What does it take to be a game? Win states? Rules? The questions pop up again and again. And as expectations for games grow, we try to answer these questions with increasing confidence. Are games just code, or are they something more poetic? Titles like No Man’s Sky or Abzu offer richly realized spaces to…
Layers of Fear: Inheritance is the new DLC for Bloober Team’s surprisingly good horror game Layers of Fear, now out for PC and consoles. Taking place long after the main game, you play as the daughter of a manic painter returning to her childhood home in search of answers. What really happened to your father?…
One Night in Karazhan is the latest expansion to Hearthstone, adding a slew of new cards and a frantic single player adventure. It’s as good a reason as any to jump into the game after a long break, which is exactly what I did. Can my rusty skills defeat Prince Malchezaar? Watch above to find…
AM2R is a full scale remake of 1991’s Game Boy classic Metroid II: Return of Samus. In the works for years, the fan-made game updates the original to modern standards. It was released just in time to celebrate Metroid’s 30th birthday before the project was hit with a DMCA from Nintendo. Nintendo does not want…
Breach and Clean is a wonderfully goofy room service simulator made by Rami Ismail and a small team of mischief makers. You can download it for Windows here if you want to test your room service skills. From strapping bombs to locked doors to mopping up floor and changing out the towels, Breach and Clean…
I have fond memories of hack and slash RPG adventures like Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance and while I love Diablo 3, variety is the spice of life! Enter Brutal (self stylized as Brut@l), a roguelike dungeon crawler by Stormcloud Games coming to the Playstation 4 on August 9th. With a great marriage of ASCII influenced…
Overwatch’s new hero Ana Amari is a badass support sniper who can shoot you with bullets to heal you or just shoot you to kill you. In this video, we’ll take a closer look at her mechanics and what they communicate. What does Ana tell us about Overwatch? What does she tell us about AAA…
Headlander is a wild new Metroidvania for PS4 and PC from the folks at Double Fine Productions and Adult Swim Games. It is a disco fever dream mix of shooting, puzzles, and exploration. It’s pretty damn swell to play as a floating head! Join me as I talk about director Lee Petty’s approach to design,…
Asemblance and Inside are wonderfully haunting games that love to confuse the player. While this might be annoying to some, I think it’s pretty great. In this video, we’ll take a look at how games can design for confusion and how that can radically change the experience. Note: I make reference to controller use in…
If you’re hungry for a quick and quirky couch co-op fix, Videoball is here to scratch that itch. Game designer and former Kotaku contributor Tim Rogers, along with the rest of the team at Action Button Entertainment, have smashed together Asteroids and Pong to make a pretty fun game. Join me for a match as…
Cliff Bleszinski and the team at Boss Key Productions are pulling out all the stop for Lawbreakers, a frantic first person shooter that’s currently in closed alpha. What’s it all about? I played a match and caused some mayhem. It turns out that breaking the law includes a ton of zero gravity action and sweet…
With Red Dead Redemption finally backwards compatible on the Xbox One, it’s time to look back at Rockstar’s Western masterpiece. A staggering example of AAA design gone horribly right, Red Dead is one hell of a game. Join me in this video for an adventure full of bounty hunters, sharpshooting, and shenanigans!
The BioShock Collection is on the way, promising to return us to Rapture and Columbia. But what about System Shock? It’s been over twenty years since we first met SHODAN and battled through Citadel Station. Night Dive Studios has taken up the cause of remastering the PC classic, but do they remember what made it…
The new PC game Tick Tock Bang Bang serves up some of the best slo-mo action out there. It’s a colorful thriller full of giant robots and insane stunts. In this critical look, I’ll show you how a very simple design choice leads to spectacular results! Transcript: I’m often blown away by how much games…
Dark hallways, bloody murder, cockroaches, and creeps. Resident Evil 7‘s new demo Beginning Hour is eager to return the horror franchise back to something subtler and terrifying. It is slow. It is quiet. And yeah, it’s also pretty dang scary! How does it all work? What are the design tricks at play? In this video,…
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