Reading List (May 2022) (Patreon)

Hello party people! A wild Reading List appears. As always, I hope you dig this collection of articles and videos. And I’ll see you next month for more!

The Design of Games

[Read] What The Heck Is A 'MetroidBrainia'? - “The exciting bit isn't the fact that you can bypass the whole game from the beginning, though; it's in finding out that the answer was literally right in front of you the whole time”

[Watch | CC | 28 mins] How DOOM Eternal Redesigned Push Forward Combat - AI and Games presents a balanced and thoughtful look at how DOOM Eternal’s biggest strength is also its biggest weakness.

[Read] Disco Elysium Breaks The Looms Of RPGs - “In the promotional materials, Disco Elysium promises unprecedented freedom of choice. Somehow, they deliver. How did they manage to do this?”

[Watch | 55 mins] Innovating the Detective Genre in Narrative Games - I joined the likes of Lucas Pope and Tim Sheinman to talk about detective games for LudoNarraCon 2022.

[Read] Tunic developer explains how one of its best puzzles was made - “Tunic is crammed with delightful little moments – but there’s one in particular that stands out, for anyone with a sharp ear.”

[Watch | 40 mins] Revisiting the first year of dev on Satisfactory - Coffee Stain does great design-led dev diaries for Satisfactory. Check out this guided tour of the game’s earliest prototype builds.

[Read] Dark Souls’ Awful Basilisks Taught Me How To Play The Game - “They were crafty, but uncovering how to deal with them made me feel more committed and passionate about video games overall.”

The Business of Games

[Read] The worst trend in gaming is more boring than you think - “At the heart of monopolization is homogeneity.”

[Read] The Hopeful Beginning and Abrupt Shuttering of Funomena - “How the indie developer behind Wattam fell apart after years of apparent mismanagement.”

[Read] From outsourcing to storytelling: the emergence of Indonesian indies - “Perhaps less known to Western audiences, is the impact of the industry in Indonesia - despite it being the fourth most populous country in the world”.

The Development of Games

[Watch | CC | 46 mins] Minecraft World Generation Explained - Alan Zucconi breaks down the algorithms that drive Minecraft’s infinitely massive worlds.

[Read] How We Made... Art's Dream - A dev diary breakdown of Dreams’ built-in showcase of the game’s tech.

[Read] Make Your Dreams Accessible! - Media Molecule provides some handy accessibility tips for making Dreams games. Though, the advice is pretty universal.

[Watch | CC | 12 mins] Why They Broke Gran Turismo 7 - Writing on Games explores the seedy side of Sony’s new driving sim.

The Playing of Games

[Watch | CC | 27 mins] How Call of Duty turned war into a circus - Call of Duty started life as an unflinching depiction of World War 2. Now, Godzilla’s just been added to the Warzone. Polygon asks ‘how did we get here?’.

[Read] Shenmue's harbour is everything that makes the game so special - Eurogamer’s done a whole week of articles on video game cities. Matthew decided to tackle New Yokosuka Harbour, and its infamous forklift job.

[Watch | 19 mins] Why does everyone love Unreal Tournament's weirdest map? - Danny from Noclip travels back to 1999 to tell the story of Unreal Tournament's most iconic map.

[Watch | CC | 18 mins] When Should A Game End? - “In this video, I try to work through the muddy waters of if it is better for developers to make sure players experience the best content in a game or be willing to let them miss things.”

[Watch | CC | 9 mins] No, YOU’RE saying “Mario” wrong - “For years, people have told me I say the word "Mario" wrong. So today, I've asked an expert linguist to tell me - what is the "correct" way to say Mario, really?”

The Art of Games

[Read] The Witcher 3 Is The Perfect Allegory For Otherness - “None of the characters in The Witcher 3 are autistic, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make. In Geralt and the other witchers I found kindred spirits.”

[Watch | CC | 11 mins] The Appealing Animation in Kirby Games - Dan Root looks at the pink puffball’s history of animation, for Kirby’s 30th birthday.

The History of Games

[Watch | CC | 1 hour, 20 mins] Wii Retrospective - A chunky history of Nintendo’s most popular, and most bizarre home console.

[Read] How PlayStation’s The Getaway managed to outdo, yet fail against, GTA 3 - The story of Team Soho’s ambitious London-based gangster game.

\[Watch | CC | 1 hour] This is "Ravenholm" - Arkane was working on a Half-Life spin-off, before Valve cancelled it. Noclip’s got an hour of gameplay footage from this mysterious, canned game.

[Read] How to have the best Deus Ex-perience in 2022 - “Our definitive step-by-step guide to setting up and playing one of the all-time great PC games.”

Beyond Games

[Watch | CC | 14 mins] Segmented Displays - A surprisingly interesting video about how you can segment lights to show all 10 numbers.