Reading List (July 2021) (Patreon)

Hello everyone! On this month’s reading list we’ve got remakes, level design, speedrunning, TikTok, and Iguanodons. Hope you dig it!

The Design of Games

[Watch | CC | 50 mins] The Making of Spiritfarer - The Escapist talks to Thunder Lotus about its “cozy management game about dying”. Covers art, narrative, design, and more.

[Watch | 13 mins] Umurangi Generation's Camera - Game director Tali Faulkner talks about designing the camera from the (IGF-winning!) photography gem Umurangi Generations.

[Read] Impossible Steam Achievement Has A Great Story - The designer of Where the Water Tastes Like Wine shares his reason to make the game’s final achievement unobtainable. Turns out, certain players ain’t happy!

[Watch | 27 mins] The level design test I did to work on Dishonored 2 - Steve Lee talks about the Half Life 2 level he made, which landed him a job at Arkane.

[Watch | CC | 16 mins] The Game Prototype That Had to Be Banned by Its Own Studio - Fruit Ninja studio Halfbrick was working on a social strategy game prototype, but rivalries and betrayals were causing chaos in-house.

[Read] Naughty Dog designer reveals how Tommy and Abby sequence was made - It’s a boss fight where you can’t kill the boss, for narrative reasons. Here’s how Naughty Dog pulled it off.

[Watch | CC | 1 hour] Demon's Souls: Remaking a PlayStation Classic - Noclip talks to Bluepoint Games about the process of reinventing a cult classic for PS5.

[Read] Failbetter Games on how to not make a DLC - Sunless Skies was going to get DLC. But then it was cancelled. Rock Paper Shotgun finds out what happened.

[Watch | 8 mins] Batman Arkham's Freeflow Combat - Mix and Jam, a channel that recreates famous game mechanics in Unity, tackles Batman’s magnetic brawling system.

The Business of Games

[Read | Long Read] Deconstructing Among Us’ TikTok Strategy - Inntersloth’s Victoria Tran explains how she used TikTok to promote Among Us. What worked, and what didn’t?

[Read] The bizarre tale of how Tom Clancy sold his name to Rainbow Six Siege - How is Tom Clancy making games, years after his death? How did a dude’s name become a video game IP?

[Read | Long Read] No cults, no politics, no ghouls: how China censors the video game world - Just like Hollywood, more and more game devs want to break into the Chinese market. But what compromises must be made to get in on the world’s biggest market?

[Read] Little warning signs for women in the workplace - An essential read given this month’s horrifying revelations about Activision Blizzard’s workplace culture. Warning signs for women, a manual of “what not to do” for men.

The Playing of Games

[Watch | 14 mins] How the Heck Do You Speedrun Crossy Road? - Randomised Frogger-like Crossy Road doesn’t lend itself naturally to speedrunning, but its actually one of the most popular games to race. Here’s how it works, and why people do it.

[Read] Why Do Gamers Love Speedrunning So Much Anyway?- But, more broadly, what’s the appeal of speedrunning in general?

[Watch | 41 mins] 15 Indie Stealth Games You Should Probably Own - From The Swindle to Aragami, sneak-obsessed YouTube channel Stealth Docs details a bunch of cheap stealth games worth playing.

[Read] Returnal and Why Games Need More Badass Middle-Aged Women - “Women in video games are either young and sexy or old and wise. But a character who’s built up the strength and confidence of experience? Sign me up.”

[Watch | CC | 16 mins] The Tranquility of Traversal - Traversal in games can be a thrilling test of speed and skill. Or, as Eurothug describes, it can be a more relaxing experience.

[Read] Object Oriented #01: Keys - A new blog series, looking at games through the lens of various objects. Starting with keys - why have they fallen out of favour?

[Read] Trying to survive GTA 5's campaign amid the absurdity of the Chaos Mod - This mod “adds 250 random effects to the game that trigger at set intervals”. PC Gamer puts up with spawning tugboats, ruthless assassins, artillery strikes, and more.

The History of Games

[Read] When the arcade came home: a short oral history of the Neo Geo - Eurogamer shares the history of the Neo Geo arcade system, and its home gaming counterpart.

[Read] A Look Back At Nintendo's Long History Of Art, Music And Game Making Software - After the launch of Game Builder Garage, NintendoLife looks at the history of creative software on Nintendo hardware, from Mario Paint to Electroplankton to Art Academy.

Beyond Games

[Watch | 15 mins] 10th Anniversary Spectacular of Introspective Narcissism - Video essay channel Errant Signal just turned 10, and his birthday video isn’t a usual celebration but a treatise on goals, winning, and success.

[Watch | 1 hour] This Crossword Theme is Out Of This World! - Ex Idle Thumbs podcast host Chris Remo has a new YouTube series where he does the New York Times crossword. Surprisingly enjoyable to watch!

[Watch | 7 mins] How Noiseless Props Are Made For Movies And TV Shows - Fascinating look at how fake props are made to avoid rustling, clinking, and other noises during dialogue scenes.

[Watch | CC | 58 mins] Iguanodon: Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong - I discovered this channel where dino-nerds explain paleontological research while roasting dumb dino toys.

[Watch | 14 mins] The Wacky World of Product Placement - An interesting video essay on how products end up in Hollywood movies, and how brands can exert influence over stories.