Search Results for:

history

May 17th

…

  • Video Game Beards as Visual Storytelling: A Transgender Perspective – Uppercut Stacey Henley examines the history of beards in games, from technological workaround, to cartoonish character tropes, to ruggedness shorthand, and beyond.
  • How The Sims Has Been Quietly Queering Suburbia for Two Decades | Fanbyte Ariana DiValentino recounts 20 years of absolutely normal everyday queerness in The Sims.

“The Sims franchise has never been marketed as “queer” or “liberal” or “progressive” or any other politically-coded term. Queerness is just a built-in feature of the life simulation game, not unlike the way it is for

…

May 31st

…look closely at the world around us we can see the factors and influences that fanned those flames: a disregard for the facts of climate change, a ruling government that refused to properly resource firefighters, and a system of literal scorched earth policies. All those invisible factors that led to disaster become visible if we look close enough.”

History Lessons

A trio of retrospectives this week delve deeply into the titles of yesteryear… yesterdecade?

  • Space Invaders [1978] – Arcade Idea Arcade Idea digs into the rhythm, the music, the pointlessness of Space Invaders.
  • A…

August 15th

…examines the last, rarest, and purportedly worst game for the ill-fated Virtual Boy, as well as the curious developer who made it live.

“Most folk inclined to cover the Virtual Boy’s history are simply content to write off Virtual Lab as unfinished, borderline unplayable, and unworthy of any other further comment. But here on the Bad Game Hall of Fame, we take our studies very seriously. What this scientific paper sets out to demonstrate are the known circumstances of Virtual Lab’s development, to describe the depths of its gameplay, and to measure its ultimate impact on the…

Resident Evil 2

…for Polygon, RE2 Remake producer Tsuyoshi Kanda discussed having to bring “groundedness” to the game, since the realistic graphics would naturally throw the unbelievable parts of the game into sharp relief. This point is echoed by Ed Smith, who points out that the realism of the game extends only to the graphics and not the plot, which can lead to player discontent.

The graphical realism of the game naturally lends itself to the idea of the game holding a mirror up to reality in some way. Nic Reuben delves into the history of the zombie as metaphor and…

Metroid’s Samus Aran

…isolated from: other people.

Samus Is Shrinking

Since her debut — almost unanimously described as a “breakthrough” — Samus has unfortunately been at the mercy of clueless developers. She has been quite literally diminished. Samus, who was once 6’3″ and 198 pounds, is now visibly shorter than the male characters in her games. In “Samus Is Slowly Shrinking,” written in 2010, Amanda Lange presents a detailed history of how Samus’ creators have brought her in line with stereotypically feminine characteristics. While she, like many others, criticizes Other M, she observes that Other M is not solely to blame….

July 26th

…old DOS platformer, provoking tensions between its narrative framing and its constrained, secondhand game engine.

  • It Was Inevitable: An Interview with Tarn Adams on Dwarf Fortress | Sidequest Elvie Mae Parian chats with Tarn Adams of Dwarf Fortress fame about story systems, industry trends, and developing a game that can never be done.
  • Mystery House [1980] – Arcade Idea Arcade Idea embarks upon the task of excavating Mystery House from the obliterating influence of history to consider its charming and obtuse innovations on the adventure genre.
  • Necrobarista is Haunting, Innovative and Begging for Interpretation | Unwinnable Violet…

    • August 9th

    …into detail on game development cycles past and present with an angle on opening up games and play to underserved communities.

    • Here’s how Temtem’s community helped Crema Games strive for inclusive language – Gayming Magazine Astrid Johnson details a community-driven example of translating and localizing a game with inclusive pronouns into languages that have historically lacked that flexibility.
    • The Incredible Story Behind The Barbie As Rapunzel Video Game | Kotaku Ally McLean presents a deep deep dive into the development history of a late 90s Barbie game, spinning off into wider discussions about the games for girls

    …

    August 2020

    …affairs. (Manual captions) [Contains embedded advertising]

  • My Problem with Third Person Action Games – Leonardo da Sidci (8:06)

    Sid explains the accessibility problems he encounters in most third-person action games, as someone who has lost vision in one eye. (Manual captions)

  • I Hate Plaformers: A Look at Gaming Preferences. – Dutchy (6:50)

    Dutchy delves into how her personal gaming genre preferences are shaped by a confluence of life-history circumstances, gatekeeping attitudes and design habits. (Autocaptions)

  • Ooblets Fashion Review – Alexandra Orlando (19:56)

    Alexandra Orlando and DigitalMumbles chat about the evocations of the particular “one-note”

    …

    • September 20th

    …sci-fi strategy games. Check ’em out!

    • Masaya’s Mega Drive mechs | Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster Kimimi offers impressions on the design philosophy of 16-bit sci-fi strategy game Vixen 357.
    • X-COM | The Digital Antiquarian Jimmy Maher delves into the development history of the original X-COM, as well as the development philosophy of its designer.

    “In the early days of game development, there existed little to no separation between the roles of game programmer and game designer. Those stalwart pioneers who programmed the games they themselves designed could be grouped into two broad categories, depending

    …

    October 18th

    …the latest and greatest roguelikes/lites more accessible and engaging for a wider audience.

  • Dreamlike Play: The Wonder of Surrealism in Games | Videodame Jeremy Signor explores surrealism and magical realism in KRZ and Anodyne 2.
  • I Tried To Break Crusader Kings III With Lesbian Supremacy | Fanbyte Ruth Cassidy chronicles a history we could have had.

    • “I dedicate nearly a virtual lifetime to building up piety: buying indulgences, going on pilgrimages, and (crucially) abstaining from love affairs. All this to turn around at the last minute with a swift middle finger to the Pope and…