This is the vault for gaming design, titles released in the past that are still relevant today for design or plot choices.
While playing and remembering various movie tie-ins products, there was one question I found myself unable to answer: how did a publisher decide which movie to license to a game developer (or viceversa)? Despite still not having a clear answer, for the sake of this article, though, my guess would be: box office success with…
Trolls and Tribulations is one of the earliest games I remember being fascinated by. In my early days as a “gaming journalist”, in elementary school, the teacher gave us a free essay theme so I decided to do a full write-up about the game, my (pirated) copy was called “Mario e i mostri” (Mario and…
Compact disc? HA! That will never catch on! In the early nineties, a new medium started to emerge, one that would revoluzionize the industry: the compact disc. Indeed, CD-Rom with its incredible 650 MB of space seemed like too much space for the mid 90s, there had to be ways to fill that space. Thus…
In 25 years of gaming journalism I’ve written four articles about Rings of Power, even though this is my first in English. On one hand it will be a load off my shoulders if this is the last time I’m publishing something about this game. Maybe, finally, this time I will say everything I want…
Released in 1985 for the Commodore 64, designed by Ian Gray (“don’t you forget it” he reminds us, in a half threatning way, in a secret message in the code), Fiona Rides Out is the first horror game I remember being literally scared by. As a young kid, I was always more afraid of sounds…
Hello, my name is Damiano. Don’t ask me about Loom cause I have never played it. During that wonderful period that was the 90s, it was the one classic Lucasarts adventure games that no one talked about nor had a copy laying around to play. Monkey Island was everywhere and so were Day of the…
Tie-in games based on movies have always been one of my greatest passions, especially because they tend to be a great showcase of bad design ideas, even more in those rare occasions when the movie they’re based on seems well suited to be brought to the video game realm. It is difficult not to love…
I had barely recovered from the Winter steam sale that here they go again with a new one! Well, this time I’m sticking to my guns and I won’t buy anything, or at least try to. Let’s go with the usual mix of genres and indie classics and relative unknown titles. CITIZENS OF EARTH Have…
No one was paying attention to the end of the decade that fateful 31st of December 1999. Hey, we had more important things on our hands. It was the end of the millennium! Perhaps, people were busy sending heaps of sms to their friends and family and trying to remember to turn off your pc…
A dead end can never be a one way street. You can always turn around and take another road. Unless you’re playing King’s Quest. Saving and reloading is one of those abilities one would wish to actually use in real life. All problems would fade away: forgetting to pay the rent, dying in a car…