Believe it or not, games are CONSTANTLY talking to us, not just through text or voice, but through the way they’re designed.
The Architect, fluent in thousands of languages from across the cosmos, is ready to give you a glimpse into just some of the ways that games can communicate with us, mostly without us even knowing.
You Saw:
DOOM (2016)
Metroid Prime (2002)
Sentinels of the Multiverse (2014)
HEARTBEAT (2018)
Metal Slug 3 (2000)
Phoenix Wright (2001)
HITMAN (2016)
Bioshock 2 (2010)
Cave Story (2004)
Splunkey (2012)
Donut County (2018)
A Hat In Time (2017)
Endless Legend (2014)
Two Point Hospital (2018)
Interesting Links:
Interesting breakdown of DOOM's Combat: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/309459/See_Doom_devs_break_down_its_push_forward_combat_design_at_GDC_2018.php
Metroid Prime Retrospective: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-06-26-retrospective-metroid-prime-article
Interesting defence of Bioshock 2 which is for reals a bit rubbish- https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/nn9jpz/why-bioshock-2-is-the-best-bioshock-154
2018-09-11 00:48:34 +0000 UTC
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Surprise Surprise it's an Architect Address, right on schedule!
Expect this month's reviews either tomorrow or the day after, sorry for the delay!
2018-08-24 23:42:40 +0000 UTC
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What is difficulty? and why can no-one seem to agree on it? Well, The Architect thinks that we're coming at the subject from the wrong end of the stick.
There's no better game to help prove it than monster hat making simulator, Monster Hunter World, a game that has some interesting struggles with difficulty and challenge.
You Saw:
XCOM 2 War of the Chosen: 2017
Monster Hunter World: 2018
Mini Metro: 2015
Divinity Original Sin 2: 2017
Into the Breach: 2017
Civilization 6: 2016
Wolfenstein 2: 2017
Minecraft: 2009
Resident Evil 4: 2005
Anno 2070: 2011
Spelunky: 2012
Dead Cells: 2017
Warcraft 3: 2002
Factorio: 2012
left for dead 2: 2009
Rimworld: 2013
Forged Battalion: 2018
What Remains of Edith Finch: 2017
Dota 2 kind of: 2013
Interesting Links:
Interview with the MH World Director: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/315778/How_Monster_Hunter_Worlds_director_breathed_new_life_into_the_games_old_bones.php
Here's how nuts factorio gets: https://www.pcgamer.com/see-what-a-factorio-factory-looks-like-after-500-hours-of-work/
Semi-related to dead cells but this whole plagarism drama is amazing: https://kotaku.com/ign-pulls-ex-editors-posts-after-dozens-more-plagiarism-1828357792
2018-08-24 20:16:11 +0000 UTC
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Adventurer! Adventurer! My farm is under attack by level 2 spiders who don't seem to know how quests work! Watch this video and explain to six of them that there are really only four kinds of quests and they might leave us alone!
That Architect bloke was around here a while ago but he told me I wasn't real and to shut up he was recording some footage, I don't know about you but he doesn't seem very helpful.
Reward: Knowledge?
[ACCEPT] [REJECT]
Oh just as a headsup, as much as I talk GW2 up in this video, that doesn't mean I endorse Arenanet's recent firing policies but it's not really relevant so I'll avoid creating a flamewar by discussing it further.
You Saw:
Final Fantasy 14: 2010
Nier Automata: 2017
Guild Wars 2: 2012
Minecraft: 2009
Runescape: 2001
Divinity Original Sin 2: 2017
World of Warcraft: 2004
Endless Space 2: 2017
Super Mario 3D world: 2013
Super Mario Galaxy 2: 2010
Yoku's Island Express: 2018
Interesting Links:
Cool D&D stories without having to go to 4chan!:https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDGreentext/
A slightly psycholocially out of date book about 7 different stories and what they mean, still pretty interesting though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots
An article about some stuff WOW has done wrong in its quests with insight from pre-overwatch Jeff!: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/113897/GDC_Learning_From_World_of_Warcrafts_Quest_Design_Mistakes.php
2018-08-07 01:22:48 +0000 UTC
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This one isn't so much a recomendation as it is a suggestion for something to keep an eye on, plus it's not something everyone has already played like dead cells!
