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Reading List (May 2019)
🕑 Added 2019-05-27 12:01:01 +0000 UTCHello! Hope you've been enjoying the Patreon content for May. Here's the biggun: the reading list. Enjoy 30-odd handpicked articles and videos that I know you'll enjoy.
Top Pick
[Watch | CC | 26 mins] The Fall of 76 - The release of Fallout 76 is truly a spectacular disaster. From bugs that boot you into someone else’s character, to broken microtransaction promises, to a canvas bag debacle, this video charts the game’s apocalyptic debut.
Design of Everyday Games
[Read | 8 mins] Exploring the games that are trying to turn everyday life into a slapstick comedy - GamesRadar chats to the people behind Overcooked, I Am Bread, Job Simulator, and more to find out how to make funny games.
[Read | 17 mins] The Fight To Make Games Accessible For Everyone - A brief history of game accessibility, from grassroots movements to corporate decisions.
[Watch | CC | 10 mins] Halo 2 Changed The Way I Look At Games - Razbuten explores the importance of providing customisation options in Halo’s multiplayer, and how that led to entirely new forms of play.
[Read | 10 mins] Designing Baba is You 's delightfully innovative rule-writing system - I’m still planning on a Baba video! For now, though, check out this interview on Gamasutra about the challenges of making a game where the rules can be broken.
[Watch | CC | 9 mins] Examining SUPERHOT's Innovative Action, Three Years On - Writing on Games returns to the shooter where time only moves when you do, to see where it succeeds and struggles.
[Watch | CC | 7 mins] Mental Health in Games - How We Can Do Better - Extra Credits explores the role games can play in talking about mental health, and shows games (like Hellblade) that have done a stand-out job.
[Watch | CC | 16 mins] The Brilliant Design of Left 4 Dead - I briefly helped Core Ideas with the structure of this video, which reveals the many design successes of Valve’s zombie co-op hit.
Dev Cycle
[Watch | 6 mins] Breath of the Wild's Stasis Rune - Mix and Jam, my new favourite channel, recreates game mechanics and effects in Unity. Here, he’s remaking Zelda’s stasis rune. In another, he recreates Red Dead Redemption's Dead Eye.
[Watch | 13 mins] Shovel Knight is a 3D Game? Its Own Developer Explains - Probably not that surprising to any devs in the audience, but the nostalgic 2D platformer Shovel Knight is actually a 3D game, with its parallax layers existing on different 3D planes.
Audio and Aesthetics
[Watch | 12 mins] Atmosphere and Motivic Development in Hollow Knight's Soundtrack - 8-bit Music Theory kicks off a month of Hollow Knight music analysis. First up, he dissects the City of Tears, Soul Sanctum, and Soul Master themes.
[Watch | 7 mins] This 80's Song Inspired Mario's Music - Thomas Game Docs shows off the jazz, fusion, and rock music that inspired Koji Kondo’s most iconic Mario and Zelda music.
[Watch | CC | 10 mins] TIMING - The 12 Principles of Animation - Over at New Frame Plus, Dan’s doing a video a piece on the 12 Principles of Animation. Starting with timing, looking at how Shadow of the Colossus uses speed to convey scale.
[Watch | CC | 5 mins] Alucard's Running Animation - Dan Root closely examines the floaty run cycle of Symphony of the Night’s Alucard - does it look like a dude on a treadmill, or is it perfect for this vampiric hero?
Mining the Past
[Watch | 10 mins] Exile: The 8-Bit Metroidvania You've Never Heard Of - Only released in Europe, this ambitious game pushed the antiquated hardware of the BBC Micro to its limits to create emergent gameplay that would still impress today.
[Watch | 9 mins] Inside This Epic 1,700+ Pinball Machine Collection - Wired talks to Michael Schiess, “a pinball enthusiast who collects and repairs old machines in an effort to preserve them for future generations”.
[Read | 3 mins] 28 years later, hacker fixes rampant slowdown on SNES‘ Gradius III - A smart chap effectively puts a late-era SNES co-processor chip into the earlier Gradius III, to make it run buttery smooth.
The Biz
[Watch | 9 mins] How I got into the AAA game industry (As A Sound Designer) - He’s done sound design for Just Cause 4. Now, Waveform’s Marshall McGee shares his journey into the biz.
[Watch | 1 hour] Jonathan Blow - Preventing the Collapse of Civilization - That’s quite a title! It’s really about the concerns programmers have about code and computers… I think.
[Watch | 10 mins] Video Games Marketing 101: Marketing Plan and Campaign - Liked my video on trailers? Subscribe to this chap, who shares marketing tips in short video essays.
[Watch | CC | 1 hour] Telltale: The Human Stories Behind The Games - Noclip’s done a grand job of capturing the heartfelt reactions to Telltale’s closure, by its staff.
Culture Shock
[Read | 6 mins] Rage 2 is a fun game that makes me feel like garbage - Chris Plante talks about how his birth defect is used to signify evil mutants in Rage 2.
[Read | 2 mins] World Of Warcraft Classic Beta Players Are Reporting Bugs That Are Actually Just Features From The Past - Bringing games back from the past always presents a huge challenge: which issues to fix, and which to leave alone?
[Watch | 16 mins] Analysis: Why Button Mashing Doesn't Work - So this is why I’m so bad at fighting games.
[Read | 5 mins] So That Bloodstained Trailer Was Weird, Right? - Bloodstained made a trailer that promoted the game’s new art style… but crapped all over its old one. It was a little odd.
[Read | 4 mins] Pokémon characters have their own pea-sized region in brain, study finds - Just like how London cabbies have a drawer in the brain for “The Knowledge”, us Pokemasters have a special slot for storing Doduo, Snorlax, and Alakazam.
Another Castle
[Watch | 24 mins] How Aladdin Changed Animation (by Screwing Over Robin Williams) - The voice sin animated films went from voice actors to, like, Patrick Stewart as a poop emoji. Lindsay Eliss shows how Aladdin (and a selfish decision by Disney) was the catalyst.
[Watch | CC | 5 mins] The Pokemon almost cut from Detective Pikachu - Mr. Mime steals the show in Detective Pikachu. But he almost didn’t make it into the movie.
[Watch | 21 mins] The Cultural Significance of Cyberpunk - Bone up before Cyberpunk 2077!
[Read | 6 mins] A supposedly great article I’ll never read the same way again - David Foster Wallace was a renowned journalist. But he’s one of many to simply make stuff up for his articles.
[Watch | CC | 13 mins] 10 Famous Characters You Technically Own - Want to make a game (or movie) but can’t be bothered to dream up a new character? Here are 10 public domain heroes and villains you can nab.
Comments
Oskar van Velden
Great list again, thanks Mark!
Amit Netanel
Definitely! Also shoutout for his previous video on crunchtime.
Amit Netanel
Thanks for the amazing list as always Mark :)
Luis Guillermo Jimenez Gomez
Thanks for this Mark. Also, this just came out but the new Super Bunnyhop video on labor and life conditions for QA testers is a can't-miss. https://youtu.be/G9ZdU1RQjmc
Si Davies
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfo9WD942EDRSkPMUM57koz2Goj-jaTtG a playlist if you'd like it as per usual :)
Aadit Doshi
Yes! Thank you for shouting out mix and Jam. He has very high quality content that does a good job in hitting the essential points of making a feature!
