Reading List (July 2020)

Hello! Hope everyone is staying safe and doing well. This month I've been completely embroiled in the game jam, but I found time to seek out a bunch of interesting articles and videos. Here's what I'd recommend you stick your peepers on in July.

Top Pick

[Read | Long Read] My 10 Year Game Development Journey - This is a painful article to read. Nico Tuason breaks down the ten year journey to make the game Lithium City. The outcome is… well, have you even heard of Lithium City?

GMTK Game Jam 2020

[Read] Over 5,000 games have been entered into this year's Game Maker's Toolkit game jam - PC Gamer reports on our little jam!

[Watch | 9 mins] Making of Nursery Curse - Blackthornprod breaks down the production of the child-wrangling jam game he made with fellow YouTubers Jonas and Yän.

[Watch | 13 mins] I Made a Zero Player Game - Sam Hogan made one of the top 100 games in the jam: Cell Machine. Here's his dev log.

[Watch | 6 mins] Creating a game for the GMTK Jam! - Mix n Jam also took part! Here's the making of Tilt Quest. 

[Watch | 14 mins] Making a game in 48 hours! - And one more: Vimlark made Make the Way, which ended up in my top 20 picks from the jam.

The Last of Us Part II

[Read] The evolution of Ellie - Naughty Dog talks about Ellie to The Washington Post.

[Watch | CC | 26 mins] A Personal Examination of The Last of Us Part 2 - Hamish Black gives his review of the year's biggest game. 

[Read] The Last of Us Part 2 has become a minefield - This article breaks down the reaction to Last of Us, how everyone - from players to the developers to journalists - has created a pretty toxic conversation. 

[Read] Never mind The Last Of Us, Here's The Real Game With The First LGBT+ Protagonist - US Gamer time travels back to 1989 to look at Mac "Gayme" Caper in the Castro.

Designer Notes

[Watch | 5 mins] Why the Paper Mario Series Keeps Changing - Paper Mario fans might be frustrated by the direction the series has taken. Here's director Kensuke Tanabe on what's behind the franchise's endless shape-shifting.

Critical Hit

[Watch | CC | 12 mins] Grand Theft Auto V: Does "Dissonance" Even Matter? - Writing on Games reckons GTA V's Trevor Philips was made to fix the problem of open world protagonists being tonally dissonant weirdos. Did it work?

[Watch | 48 mins] Shenmue 3 is a Terrible Game and I’ve Wasted My Life - The excellent Super Eyepatch Wolf breaks down his immense disappointment with Yu Suzuki's long-awaited follow-up. It sounds like an absolute trainwreck. 

[Watch | 41 mins] Fortnite: The Party That's a Platform - A huge breakdown of the wider Fortnite experience from Errant Signal. It's about way more than battling and building. 

[Watch | CC | 27 mins] Max Payne, Kane & Lynch, and the Meaning of Ugly Games - Remember when Jeff Gerstmann got fired from Gamespot for calling Kane & Lynch "ugly". Jacob Gellar explores the deeper meaning of that word. 

Culture Club

[Watch | 17 mins] Analysis: Video Game Commentary - Core-A looks at the role of the shoutcaster in e-sports. 

[Read] Video Games That Almost Anyone Can Play - Looking to introduce a partner, parent, or friend to games? These are some wonderful titles that don't rely on decades on gaming literacy. 

[Watch | CC | 13 mins] Dorm room movie posters + games: a match made in hell - Polygon looks at the video game adaptations of typically dude-bro movies like Scarface and The Godfather. Do these games accurately portray the complex themes and subt- haha no they're just vacuous games about murdering people.

History Corner

[Read] Massive Nintendo Data Leak - Loads of ancient source files for old Nintendo games have leaked - including beta versions and cancelled games. I've been following this ResetEra thread for all the juicy, ethically-dubious details.

[Watch | CC | 9 mins] RenderWare: The Engine that Powered an Era - Fascinating retrospective of a video game engine that was used for so many big games in the PS2 era. Before it was completely killed off by… well, I'll let you find out for yourself.

[Watch | CC | 16 mins] The PlayStation War - HeavyEyed explores the role of conflict minerals in the production of your game console.

[Read | Long Read] How Flash games shaped the video games industry - A beautifully constructed eulogy to the history of Flash games. Perhaps the most important takeaway: 

"Anyone could play Flash games by just clicking a link. Playing and sharing games today is still not as easy as it was 20 years ago."

[Watch | 9 mins] The Real-Life Criminal who helped GTA make millions - Even from the very first GTA, Rockstar knew how to play the press to boost the profile of its steely-wheely auto-mobiley franchise. 

Business Lunch

[Watch | CC | 5 mins] Why Nintendo Keeps Blocking YouTube Videos - Nintendo took down a video about using camera hacks to explore beyond the boundaries of Animal Crossing. Here's why they did it. 

Art and Audio

[Watch | CC | 9 mins] The Overwhelming Style of Persona 5's All-Out Attacks - Persona 5 is full of animation flourishes. New Frame Plus looks at just one: the snazzy All-Out Attack.

[Watch | CC | 15 mins] How Final Fantasy VII Remade its Soundtrack - Game Score Fanfare investigates the re-made tunes of FF7. 

[Watch | 40 mins] Crafting the Ocean in the Music of ABZÛ - Austin Wintory explains the decisions behind his soundtrack for this underwater adventure.

[Read] Pixel Art Tutorials - Celeste artist Pedro Medeiros has shared a ridiculous number of pixel art and animation tutorials. 

[Watch | CC | 9 mins] How Do Inkling Transformations Work? - New Frame Plus is back, looking at exactly what happens in the split-second moment a kid becomes a squid.

Beyond Bytes

[Watch | CC | 8 mins] How Well Do Masks Work? - This video uses Schlieren Imaging in slow motion to show exactly why you should be wearing a dang mask. 

[Watch | 34 mins] The 90s Dark Universe - I've really been enjoying Patrick H. Willems' lockdown content. It's funny, interesting, and just so darn cozy. My favourite of late has been this one on Sony's weird "Halloween monster in a stuffy period drama" phase.

[Read | Long Read] This Profile of Charlie Kaufman Has Changed - Writer / director Charlie Kaufman is well known for unconventional structures and meta-textual elements. So this lengthy interview wonderfully follows suit.