Hey all! Today is my Birthday so I won't stick around long. Enjoy the digest and speak soon!
Mark
New Releases
Read - Pragmata works because it isn't a "sad dad" game - "It only fits the "sad dad" stereotype if you ignore almost everything in the game".
Read - Pragmata makes one big gamble that other sci-games could learn from - "Heck, even Pragmata's first zone gave me more freedom and satisfaction than most modern big-budget games".
Read - Against "Video-Gamey" - "To review a video game and call it a particularly video gamey video game is maybe not a good critical approach. Shall I also confirm that the novel contains sentences?".
Behind the Headlines
Read - The big things that we're thinking about - "New(ish) Xbox boss Asha Sharma and Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty explain their vision for Microsoft’s gaming division".
Read - How Legacy became a costly crypto bust for players and a business win for Peter Molyneux - "After millions in NFT sales, the hyped “play to earn” game was effectively dead in weeks".
Read - Peak Devs Aren't Impressed With Players Demanding an Endless Onslaught of Updates - "'Any Update Is a Bonus Not a Right' Says Peak Dev in Response to 'Lazy Dev Cycle' Accusations".
Design
Read - The Value of Design Skills In Production - "As a producer, before you create any reports or write any mass emails, you should first take the time to study the mental models of the people on your team".
Read - 10 years of grilling: Stephen's Sausage Roll remains one of the most influential puzzle games ever created - "To celebrate the game's 10-year anniversary, we asked a handful of developers how SSR has influenced their own puzzle games, design philosophies, and creative visions".
Watch (16 mins) - How to Win* Game Jams - A buddy of mine (almost) won a Game Boy-centred game jam. Here's what he learned about entering jams.
Watch (19 mins) - The Secret to Balanced Maps - Arch looks at how to make good maps for FPS games.
Watch (15 mins) - Games of Emergence Vs Games of Progression - "This video examines the history of this design dichotomy, how theorists have conceptualized the divide, and how it is far more permeable than people might think".
Watch (15 mins) - Alien Resurrection - The Sales Bomb that Defined a Genre - "Alien Resurrection is the game often credited with inventing the modern standard for first-person-shooter controls on consoles. But is that actually true?".
Watch (15 mins) - how games secretly control your skill - "You probably suck at games but are being lied to, but how exactly do games implement difficulty sliders in games based on your skill?".
Development
Watch (25 mins) - Arcade Drift Car Physics Explained - The developer of Parking Garage Rally Circuit reveals how he made the car work - with Godot code examples.
Watch (16 mins) - Baby Steps Developers React to 7 Minute Speedrun - "Check out real-time commentary from creators Gabe Cuzzillo and Bennett Foddy as they entertain deep philosophical musings while watching this incredible speedrun pushing the game to its limits".
Read - Game Devs Explain The Tricks Involved With Letting You Pause - "Game development is weird and complicated and messy, and that means sometimes pausing a game involves manipulating time.".
Watch (21 mins) - How a World-Famous Artist Became Involved With a Video Game - Documentary man ThatGuyGlen tackles the gorgeous Gris.
Business
Read - The video game industry is broken, and the horror genre may be able to fix it - "PAX East 2026 showcased a diverse lineup of horror games that may point to a better future for the industry.".
Read - This industry faced near total collapse in Australia. How did it come back from the brink? - "There are many ways to measure a video game's success. Sales, reviews, awards. But how many can lay claim to breaking the internet?".
Watch (6 mins) - How Much an Indie Game Costs to Make - "I want to demystify the financial side of indie games so I'll talk through all the costs of making Mythmatch and break it down by time, discipline, and funding source".
Watch (7 mins) - My Wife and I Spent All Our Money Making an Indie Game - In this case: almost two million bucks.
Culture
Read - 40 Years Of Zelda’s Legend - "The Legend of Zelda’s impact on interactive design and storytelling, and the larger video game industry is incalculable. But we decided to try anyway".
Read - Are Indie Games Developing a Gambling Problem? - "Although creators like Balatro’s LocalThunk publicly oppose gambling, the new subgenre still raises questions worth asking about addictive design and compulsive game loops".
Watch (18 mins) - 26 Seconds That Changed Games Forever - "Evo Moment #37. But was it really a superhuman feat of reflexes?".
Critique
Watch (19 mins) - what no man's sky has lost - "No Mans Sky has had one of the most successful comebacks in all of video games. While it's a lot more enjoyable for many, it's lost a little bit of what made it special when it first came out".
Watch (33 mins) - The Shocking Inoffensiveness of HORSES - It's the game banned from Steam and Epic. Super Bunnyhop gave it a go and discovered... "it's absolutely not morally depraved. In fact it's kind of morally preachy" .
Artistry
Read - Left 4 Dead’s Graffiti Is So Memorable Because It Was Made By People—A Whole Lot Of People - "We covered several walls of the office in butcher paper and laid out dozens of markers, pencils and pens, and we invited literally anyone who happened to be walking past to contribute".
Read - Inside The Dragon Age II 'Writers' Pit' - Aftermath has an excerpt from the Boss Fight Books, uh, book about Bioware's polarising sequel.
Watch (43 mins) - The Best Game Animation of 2025 - New Frame Plus provides its typically awesome annual round-up.
Watch (16 mins) - Zelda's best dungeon theme - Thomas discusses "Face Shrine, a dungeon theme from Link's Awakening. This piece of music is creepy, foreboding, [and] dangerous-sounding".
Watch (15 mins) - How Resolution BREAKS Artistic Vision - "Remasters and rereleases often upgrade older games to have pin-sharp high resolutions. But...sometimes this 'easy upgrade' has some awkward side effects".
History
Read - Black & White at 25 - "Peter Molyneux, Google DeepMind's Richard Evans and more on a "groundbreaking" game's creation and legacy".
Watch (12 mins) - How Pre-Rendered Backgrounds Defined Early 3D Gaming - "A staple of 90s games that defined an era of classic games to overcome early limitations of 3D console gaming hardware".
Watch (26 mins) - Final Fantasy 7's Beautiful & Baffling Designs - Second Wind's J tackles the same topic, but focused exclusively on FF7.
Watch (11 mins) - The Origins of the Game Boy - RetroBreak looks at the handheld consoles that predate Nintendo's big brick.
Beyond Games
Watch (35 mins) - 7 Things I Wish I Knew Before Making A Movie - Patrick Willems recently released a movie with an actual team and budget. Here's what he learned.