Reading List (January 2022) (Patreon)

Hello! Welcome to the first reading list of 2022! This time we’ve got awesome accessibility, annoying auteurs, and anxiously anticipated art.

If you read or watch something online and reckon it would be perfect for the reading list, I’m always open to suggestions. @ me on the GMTK Discord (all Patrons can join!), DM me on Twitter, or use the messaging system on Patreon.

Speak soon!

The Design of Games

[Read] Accessibility was more visible than ever in 2021, but not always in a way that's helpful - “If last year was a tipping point for accessibility in games becoming visible, then this year has been a weathervane—indicating the direction developers are committing to.”

[Read] Inside the revival of social stealth games - PC Gamer talks to the devs behind SpyParty, Among Us, and more.

[Read] The story behind Days Gone and the sequel that never was - “‘The Walking Dead meets Sons of Anarchy’” – that was the original pitch for Days Gone, according to game director Jeff Ross.”

[Read] "It's a true frontier of game design": How Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games think about accessibility - “As part of our ongoing series looking at accessibility in games, we got in touch with some people working in the field for two of Sony's big first-party teams and asked them to tell us a bit about their work.”

The Business of Games

[Read] A Cheat Sheet To (Almost) Every Game Developers’ Remote Work Policies - As companies refine their long-term remote working policies, one video game artist has started tracking his industry’s efforts.

[Read] 2021, The Losses - The History of How We Play chronicles the industry members who we lost in 2021.

[Read] The Next Video Game From BioShock’s Creator Is in Development Hell - It has been nearly eight years since development began on Ken Levine’s next video game - an ambitious take on “narrative Legos”. Bloomberg finds out what’s going on.

The Development of Games

[Read | May be behind paywall] Wordle Is a Love Story - “The word game has gone from dozens of players to hundreds of thousands in a few months. Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, knew his partner loved word games, so he created a guessing game for just the two of them.”

[Watch | 11 mins] 20(22) TIPS to become a successful game developer! - Successful indie game / YouTuber Blackthornprod shares 22 tips for improving your game dev career.

The Playing of Games

[Watch | CC | 58 mins] Balan Wonderworld Is the Game of the Year | A Provocative Essay - “Follow along as we discuss what truly constitutes a platformer and jump into the simple narrative of woes and triumph that so many deemed to be unworthy”.

[Read] Polygon’s 50 most anticipated games of 2022 - From Elden Ring to an unknown indie called “Breath of the Wild 2”, here’s what we’ll be obsessing over in the next 12 months.

[Read] Weirdly, Gamers Are More Scrupulous Than Scientists - “A pair of recent cheating scandals—one in the “speedrunning” community of gamers, and one in medical research—call attention to an alarming contrast.”

The Art of Games

[Watch | CC | 10 mins] The Surprisingly Complex Music of Wii Play's Tanks! - “Check out how much variety you can get out of a few measures of music and some clever game design parameters.”

[Read] Unpacking foley design in video games - “It's often easy to pay more attention to the visuals of a game than its audio, even though the latter is arguably what truly immerses you -- especially if you have a surround sound set-up or a good pair of headphones.”

[Watch | 24 mins] The Phoenix Wright Musical Formula - Ace Attorney is packed “with tunes written to perfectly accompany and elevate our journey from nervously waiting for each trial to begin, to tearing apart the witnesses' testimony and cracking each case wide open.”

The History of Games

[Watch | CC | 1 hour, 12 mins] The History of Grand Theft Auto, Lemmings & DMA Design - This wonderful documentary from NoClip dives into the history of not just GTA, but the city where it was born.

[Read] An oral history of The Matrix video games and their bonkers alternate ending - “In the late 1990s, David Perry got a phone call from the offices of Silver Pictures. The studio wanted to send him the script for an upcoming science-fiction film, called The Matrix.”

Beyond Games

[Watch | CC | 15 mins] The Interrogation Scene — How Tarantino, Fincher and Nolan Direct Power Dynamics - “An analysis of how Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher, and Christopher Nolan direct interrogation scenes with different power dynamics.”

[Read] Fourteen Fascinating and Untranslatable Words - “There is no equivalent word in English, though the concept is simple: Sobremesa is the time you spend at the table after you’ve finished eating.”

[Watch | 34 mins] No, Superhero Movies are NOT Like Westerns - “No god damn it, superhero movies are not like Westerns, and we're gonna talk about why.”

[Watch | CC | 28 mins] CinemaSins is (Still) Terrible - “CinemaSins promotes intellectual intelligence as a substitute for emotional intelligence”.