Reading List (January 2017) (Patreon)

I've put together an absolutely weird hodgepodge of stuff this month. There's no overarching theme, no crossheads, and no telling what you'll get from link to link!

There are a lot of easy-going, light reads. But you'll find some deeper, more analytical stuff too. Let me know if you particularly enjoyed any of the links!

[Video] Why doesn’t Sid Meier still make Sid Meier’s Civilization? - This is the second in a new show from Eurogamer's Chris Bratt, where he marries video essays with games journalism. You should keep an eye on this series!

[Video] Bethesda VS Critics: How To Save The Games Industry - hbomberguy discusses Bethesda's annoying anti-consumer stance on early review copies. 

[Video] The Nightmare Before Christmas Devil May Cry Game - Did you know that Capcom made a Nightmare Before Christmas game... and it's secretly just Devil May Cry but with skeletons? Weird.

Watch Dogs 2 | Graphic Direction - I totally bounced off of Watch_Dogs 2, but I won't deny that the user interface and other graphical elements are excellent. The art team shows off their stuff on this Behance page. 

[Video] GTA V - Attention to Detail [Part 1] - Metal Gear Solid and GTA are both known for their incredible attention to detail. Here's a video I liked, detailing some of GTA's cool stuff. 

[Video] Indie Games You Missed in 2016 - Here are some games you might not see on game of the year lists. YouTuber HeavyEyed and pals list some under the radar indies from 2016. 

Independent Games Festival Finalists - But if you really want to know which indie games to play, you could do a lot worse than looking at the IGF finalists. Lots of love for Event[0], Overcooked, and Quadrilateral Cowboy. 

[Video / CC] Bow & Arrow - I always enjoy Ahoy's mix of history and video games. This time, he looks at the roll of archery in games. 

Video Games Aren't Allowed To Use The "Red Cross" Symbol For Health - I thought this was common knowledge, but here we go. For any developers reading this, don't do a Prison Architect and avoid the red cross!

[Video] World Record Progression: Super Mario Bros - This might be my favourite video of the month. We get to see how speedrunners have tussled over the SMB world record, beating each other's times by a matter of nanoseconds thanks to high risk glitches. It's fascinating. 

(The dude literally just put out another on Super Mario 64 as I was writing this. So I look forward to watching that this evening!)

Super Mario Broth - I love this so much. Pokeys are fun to leap over when on foot, and fun to much on when with Yoshi. So Nintendo always tries to give you the thing that's most fun. 

[Video] Analysis: Why We Should Buff More Than Nerf - Multiplayer balancing often means making some characters stronger (buff) and other characters weaker (nerf). Core-A says buffing usually makes games more fun. 

[Video] Batman: Arkham Asylum - Platinum Journey - I love this show. This charming Irish guy tries to get all the trophies in PS3 games and the process is fascinating. Mostly because it makes him utterly miserable and boy, it's an emotional rollercoaster. The Dead Space 2 one is grand, too. 

Blood, Sweat, and Dialogue Trees: How Games Writing Has Evolved - writers on Gears of War 4, Deus Ex, and Gone Home talk about storytelling in games. Here's Tom Bissell on the difficulty of it all:

The difficulty all has to do with the fact that you're writing a story completely out of order. You have very little awareness of what the gameplay leading up to it and coming out of it is going to be. There aren't even levels yet. You're writing scenes that are planted in the middle of this completely unknown ether.

'Thumper' Is the Music Game of a Generation - Writing on Games host Hamish Black writes that Thumper captures the act of live performance better than your Rock Bands and Guitar Heroes. I'll take his word for it. 

A Brief History of Visual Novels - Interesting stuff, about a genre that mixed point and clicks with manga. Visual Novels have found a formula now, but Brian Crimmins takes us back to a time before it was just sprites on static backgrounds. 

[Video / Transcript] How The Last Guardian Makes You Care About A Bird Dog - Some more stuff on the relationship at the heart of The Last Guardian, which might be cool if you were left curious by my video earlier this month. 

[Video] Reviving Resident Evil Part 1: RE-volution - For the launch of Resident Evil 7, Gamespot looks back to the past for a Resi retrospective. Featuring designers on Amnesia and Alien Isolation. 

The making of Sapienza, Hitman's best level - Sapienza IS Hitman's best level, so I obviously enjoyed this breakdown featuring lead level designer Torbjørn Christensen. 

[Video] Hitman: The Best Game Ever - Speaking of Hitman, Cool Ghosts gives their thoughts on what makes the game so rad. My favourite bit is Quinns' explanation of solving the level in reverse as you make your triumphant exit. He's right, it's a wonderful moment. 

[Video / CC] Analysing Every Episode of Hitman's First Season - Writing on Games - And now here's Hamish Black talking about every episode for an hour. It's a Hitman hullabaloo!

Day of the Tentacle is the Best-Designed Adventure Game Ever - Day of the Tentacle IS the best... you get the point. I'm just sharing headlines I agree with now. But hey, here's more detail than you ever needed on DOTT's superb (though imperfect) puzzle design. 

Unknown alien ships are ripping commanders out of hyperspace in Elite: Dangerous - Imagine being the first player to encounter aliens in Elite: Dangerous. Moments of genuine surprise in games are pretty rare these days!

[Video] Why does Mario music sound "Fun"? - You might need more music theory than I have (aka: none) to fully enjoy this video on the makeup of Mario's iconic tunes. 

How We Accidentally Made a Racist Videogame - Oh my god. This is so painful. But also hilarious. 

How Resident Evil 4 turned System Shock 3 into Dead Space - Everyone knows Dead Space was based on Resi 4. Far fewer people knew that it started out as System Shock 3. I guess you could say I was... shocked. Anyway, cool story of devs just fanboying over another game.

Beyond 50/50: Breaking Down The Percentage of Female Gamers by Genre - This is very interesting and important. Find out which genres are preferred by women, compared to men (and then ask yourself which of these genres are well represented on consoles, and then... well, it begs many questions)

[Video] Scalebound Is CANCELLED - Here's Why - I almost forgot that Microsoft canned Platinum's dragon-bro brawler Scalebound at the beginning of January. Liam Robertson tells us more about the project. 

Designing Gunvolt - Post-mortems are always fun. Here's one on the 3DS action game, Gunvolt. 

Design in Action | Symphony of the Night and the Metroidvania Lie - I think I heard this before, but good to get it in writing. Despite the cool genre name, Symphony of the Night wasn't based on Metroid - but Zelda. 

Why Some Video Games Are In Danger of Disappearing Forever - Over at Kotaku, Heather Alexandra talks about game preservation. Weird, niche, and half-finished games are at the greatest risk of being lost. 

The Unexpectedly High-Stakes World of Neo Geo Collecting - People spend tens of thousands of dollars procuring the rarest SNK games. As an on-off games collector, this gives me palpitations. 

Non-games

[Video] The Art of Editing and Suicide Squad - I had heard that Suicide Squad sucked. This is the first thing I watched that really explained why it's so bad. Very entertaining takedown. 

[Video] How Louis CK Tells A Joke - Interesting breakdown of a single joke from Louis CK. Also, Nerdwriter1 employs a video editor/animator now which is totally cheating :P