GMTK Digest (November 2024)

Hello gamers! You'll have to forgive me for being a little self indulgent on this one (starting with the header image!) - it's not every day you release your own video game on Steam.

But there was more to November than just Mind Over Magnet (though it certainly didn't feel that way!). So let's take a moment to remember the headlines, new releases, and must-read articles in your handy GMTK Digest.

Headlines

Sony Working on Handheld Console for PS5 Games to Rival Switch - File this one under rumour, but Bloomberg is reporting that Sony's got a new PSP up its sleeve. And Microsoft wants to make a portable, too.

The Game Awards Nominees Revealed - I find it hard to care about The Game Awards, but it's been fun to see gamer dorks getting heated about Balatro as a game of the year contender. Why not! It's great!

Trump’s Proposed Tariffs Will Hit Gamers Hard - If Trump goes through with his promise to slap mega tariffs on Chinese imports then Americans will see big price tags on consoles and peripherals.

Valve sets new guidelines for devs selling season passes on Steam - A consumer friendly system from Valve will see players getting an automatic refund if developers take too long to deliver on season pass promises. Nice.

New Releases

Slitterhead

Keiichiro Toyama is a horror game expert, having kicked off the Silent Hill and Siren franchises. So his latest game was always going to be worth a play. This is a pretty bizarre game where you can possess random people wandering about Hong Kong in order to solve puzzles, sneak through buildings, and fight gross demons. I found it fascinating, but truthfully not that much fun to actually play.

The Rise of the Golden Idol

The Case of the Golden Idol was a detective game treat. I'm pumped for this sequel, which is set some 300-odd years after the original. But I'm saving it to play with my wife over the Christmas break. So no spoilers!

Mind Over Magnet

I know. I know! It's naughty of me to put my own game here. But in the world of GMTK this is a rather notable release. If you don't know, MOM is a charming puzzle platformer about a little robot and his magnet friends as they work together to escape a factory. I can't believe it's finally out.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

The first STALKER game was a treat: a grungy, janky, spooky shooter that stood out from all the same-y western FPS franchises. Almost 20 years later we finally get a full sequel. I'm dying to play it, but it looks like the game might need a couple more patches to fix up the inevitable launch week problems.

Also this month - the brothers are back in Mario & Luigi: Brothership. More theme park fun in Planet Coaster 2. The LEGO game no one seemed to be asking for, LEGO Horizon Adventures. And another GMTK Game Jam alum with Globs.

Reading List

Design

Watch (2 hours) - Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Documentary - Valve talks "about the game's development, how we almost ran out of money, what it was like when we were hacked, and what happened when we were sued by our publisher".

Read - Why Stalker: Shadow of Chornobyl's difficulty modes have divided players for over a decade - "There is an unvarnished cruelty to Stalker’s world that suits a gnarly difficulty setting."

Watch (11 mins) - The Triangle Button Design of The Last of Us - "The Last of Us is only interesting because it is a video game."

Read - The world is ending but here's a side quest - will RPGs ever solve their urgency problem? - "Why is it that in a role-playing game where the stakes are usually 'the end of the world', the end of the world always has to wait for us to finish our sprawling to-do list first?"

Watch (10 mins) - Symphony of the Night's UI is Fascinatingly Bad - Yahtzee rants about the interface design of one of gaming's great entries. It's true! The pause menu is an abomination.

Read - On Camouflage and Leveraging Common Knowledge - "One of the best places to start when constructing game mechanics is to think about what players already internalized outside of the realm of games".

Read - The anatomy of a scare: how do games frighten you? - "Is there a science to it, a formula for fear, and does it change according to the game you're making?" Eurogamer asks the devs behind Slitterhead, Signalis, Dead by Daylight and more.

Read - Superman is the white whale of video game superheroes - "He may be faster than a speeding bullet and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but the world’s first superhero has yet to star in a good video game".

Development and Business

Read - Make Your First Game with Sam - "Every month Sam Bass - Epic technical designer and a game developer with nearly 30 years of experience in the AAA, indie and experimental spaces - will share a chapter of his practical, user friendly, new game developer oriented guide to making games".

Watch (32 mins) - Should Game Developers Make Devlogs? - Choo-Choo Charles developer Two Star made millions by showing the game off on YouTube. But is it a useful strategy for all game makers?

Watch (22 mins) - Why a Video Game Trilogy Was Sacrificed to Make Inscryption - "Discover how developer Daniel Mullins participated in a Ludum Dare game jam and came up with the concept that ultimately led to Inscryption".

Watch (2 hours) - The blood on our Controllers - "An amateur documentary made to denounce the role of the video game industry in the normalization of the Palestinian genocide, through its close relation with the military industrial complex."

Culture and Critique

Watch (27 mins) - Digging Into the Worrying Depths of AI Minecraft - "AI-generated Minecraft is something you can try right now (you shouldn't), and for so many reasons it's the worst game I've ever played".

Watch (33 mins) - Games That Hide Their Own Sequels - Jacob Geller looks at the games that are secretly sequels to themselves.

Read - Don’t let Arco be the most overlooked game of the year - "Whether it’s a fight or dialogue pop-up, the Arco team is constantly ratcheting up the stakes of a war for a nation."

Read - These games didn't get Game Awards nominations, but they absolutely deserve recognition - "The idea is just to celebrate a few more games and artists that didn’t get as much recognition and, hopefully, put them on more people’s radar."

Read - The Silent Hill 2 remake is a horror game with the lights on - "Bloober Team's recreation of a horror masterpiece trades subtlety for high fidelity, and loses its ugly humanity in the process."

Read - Dragon Quest Is Always Dragon Quest - "Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is a smash in Japan because people always know exactly what they'll get from a Dragon Quest game".

Read - Dragon Age Has Always Been Gay As Hell - "The Veilguard is getting hate for its same-sex relationships and trans storylines, but this is the natural evolution of a series that’s always been queer".

History

Watch (9 mins) - Keeping Score on the NES - "Enter the weird world of programming & displaying numbers on the NES."

Watch (3 hours) - The Entire History of Japanese RPGs - Got three hours? Then find out how we got from Dragon Quest to Persona 5.

Read - Deus Ex Aesthetics - "A Deep Dive into the Aesthetics of Ion Storm's Sci-Fi Action-RPG".

Beyond Games

Watch (17 mins) - BEST LEGO sets of 2024 - Ex LEGO designer turned reviewer Tiago Catarino reveals the best sets of the year. Warning: watching this video may impact your wallet.

Watch (40 mins) - Our Culture is Eating Itself - My hate letter to modern cinema.

Watch (11 mins) - How Bad Plotting Ruined Beetlejuice 2 - "Beetlejuice 2 was dragged down by having far too many plotlines. Here, I break it down and suggest how to make it a better movie."

Watch (7 mins) - The Time Travel Movie That Doesn't Move - Nerdwriter looks at La Jetée, a movie made from still pictures (but not like how all movies are technically made from still pictures, you know?).