The first thing you'll notice about I'm Not a Monster is it's striking 50's aesthetic, situating itself as somewhere between the original star trek series and the day the earth stood still, whilst I can't say I'm a massive fan of the booby space ladies (theme appropriate though they may be), I am however in love with the goofy rubber suit monsters that represent the game's baddies.
I'm Not a Monster takes place on a space station under attack by monsters, and six players must work together to evacuate the survivors and escape from the monsters- little do they know, two of the six have already been infected and can transform into horrible green dr who rejects intent on infecting and murdering all the humans they can find. It's your classic traitor game setup and there's quite a lot of tactics to playing as the monsters in particular, from when to drop your disguise, how best to co-ordinate your subtle infection of the crew and how best to go on the offensive.
There's a decent amount of intrigue and a lot of finger pointing as you call out someone for being a monster, defend yourself and end up murdering eachother whilst the real baddies get away scot free by using that teleporter you gave them to escape to the other side of the ship.
The game is far from finished, with some UI niggles, some overpowered weapons and spotty matchmaking, but with work this could turn into a fun turn based traitor game to match the real time antics of the likes of Trouble in Terrorist Town (which really deserves a video because it rules) and I think at the very least the demo is a few rounds of fun, that is if you can find anyone playing which I pretty much couldn't after the first day the demo was made available.
(for early access peeps, the new video should go up tomorrow and the day after for everyon else, I've had a lot of corrupted footage to deal with so there's been some delays, sorry!)
2018-08-05 21:11:45 +0000 UTC
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This got uploaded and was public for a few mins, whoops!
Anyway, here's the Architect Address for July!
2018-07-26 01:25:24 +0000 UTC
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Balancing games is difficult. Really difficult. To make things worse, we don't understand a lot of the thought that goes into making games interesting to play and replay.
Who better to tell you all about balance than world renowned Wrong About Videogames Person, The Architect? It turns out, the best way to balance a game, might not be to make it completely balanced to begin with.
You Watched:
Battle Chef Brigade (2018)
Hearthstone (2014)
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (2007)
Overwatch (2016)
Chess (about 500CE)
Half Life 2 (2004)
Magic the gathering Arena (2018)
Rocket League (2015)
Warhammer Total War 2 (2017)
Minecraft (2009)
Fortnite Battle Royale (2017)
Metal Slug 3 (2000)
Interesting Links
A series of balance articles by David Sirlin in which he is right about a lot of things and wrong about MtG: http://www.sirlin.net/articles/balancing-multiplayer-games-part-1-definitions
Magic the Gathering lead designer talks the ethics of Colour Pies, weird but interesting: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/pie-fights-2016-11-14
Gamasutra article on some of the challenges of making Battle Chef Brigade: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/312560/How_Trinket_found_the_right_recipe_while_designing_Battle_Chef_Brigade.php
My apologies for some sliiight audio issues you can hear towards the end of the video, not sure what caused them but you probably didn't notice them until I pointed them out.
2018-07-20 22:45:24 +0000 UTC
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I’m usually a bit hesitant to recommend Early Access games because they’re a risk for people to buy, but man am I impressed with Dead Cells.
For those not in the know, it’s kind of a hybrid between a metroidvania and a rougelike, and those genres fit together way better than I thought they would. Each run starts off with you getting some random gear and trekking out into a randomised series of levels, killing enemies, getting newer slightly more stabby swords, you know the drill, classic rougelike stuff. But at certain points during your progression, you unlock metroidvania esque “keys” like the ability to summon vines, teleport and other things I’m not good enough to find out about yet.
These upgrades open up a variety of new paths through the existing levels, leading to secrets, optional challenges and even completely new levels like a sewer accessible from the first zone, complete with totally unique enemies and events.
And that’s what I like about dead cells, whilst its 2D platformer combat is nothing we haven’t seen before, it’s supplemented with lots of secret hunting for new weapons, levels and routes which add some much needed longevity to the game. There’s even special gates which close after a certain amount of time has passed, cutting you off from some cool loot. No new player will ever get to them in time, but experienced players can speedrun their way through the familiar early zones to get the goods, allowing them to test their mastery whilst also avoiding the trudge through easy early zones that many rougelikes suffer from.
