo could have made Steve look more, erm, Smash-y.

[Watch | 14 mins] The Combat Dialogue System of The Last of Us Part 2 - This video breaks down the audio system at play in Naughty Dog's new game, using "research and some guesswork". A classic combo.

Beyond Bytes

[Read | Long Read] The 100 Sequences That Shaped Animation - From Bugs Bunny to Miles Morales, take in a massive history lesson of animated media.

[Watch | CC | 12 mins] How Coraline Borrows from Ancient Forms of Storytelling - Coraline ignored CGI for stop-motion. That's not the only way it looked to the past for inspiration.

[Watch | 13 mins] Is There An Iraq War Genre? - World War 2 and Vietnam have clearly identifiable movie genres. What about a more modern conflict?