Reading List (May 2023) (Patreon)

Hello! Thanks for your support in May. This month I made videos on Zelda and Valve, announced the game jam, did talks in London and Kortrijk, finished a consulting project, and played a lot of Tears of the Kingdom. 

Which has... probably influenced what I've been reading this month. I've got lots of articles and videos on Zelda - some about that new game, some about older titles. After that, I've got stuff on being indie, making cozy games, and more. Enjoy!

Link's Awakening

[Read] Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Straight Up Fails In Just One Respect: Accessibility - "Sony, Microsoft, and every major developer are doing the equivalent of installing a push-button door opener while you are parking your car in a handicap unloading zone."

[Read] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is low-key a horror game - "All Link can do is observe the blood-red-stained sky helplessly as the ritual passes and evil springs forth."

[Read] The Legend of Zelda Didn’t Just Make Video Game History—It Put Video Game Concerts on the Map - "Looking back at the Symphony of the Goddesses tour, which helped usher in a new era of respect for video game music."

[Watch | 14 mins] How Twilight Princess SAVED the Zelda Franchise - "After The Wind Waker released to GameCube, there were major questions for Nintendo if Zelda would continue to sell. Love it or hate it, Here is how Twilight Princess SAVED the Zelda Franchise."

[Read] Tears of the Kingdom Doubles Down on Breath of the Wild’s Best Inspiration - "Immediate parallels were drawn between Link and Prince Ashitaka, the protagonist of 1997’s Princess Mononoke. Yet the parallels between these two characters and the media they come from were already clear in Breath of the Wild."

[Read] The Open-World Genius of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - "You experience not choice-paralysis but choice-arousal. There is a frisson of possibility to any reality in which you are sole initiator and consolidator of your schemes."

[Watch | CC | 5 mins] Why TOTK reuses BOTW's Hyrule Map - "This just goes to show how much love, care, and attention to detail went into making Link's latest adventure. Turns out, game development is hard no matter how many assets you can get away with reusing!"

[Read] The Boundless Legacy of ‘Breath of the Wild’ - "After ‘Breath of the Wild,’ open-world games can be split into two camps: those that share its philosophy of total freedom and those that don’t"

[Read] How The Legend of Zelda Changed the Game - "The immersive gameplay of the Zelda franchise is bolstered by its deep mythology , convincing players they are unearthing ancient secrets."

[Read] The Fun Of “No-Fun” In ‘The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’ - "The creators of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have created a video game worthy of Kant’s maxim, “have the courage to use your own intelligence.”

[Watch | 26 mins] The Strangest Song in Link's Awakening - "I take a closer look at one of the more peculiar songs from the Link's Awakening soundtrack and what makes it stand out among the rest of the game's music"

[Read] How Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Navigated Fan Expectations - "The initial disappointment regarding The Wind Waker was largely a result of its cel-shaded graphic style, which was seen as a betrayal of the maturity that the gaming medium was developing"

The Design of Games

[Watch | CC | 8 mins] Super Smash Bros. Brawl [Game Concepts] - Sakurai describes the first Smash Bros game he made since going independent. And why he thinks Smash doesn't work online. 

[Watch | CC | 23 mins] How I designed Fruit Ninja - "Yes, I really did design Fruit Ninja. Gather round and let me tell you the story."

[Read] Cozy games are getting darker - "The subgenre of cozy games is delving into new territory: the dark cozy game."

[Read] Trawling in the deep: How Black Salt Games made spooky fishing RPG, Dredge - "How do you create waves that don't scupper players, and what goes into building an accessible fishing mini-game? Here there be answers."

[Read] With Redfall, Arkane mishandles Stephen King’s legacy — and its own - "A story about evil authority, and rebels rising to meet it, falls flat in the open-world shooter"

[Read] Japanese Game Studios Are Taking Accessibility to the Next Level - Developers like Koei Techmo and Tango Gameworks are working to make accessible design a global standard.

The Business of Games

[Watch | CC | 5 mins] Why a Child Just Sued Nintendo Over Mario Kart Lootboxes - "A child's attempts to sue Nintendo of America over lootboxes in Mario Kart Tour is actually part of a bigger attempt to battle gambling mechanics in games."

[Read] Rami Ismail's top ten tips on surviving the indiepocalypse - "The indie veteran offers studios advice on how to stand out and thrive in an increasingly competitive industry"

[Read] The Publisher's Lie - "There's one lie between game developers that has been repeated so often, so frequently, that it has now become all but truth. It is a simple lie: publishers fund indie games."

The Development of Games

[Read] The best free tools for game art - "A few of the best tools for creating 2D and 3D art assets for games, including Blender, GIMP, Piskel, Krita, and more."

[Read] HEY! YOU! Make your indie game properly - "It’s great that the likes of Twitter and Reddit allow us to see snippets of games in development, but I’m frequently concerned that people are making games the wrong way round."

The Playing of Games

[Watch | CC | 18 mins] Nintendo Copied Rare's Homework - "Nintendo didn't do the concept first, and they certainly didn't do it best. That honor goes to Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts: a maligned masterpiece that deserves to leave its initial reactions in the rear view mirror."

[Watch | CC | 22 mins] Is DLC Worth It? - " From Blood and Wine to Minerva's Den, these expansions are some of the best video game content out there, and in this video I not only wanted to look into why that is but also into how it comes to be"

[Watch | CC | 13 mins] How Resident Evil 4 Brings Out the Horror of John Wick - "An analysis of the Resident Evil 4 Remake, which might be the closest thing to a John Wick video game we have—and jeezo, being John Wick would be absolutely terrifying."

The Art of Games

[Read] Why There's No Room for Suburbs in Open-World Games - "They're iconic, they contain a huge share of the population, and they're almost entirely absent from video games' depictions of reality."

[Read] A ‘Counter-Strike’ map is raising awareness of Putin’s brutality to everyday Russians - "Some Russian gamers who access a downloadable map released today, called de_voyna, will be confronted with the reality of what their country’s army is doing in Ukraine."

The History of Games

[Watch | 1 hour, 45 mins] How Metroid Saved the Galaxy - "A feature-length documentary on the history of Metroid featuring game developers, journalists, and some of Samus' biggest fans."

Beyond Games

[Watch | 21 mins] how I made my first animated short - Noodle got paid to make a cartoon as a Dying Light 2 ad. His video on the process is interesting to watch. 

[Watch | CC | 13 mins] Making Cam Closer II - Likewise, Shazam director David F. Sandberg made a short film - but I preferred watching his behind-the-scenes video.

[Watch | 2 hours] Restoring Old Screenshots - mega tutorial - This is probably only interesting to me, but as someone who works with a lot of old digital footage and images I learned a lot. 

[Watch | CC | 38 mins] Why Do Movies Feel So Different Now? - "In this video I dive into what Metamodernism is and what it looks like in film, and chart how the movies have evolved since their modernist origins."

[Watch | 10 mins] The Paradox of Good Cinematography - What started life as a highlight reel of iconic cinematography turned into an analysis of the form.

[Read] How Coffin Flop’s Coffins Got Flopped - "The story behind one of I Think You Should Leave’s funniest moments from season two."