Perhaps my only complaint with dead cells relates to this, however. You won’t unlock any alternate routes, cool weapons or means of interacting with a variety of level features until a good few hours in, and until that point you’re really only playing half the game. This is compounded by the fact that the starter pool of gear is pretty boring, comprising mostly token changes to the default sword, bow and shield. Things quickly ramp up once you’ve collected enough cells to start getting good gear and are good enough to score some extra abilities, but until then the game is merely a passable roguelike platformer, rather than the truly unique blend it actually is.
Besides that one complaint, however, the rest of Dead Cells just screams polish, movement is fluid, responsive and feels great, the difficulty level is expertly balanced to be frequent but not frustrating and the slightly darksoulsian theme is on point, with the environments in particular looking gorgeous.
Dead Cells is a pretty easy recommendation for anyone who’s even slightly into action platformers and probably worth a consideration for everyone else too, though if the price is a bit too steep for your blood, I’d wait until the game is finished and give it a second look.
Dead Cells is available from steam for £21.99 or your regional equivalent.
2018-07-09 12:20:42 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for this one being a little late, between rewrites and internet troubles this came out a little later than I'd like. Hope you enjoy though!
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Final Fantasy 15 was a weird game, wasn't it? Great systems, a fantastic open world and yet it was essentially not finished and that ruined a lot of the game. Luckily, Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus survived FFXV's turbulent development and went onto become the best bit of the game.
The Architect, having developed a hankering for the open road, tries to break down what FFXV did right when it came to designing NPCs.
You Saw:
Final Fantasy XV-2016
Skullgirls-2012
Dead Cells-2017
Super Smash Bros Ultimate- N/A
Half Life 2 episode 1- 2006
Mass Effect 3-2012
Fallout 4- 2015
Mass Effect 2-2010
INSIDE-2016
Resident Evil 7-2017
Interesting Links:
FFXV one year retrospective: https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/12/24/final-fantasy-xv-one-year-later.aspx
How the hell does Prompto's camera work?: https://www.dualshockers.com/final-fantasy-xv-dev-explains-promptos-photo-enhance-games-storytelling/
Apparently they're still making DLC!?: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-11-finishing-final-fantasy-15
2018-07-07 01:18:47 +0000 UTC
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In the very first Architect Address, a monthly series of update videos where I ramble on about the month's goings on, we talk about the aniversary of the channel, Morality, Failure and why Wolfenstein 2 wasn't very good.
If you've got any ideas for things to discuss (please I need help) slap them in the comments and I'll give them a look!
2018-06-24 19:10:17 +0000 UTC
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Finally I've managed to upload this damn thing. Apologies for the wait, people, this really should have gone up yesterday. On the bright side, the June reviews are uploading as I speak and I'm about to record the 1st and coincidentally special channel anniversary edition of the monthly update!
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Losing isn’t fun. Or is it? What if I told you that the many differnt ways we can lose in video games actually makes them more fun? Specifically, failure in videogames is really important when it comes to emotional communication.
The Architect has died countless times over his many adventures, what’s a few more humiliating defeats in exchange for game design wisdom?
You Saw:
Super Mario Galaxy 2- 2010
Sonic Mania- 2017
Crypt of the necrodancer- 2015
Sundered- 2017
Wolfenstein: The New Colossus- 2017
Hollow Knight- 2017
StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void- 2015
Super Meat Boy- 2010
Mega Man 7- 1995
Ziggurat- 2014
HITMAN- 2016
Rimworld- 2013 (wow that’s a long time, I only just heard of it!)
Interesting Links:
Death and Grief in videogames- https://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/tech-gaming/grief-in-video-games-how-gaming-can-help-us-confront-death-a3640891.html
A slightly whiny article about lives- https://kotaku.com/when-death-loses-meaning-in-a-video-game-1686513474
Article about Edith Finch (a very good game) and death- https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/aepqnk/a-video-game-that-finally-engages-with-death-and-succeeds
2018-06-20 07:49:12 +0000 UTC
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Hi, and welcome to a series of short game recommendations exclusively for my Patrons, in these articles I’ll talk to you about a game you probably should play and the reasons why I think it’s interesting and/or worth your time.
