GMTK Digest (September 2024)

Hello Patrons! This month has flown by - feels like I only just did one of these things. But no mind - I'm back! The gaming news and releases are kicking into high tempo. And there's loads of fantastic stuff to read and watch. So get cozy and let's cover the headlines, the new releases, and the reading list.

Headlines

Nintendo and Pokémon are suing Palworld maker Pocketpair

Nintendo finally decided to sue the "Pokemon with guns" game - though, not for copyright. Instead it's for infringing upon the firm's patents. We'll see how this one goes.

Everything revealed in State of Play September 2024

Sony held one of its State of Play announcement thingies this month. Highlights include Astro Bot DLC, a Horizon remaster, the PS5 Pro, and - the big one - a follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima, coming next year. No mention of this next game, mind you...

An important update on Concord

Mere days after launch, Sony's beleaguered hero shooter Concord was removed from sale and everyone got their money back. With an estimated budget of $200 million, this might be one of the biggest disasters in gaming history.

Games featuring paid loot boxes will soon receive a mandatory 'M' rating in Australia

Simulated gambling mechanics like lootboxes have come under fire in various countries and regions. This is probably the biggest yet: games with blind bag unlocks will be kept from kids down under.

A message to our community: Unity is canceling the Runtime Fee

All that noise, nonsense, and destruction of goodwill was for nothing: Unity is cancelling its controversial "runtime fee" system (where devs would have to pay every time their game was installed). Instead, Unity will make more money by charging more per seat on its Pro and Enterprise plans.

New releases

UFO 50

There's a bit in Derek Yu's Spelunky book where he talks about discovering games by randomly trying different floppy disks on his parent's PC. His latest game, UFO 50, emulates that experience by giving you 50 8bit games, across loads of genres, to pick and poke at. I've tried a few so far and they are a delight.

Frostpunk 2

I loved Frostpunk: the circular city builder about keeping your population warm through a bitterly cold winter. This sequel looks to up the ante with more complexity in its social and political systems. I think I'll wait until the dead of winter to try this one. I haven't even put the heating on yet!

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Princess Zelda finally gets her own game, and it's an odd one: a puzzling adventure where you can copy and paste objects at will. Sounds like it brings the creativity of Tears of the Kingdom into the classic top-down perspective. Intriguing! It's out today so I'll play it over the weekend.

Astro Bot

A delightful 3D platformer in its own right, with Nintendo levels of creativity and imagination. There's a level where you play a sponge! And another where you can swap from big to small with a button press! But it's also a celebration of all things PlayStation, with cameo references to everything from Uncharted and Horizon to Vib Ribbon, Buzz, Loco Roco, and Um Jammer Lammy. I binged this one like crazy.

The Plucky Squire

I haven't tried this one yet, but it's essentially a game where a storybook character can leap out into the real world - before popping back into the pages. Reviews suggest what I always fear with this sort of game: more time went into the presentation and art style than the actual gameplay. IGN says "it drags on a bit too long after it's already used up all of its best ideas".

Reading list

Astro Bot 50

[Read] Spelunky's Derek Yu talks crafting UFO 50 and creating an entirely fictional developer - "We always thought this collection was a great way to introduce people to games they might not think they'd be interested in."

[Read] UFO 50 - "The games themselves are only a tiny part of what I find so exciting about UFO 50."

[Watch | CC | 12 mins] What Astro Bot Developers Did Differently - Size doesn't always matter, when it comes to game dev.

[Read] Astro Bot's Soulless Devotion To The Sony Brand Is A Real Problem - "This is, for the most part, not something actively, inquisitively engaged with the history of video games as a medium. It’s a parade float game."

[Read] Astro Bot Isn't A Celebration, It's A Graveyard - "[Fans are] seeing Astro Bot as one big celebration of the past 30 years of PlayStation just in time for its anniversary, but all I see is a graveyard of wasted potential."

Design

[Watch | CC | 8 mins] Reward scheduling and Stardew Valley - "I argue that it's primarily the overlapping reward schedules that make this game so easy to get lost in."

[Read] Zelda-Inspired Plucky Squire Shows What Happens When A Game Doesn't Trust Its Players - "As I played the game, though, I did find myself wishing that The Plucky Squire actually believed in its audience as much as it claims to."

[Watch | CC | 36 mins] The Question No One Asks Shigeru Miyamoto - "In this video, I unpack the meaning behind Shigeru Miyamoto's 'Miniature Garden' phrase."

[Watch | CC | 25 mins] The Greatest Evil A Game Can Commit - Video games often mess with conventions and expectations. But few dare to fiddle with the faithful save room.

Development

[Watch | 11 mins] How to Start Making Games with No Experience - Goodgis lists tools, engines, and approaches that will get you started with making games.

[Watch | 12 mins] Making Successful Indie Games Is Simple (But Not Easy) - Another banger from Jonas Tyroller, with some no-nonsense advice on how to find success on Steam.

[Watch | CC | 53 mins] Concord: How to Lose $200M in 12 Days - Longer than it needs to be, but this video does at least go into the myriad reasons why Concord was such a monstrous flop.

[Watch | CC | 36 mins] The Origin Story Behind Counter-Strike's Most Iconic Map - "[Noclip] reveals the remarkable tale of how a teenage hobbyist accidentally made one of Counter-Strike's most iconic maps. And then accidentally did it again."

Culture

[Read] Demo Disc - "Welcome to Demo Disc, a weekly selection of game demos inspired by the video game magazines of the nineties, frisbeeing across the Internet straight to your inbox every Friday."

[Watch | CC | 1 hour, 13 mins] The Games Behind Your Government's Next War - "Quinns explores the disconcertingly-familiar world of government-funded, military wargaming and its relationship with the commercial games industry."

[Read] The Harrowing Methods to Achieve 100% Cookie Clicker Completion - "A game that was released in 2013 and that still has a community dedicated to spending thousands of hours trying to get all of its 637 Steam achievements."

[Read] Playing Concord at the end of its world - "After jumping in during the final hours, Polygon spoke to a half dozen Concord players about riding out the game in its death throes."

Critique

[Read] What makes a Game of the Year winner? - Looking at The Game Awards, "our analysis of previous GOTY nominations and winners, with a particular focus on the last four years, shows some very marked trends, and some very big blind spots."

[Read] Ideologies Kinda Feller - "The problem is that video games are often so systematic and so mechanical that they are only able to illustrate perfect visions of ideologies."

[Read] What was going on in that Tomb Raider reboot anyway? - "These checklists cannot obscure that the flesh is rotten. 7/10."

Artistry

[Read] How translators performed the herculean task of localizing the most incomprehensibly British videogame of all time - Thank Goodness You're Here is a rapid fire joke machine, with infinite references to UK culture. How do you make that work in French, or Chinese?

[Watch | 20 mins] The Beauty of Isometric Video Games - Modern Vintage Gamer looks at the games that straddled the line between 2D and 3D. Like Fallout, Syndicate, and Diablo. No Sims though. Boo!

[Watch | CC | 24 mins] The Overanimation of Zenless Zone Zero - "MiHoYo's latest gacha game is eye-catching and very fun to look at, BUT its animation has also got some problems that it's important for an animator to be able to recognize."

History

[Watch | 14 mins] How Pilotwings 64 on the N64 Revolutionized 3D Gaming - "Pilotwings 64 defined what was possible with 3D on the Nintendo 64 and could sit right alongside PC flight simulators in terms of its graphics and technology".

Beyond Games

[Watch | CC | 8 mins] Do I Regret TikTok? - Science communicator Hank Green has spent years cultivating an audience on TikTok. Was that a mistake?