Reading List (April 2022) (Patreon)

Hello! 

Welcome to your reading list for April. This month we've got tilt-shift Elden Ring, sales number breakdowns, DIY immersive sims, and wrestling with director intent.

Enjoy! 

The Design of Games

[Watch | CC | 23 mins] How Disco Elysium Was Made After Hitting Rock Bottom - “Before attempting to make a video game, Robert first wrote a book that ended up becoming a big failure which launched him into a deep depression.”

[Read] What does your narrative system need to do? - “This is a question that comes up very frequently in the narrative design conversations. This post is a tour of some possible answers.”

[Watch | CC | 21 mins] Why Tunic Hides It's Tutorial - Adam from Architect of Games looks at the latest indie darling, Tunic, and the clever way it turns the instruction manual into a resource.

[Watch | CC | 40 mins] Mechanical Critique of Elden Ring - A little long, and a little meandering, but it has some interesting takeaways on the nuts-and-bolts of Elden Ring gameplay.

[Read] How VR games trick you into thinking objects have weight - VR grip and trigger buttons add significant physicality when holding objects. But “picking up items is one thing, throwing them accurately is another.”

The Business of Games

[Read] The 8-year process behind Playdate’s glorious crank - “From nearly day one, Panic’s portable console has been defined by a single feature hanging off its right side”.

[Read] Sales Breakdown: A Couple Pocket Months Later - As always, Yacht Club Games’s ultra-transparent breakdowns prove interesting. This one’s for puzzle-action hybrid Pocket Dungeon.

[Read] Making A Game 2022 - A not-quite-serious guide to making your own game.

The Development of Games

[Watch | 11 mins] How Mortal Kombat 2 cheats against you - Arcade games are designed to beat you. Modern Vintage Gamer breaks into the Mortal Kombat code (kode?) to find out how they did it.

[Watch | 20 mins] Can I Teach Myself Game Development by Making an Immersive Sim? - Jeremy, from Noclip, is trying his hand at game dev. Just like me, he immediately falls into the trap of analysis paralysis. Whoops!

[Read] Feature: The Story Of Affordable Space Adventures, The Wii U eShop's Best Exclusive - “With the game now reaching its 7 year anniversary, and with its imminent disappearance from the Wii U eShop in mind, we caught up with key figures behind its creation.”

[Watch | CC | 54 mins] The Making of Among Us - “Noclip talk to the developers at Innersloth about Among Us. F’rom it's humble days as a mobile party game, to the online sensation that, for a time, took over the world.”

The Playing of Games

[Watch | CC | 17 mins] A.I. Learns to Drive From Scratch - “I made an A.I. that teaches itself to drive in the racing game Trackmania, using Machine-Learning.” The clips of thousands of cars all driving at once are oddly beautiful.

[Watch | 3 mins] Gilbert Gottfried Voices Our Favorite Games - The late Gilbert Gottfried lends his dulcet tones to gaming’s most infamous vocal performances. Lost it at Super Mario 64.

[Watch | 25 mins] How Resident Evil 7 Changed Speedrunning - A love letter to the RE7 speed running community, who quickly came together to grind this game into a gooey, hour-long paste.

[Read] We Spoke to 'Let Me Solo Her,' the Elden Ring Community Hero We Need and Deserve - “It took him 242 tries to beat [spoiler] the first time. Now he's killed her nearly 400 times to help others.“

[Read] How Elden Ring's Silliest Memes Get Lost in Translation - “For players who don’t speak English as their first language, Elden Ring’s many meme-messages can be far more of a troll than they were ever intended to be.”

The Art of Games

[Watch | 14 mins] When the Music Fits the Action Perfectly - 8-bit Music Theory turns his sheet music to Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s bonkers Brawl at the Mall boss fight.

[Watch | No voice | 3 mins] Tiny Elden Ring - “Using Tilt Shift to turn Elden Ring's Land Between into a miniature world. With its tiny inhabitants waddling around going on about their lives.”

[Watch | CC | 7 mins] The Three Biggest Ideas in Animation (And How to Use Them!) - Not about games, but this simple (and gorgeous!) explainer on the basics of animation should prove useful nonetheless. Part of a series.

Beyond Games

[Watch | 15 mins] Martin Scorsese Said I Was Wrong - An interesting dissection of how we discern director (or developer?) intent in art.

[Watch | 36 mins] The Film Bro is Dead - “After almost a decade of use (and misuse) on the internet, it's time to unpack what exactly the film bro is, why he's significant, and how social media killed him.”