In the spirit of that, let’s take a look at Prismata, a game that about 75% of you are going to take one look at and immediately write off.
Prismata is a competitive economy-building game that pits two players against each other to see who can build the most robots and blow up the other guy. The actual backstory to why you’re doing whatever you’re doing is more or less not important- it’s something about wars being fought by remote-controlled nanobots or whatever. What IS important is that this game gets very bonkers, very fast.
The closest comparison would be the tabletop game dominion, which sees you building a medieval kingdom from randomised resources to compete with other players. Prismata takes this a step further thanks to the digital format with activatable abilities and an incredibly sleek UI.
At the start of each game, you’re given some drones, which make money, and engineers which make energy. Simple enough. Energy helps you build new drones, and money builds all sorts of things, like resource producing structures in three different flavours, which in turn enable you to build a whole variety of crazy robots, each with their own effects. Games quickly turn into these hugely complex battles of efficiency as you try to squeeze every last drop of value out of each of your units.
Whilst you might start out with those cute little drones, in just a few turns you’llbe branching out into armies of grenade-spewing mechs, monkeys with lasers strapped to their faces, alien spaceships, comets and more. What struck me is how well balanced the whole thing is- despite the fact that each game’s pool of available units is randomly selected (with a few staples like my beloved Gauss turret) no one strategy seems overpowered, and I found myself getting stomped into the dirt by a variety of different approaches.
Prismata is by no means a simple game, and whilst the campaign and training missions do a decent job of teaching you the basics, the depths of prismata are potentially limitless- seriously, I’ve barely scratched the surface but if you’re the type to optimise build orders and play mind games with your opponents, there’s potentially thousands of hours of content up for grabs here, and the game’s not even finished yet!
A turn based competitive economy game with limitless complexity is not exactly the easiest sell but if you’re willing to get really stuck into Prismata and work out when the right turn to build your first thorium dynamo is (turn two, by the way) then this is one of the deepest and most rewarding games to come out this year.
Oh by the way did I mention that dragging your mouse over a row of units to activate them all is THE most satisfying thing in the world.
Prismata is available on Steam for £19.49 https://prismata.net/
EDIT/ADDENDUM: I totally forgot I said I'd do that dauntless review, whoops, err, that'll get done at some point.
2018-06-08 15:40:09 +0000 UTC
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Morality systems are a huge trend in videogames, and with good reason- games are maybe the best medium for analysing and exploring ethics. So why are most games with morality systems rubbish at exactly that?
The Architect is going to have to journey to the middle of the ocean, the arctic circle and to the darkest of dungeons to work out what the problem with morality systems is.
I hope I managed to say all of your names correctly, and apologies for some slight audio issues you might notice. My recording situation is quite loud what with it being summer, which means chirpy birds, lawnmowers and neighbours doing loud building work from 8 till 6 FOR SOME UNGODLY REASON.
Follow me on Twitter- https://twitter.com/Thefearalcarrot
You saw:
Quarantine Circular- 2018
Mass Effect 3- 2012
Undertale- 2015
Saints row 4- 2013
Darkest Dungeon- 2016
Half Life 2- 2004
KOTOR 2- 2004
Dishonored- 2012
Frostpunk- 2018
Papers Please- 2013
Fallout New Vegas- 2010
Subsurface Circular- 2017
Dauntless- 2018
Interesting links:
Buy Dan Le Sac's music for the circular games, it's great- https://danlesac.bandcamp.com/
Designing moral systems- https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/5324/ethics_101_designing_morality_in_.php?print=1
How the book of laws came to be- https://www.pcgamer.com/frostpunk-developers-on-hope-misery-and-the-ultimately-terrifying-book-of-laws/
2018-06-04 22:16:54 +0000 UTC
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Okay, this thing is finally up and running, thank you for your support and expect content to start coming your way soon!
2018-05-24 18:08:45 +0000 UTC
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