How Shovel Knight's Developers Modernized NES Game Design
The 2014 indie hit Shovel Knight paid homage to the Nintendo Entertainment System’s pixel art and game design, but its…
The Night They Turned On The First NBA Jam Machine
In this early excerpt from NBA Jam, a book from Boss Fight Books and author Reyan Ali coming in 2018, we learn about…
How Sega Planned To Crush Nintendo, 24 Years Ago
Blake J. Harris' book Console Wars, out tomorrow, takes readers behind enemy lines to meet the men and women who…
Your Guide To Killing Zombies
Before there was The Vampire Combat Manual, there was The Zombie Combat Manual. In the excerpt below, author Roger Ma…
Seven Misconceptions about Vampires To Keep In Mind as You Kill Them
The author of The Zombie Combat Manual Roger Ma is back with a new guidebook: The Vampire Combat Manual, which…
How Hollywood Managed To Not Screw Up Mortal Kombat, The Movie
Editor's note: Hollywood seems to have a penchant for shitty video game adaptations, don't they? But the utter disaster…
Talking Companion Cubes, Zombie Rushes and An Australian Eating Raw Steak and Beating Up Hippies
Valve Presents: The Sacrifice And Other Steam-Powered Stories goes on sale later this month. The 208-page hardcover…
The Next Chapter in the Halo Saga Begins Right Here
The road to 343 Industries' Halo 4 begins today with the release of Halo: Glasslands, the beginning of a new series…
From Yale To Persia: Read the Private Diaries Of Gaming's Renaissance Man
In 1985 Jordan Mechner was a student at Yale riding high on a mix of euphoria over the surprise success of his first…
The Quantum Thief: An Excerpt
The Quantum Thief, released in the UK last year and in the U.S. this month, is a heist story set in a future of…
Halo: Cryptum - The First Full Chapter
THE FORERUNNER STORY-the history of my people-has been told many times, with greater and greater idealization, until I…
Hull Zero Three - An Excerpt
Author Greg Bear isn't just a one-time Kotaku guest columnist and a prize-winning science fiction author. He's also…
Tearing the Sky - An Excerpt
The former head of the Game Developers Conference and current Electronic Arts indie headhunter just published his…
How Erotic Games Learned To Cry
In the new book Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential, our very own Kotaku Senior Contributing Editor Brian Ashcraft and…
The Continuing Evolution of Gabe and Tycho
Excerpts from the book The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11 1/2 Anniversary Edition. Reprinted with express…
The Game Fiction Dilemma: Knights of the Old Republic vs The Sands of Time
Excerpts from the book Expressive Processing. Reprinted with express permission of the author.
Interviews With Ex-Hardcore Gamers ... And New Casual Ones
Excerpts from A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games And Their Players by Jesper Juul
Reprinted with permission…