The Bottom Feeder

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

In my last post about Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Z:TotK for short), a very popular game, I suggested that people would be interested in thoughtful criticism of slightly older games, once the dust has settled and people had the chance to calmly reflect about them. Most people don't actually care about deep dives into game design.

Cutscenes 80

Cutscenes Terrain Games Puzzle 80

Radiator Blog

OCTOBER 13, 2022

SPOILER WARNING: I keep specific story spoilers vague, but I do have to talk about what happens in the games somehow. Still, you can argue that it's a stunning achievement just to be able to debate these questions in a video game. There's a Portal-like moment where you escape the puzzle. Well, I don't know anything about that.

Indy 52

Indy Film Games Puzzle 52

Keith Burgun

APRIL 10, 2023

As I’ve gone through the Final Fantasy series recently , it’s notable that the games used to have secrets, and now, they pretty much don’t anymore. Somewhere in the late 90s, and certainly by the mid 2000s, it was decided that secrets are bad and games shouldn’t have them. What are secrets in videogames?

Fantasy 52

Fantasy Puzzle Content Cutscenes 52

Keith Burgun

JUNE 18, 2022

Framed as almost more like a sport / abstract strategy game, and therefore light on narrative. unlocking better cards etc) – the game is always fair and basically just gets harder the better you get, to match your skill level and keep you at 50% winrate. Auro and Gem Wizards Tactics meet these criteria quite well, I think.

Games 52

Games Puzzle Cutscenes Graphics 52

Raph Koster

SEPTEMBER 1, 2022

I just watched a couple of videos about sandbox vs themepark games (in particular one by NerdSlayer and another by Josh “Strife” Hayes )… One thing that struck me about the ways players often talk about this (because at this point the history is so old) is that people think of sandbox as the older version of MMOs, and themeparks as newer.

Sandbox 64

Sandbox Simulation Content Scripting 64

Radiator Blog

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

This is similar to my tactics games writeup and Enderal (huge Skyrim mod) writeup where I spoil some interesting game designer / systems design things. I don't discuss much of the game narrative. I assume general game design knowledge but minimal Deathloop-specific knowledge.

Fighting 52

Fighting NPC Puzzle AI 52