This is the vault for gaming design, titles released in the past that are still relevant today for design or plot choices.
For the first episode of the Genesis Temple’s podcast I got in touch with Mark Yohalem, of Studio Wormwood. I was impressed with Strangeland and the staggering amount of thought-provoking information provided in the developer’s commentary. We gscheduled a chat, then just went from there, touching upon several topics like Loom, Sanitarium, puzzle design in…
The discussion on storytelling in videogames, especially that around its inherent value, seems to be centered around whether interactivity seems to, somehow, lessen the value of such kind of fiction. Still, as early as the mid 60s, interactive fiction emerged as one of the earliest form of gaming, going on to enjoy great success in…
Shadowfire still is one of 1985’s most celebrated home computer titles, produced by young newcomers British developers Denton Designs (the Home of Happiness?), it also was (apparently) the first commercially released title by designer Steven Cain. He developed one of the first adventure games to feature an icon-based interface, that the player could use to…
In our current gaming discussion, questions about the value of “interactivity” seem to have taken a backseat. With Virtual Reality becoming an affordable and – mostly – reliable technology, the “headset and controllers” combination seem to be the end-all for interactive experiences. Not unlike the future imagined by writers and directors in the 80s and…
Futuristic sports have been a moderately successful gaming genre during the whole of the 80s and early 90s, with the Bitmap Brothers’ Speedball II being probably the last great title. Even though there have been some exceptions, even in the last years, it is safe to say that both public and developers have mostly moved…
Back in 2001 – as Dr. Frank N. Furter would put it – it wasn’t easy to have a good time. There were few alternatives, for a PC gamer, to full price titles bought on store shelves: the good free indie titles were still far on the horizon and Macromedia Flash wasn’t yet ready for…
Allow me the comparison: Skitchin’ was to Road Rash what Beavis & Butthead were to The Simpsons. Where Road Rash was direct, brash and kind of rude, Skitchin was rad, awesome and not afraid to flip the bird. Grab your skates, steal a ride on a car bumper and we’re off! Skitchin’, for once on…
The point’n’click fans are a pretty weird bunch: always hungry for more games but rarely interested in going beyond their platform of choice to find some more. I used to be one of them so I can relate to that frame of mind. Among many classic home computers, the Commodore 64 is far from being…
Arcade conversions on Commodore 64, despite sounding like a bad idea for most players, were a major source of revenue for many publishers at the time. Naturally, most coin-ops from the mid 80s were way beyond the beloved breadbin’s limited hardware. Plenty of times, the public was horribly letdown by subpar or unplayable conversions, like…
Nintendo versus Sega. A battle for the ages that made many kids’ blood boil during the 90s, no holds barred bout fought via scathing slogans and – who could forget – the war of the bits. Eight bit, sixteen bits, Genesis does, Nintendon’t and so on. Even though Sega gave up the fight many years…