If I Can Get Everything, Choices Don't Matter
I was only about 10 hours into The Division 2, a game that I expect I will play for dozens of hours when I realized…
Dreams Beta Players Are Building Jupiter's Moons And Beautiful Fried Eggs
Dreams, Media Molecule’s sandbox for people to create, share, and play one another’s games, has been in closed beta…
The Brilliant Use of Fear And Scale In Batman: Arkham Asylum’s Scarecrow Levels
The Arkham games are Batman at his best, combining intense action sequences against an iconic gallery of villains with…
The Tricks That Make Echo's Stealth Gameplay So Tense
The enemies in Echo copy any action that you perform until they’re highly dangerous walking death machines. Level…
What Video Game Levels Look Like Before They're Finished
Ever wanted a glimpse at what games like Uncharted 4 and Titanfall look like before they’re finished?
Learning To Make Games Helps Me Appreciate Them More
In the past, I’ve thought a little about making a game, but never got around to learning actual coding. Recently, I’ve…
Game Developers Explain Some Of Their Favorite Ways To Trick The Player
Games lie to us all the time. Recently, some developers took to Twitter to share a few of their ones, revealing design…
Sonic Mania's Clever Boss Fight Twists
Sonic Mania’s a lot of fun but one of its most exciting features is a dangerous string of bosses. Reshuffling and…
Everything You Wanted To Know About Super Mario 64's Surfaces
People have been playing Super Mario 64 for years but few have plumbed the depths of how it was constructed and the…
Magic: The Gathering's Head Designer Has A Damn Hard Job
“Magic is secretly, not really … it’s not one game,” head Magic: The Gathering designer Mark Rosewater told me. “It is…
Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Gets Video Game Collectibles Right
Nearly every open world game makes the player collect random garbage, and it’s almost never fun. Instead, collectibles…
Simpler Video Game Menus Are Better
The release of the former Wii U exclusive Yoshi’s Woolly World to the Nintendo 3DS demonstrates once again that gaming…
Undertale Creator Shares Notebook Full Of Early Concepts And Art
Undertale creator Toby Fox took to social media yesterday to show off some early notes about the game’s creation. The…
What Makes Final Fantasy XV's Aranea Highwind Boss Fight Great
Final Fantasy XV has some wonderful boss fights. Aranea Highwind offers an memorable encounter thanks to an onslaught…
A Closer Look At Dishonored 2’s Best Level
Dishonored 2 lives and dies by its level design. Tricky guard patrols and magical abilities don’t mean much without a…
Rage Was Actually Pretty Damn Good
I’ve been thinking a lot about Rage lately. Last week, I dove back in. Minutes became hours, and I soon realized I was…
Video Games And The Door Problem
“So what does a game designer do? Are you an artist? Do you design characters and write the story? Or no, wait, you’re…
Alien Isolation's Artificial Intelligence Was Good...Too Good
I stayed perfectly still after they chased me into the air vent. I hadn’t heard anything for several minutes. Surely…
Where Jenga Came From
“Jenga.” Depending on where you’ve played it, the very word conjures up memories of family holiday gatherings or boozy…
The Ten Commandments Of Video Game Menus
A good video game menu is like a good roadie: It stays out of the way. But still, far too many menus waste far too much…