This is the vault for gaming design, titles released in the past that are still relevant today for design or plot choices.
Everyone happens to get a great idea every once in a while. Those brilliant concept that almost approach pure genius, at least until some time has passed and everyone realizes exactly just how stupid and/or insane the concept actually was and phew! Aren’t we all glad that no one bothered to take it to the…
Are violent videogames to blame for society’s inherent evil? A burning question which has plagued the industry ever since the release of Doom and Mortal Kombat. If one thinks about it a whole two seconds, the answer should be obvious: society has been evil since the days before Christ. Videogames are, like movies or books,…
What do Zeus and Zombies have in common? Well, other than the letter Z obviously, not very much one would say, but Lucasarts would beg to differ, especially Mike Ebert and Dean Sharpe, The two designers were mainly responsible for Zombies Ate my Neighbors and Herc’s Adventures, two smaller arcade titles released by Lucasarts on…
Created by Stan Sakai as an homage to japanese culture and cinema, Usagi Yojimbo sits among the cult comic books of the 80s. Still being published today, the episodic comics revolve around the adventures of an antromoporphic samurai rabbit, with a mature and serious approach to japanese folk legends and classic Kurosawa movies. Because of…
How do you go around making a sequel to one of the most famous arcade maze games fourteen years later? Wait but… weren’t there already sequels to the original game? Actually, no. Ms. Pac-man was a spin-off, Pac-mania was a “reimagining”, Pac-land another spin-off, even though it did look and play like a sort of…
Since I’ve recently talked about Will Wright’s crazy helicopter sim that managed to save Maxis from bankruptcy, I’d say it makes sense to take a look at another of his helicopter titles. Apparently, Will took a trip on an helicopter when he was a kid and had been totally fascinated with them since. Raid on…
After the resounding success of SimCity 2000, Maxis was struggling to find a market for its software library. Their line of “SIM” titles, ever since the beginning, appeared to have no particular philosophy. SimTower was first released in Japan by OpenBook then Maxis subsequently converted it for PC and consoles, SimTown, in 1995, was developed…
Combining elements from different genres is arguably the basis for many indie gaming titles, especially ones with a message that consistently accompanies the gameplay. In the early eighties, there was no strict definition of genre, except for broad strokes like “arcade” or “adventure”. Innovation heavily relied on the game designer’s tastes and knowledge of the…
As a kid I hated Japanese RPGs with a passion, I remember saying over and over again having no intention of ever playing a Final Fantasy title or anything remotely close to it. This was mainly because of my prejudice and of my upbringing with Western RPGs like Rings of Power and Buck Rogers. The…
How many Pac-man inspired titles exist in the world? Well, as many Space Invaders and Arkanoid ones, I’m guessing. Those were the bread and butter of the early days of home computers: easy to program and a surefire hit with gamers who, back then, didn’t really have a lot of expectations. Rootin’Tootin’ (which actually makes…
