Useful game design talks / vids for retro dev?

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FrankenGraphics
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Useful game design talks / vids for retro dev?

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Sometimes when i prepare a meal or before i go to bed, i listen to game design talks. There are so many, and the quality varies. Many don't apply to nes- or other retro dev since they're focusing on modern 3D games, mobile games or very business-oriented production models.

I thought a thread to collect some good videos i/you think *may* apply or pique homebrewers' interest may be useful:

A few ones i found to be useful recently. YMMV.

Dan Cox - Interior Design and Environment Art: Mastering Space, Mastering Place. Vid. Length: 1hr 01 min.
Summarizes some learning outcome from the fields of interior design, architecture and environment art for the sake of level design. While he states upfront that this talk doesn't apply to 2d experiences, i think he's wrong. Just actively think about the how the things he says would apply, and they will. How confined vs large spaces affect the player, narrowing and widening halls, repetition vs variation, order vs chaos, patterns in view and on the macro scale. Not just talk; lots of demonstrations. Good stuff.

Itay Keren - How cameras in side-scrolling games works. Vid. Length 52m 34s
Not really just about side scrollers. The term is used loosely. Walks through, demonstrates and gives name to various 2d scrolling techiques using old and new 2d games as example with overlay visuals to illustrate the techniques.

Post yours if you have any!
Last edited by FrankenGraphics on Mon Jan 08, 2018 4:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: Useful game design talks / vids for retro dev?

Post by FrankenGraphics »

LOL! Is this in response to the shiftyness of some game design talks? :lol:
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nin-kuuku
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Re: Useful game design talks / vids for retro dev?

Post by nin-kuuku »

http://www.thegamedesignforum.com
Stuff about ff6, ff7, chrono trigger and mario world.
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rainwarrior
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Re: Useful game design talks / vids for retro dev?

Post by rainwarrior »

I loved Mark Cerny's recent Marble Madness postmortem, I think there were a lot of surprising things about how it was made:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klPs3KrXiJE

Steve Golson talking with a Ms. Pac Man postmortem. This gets a lot into the interesting business decisions surrounding it too (e.g. trying to make an add-on conversion board, developing tech for that, trying to avoid legal issues and prevent piracy, pitching it to companies, etc.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhM8NAMW_VQ
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Re: Useful game design talks / vids for retro dev?

Post by Dwedit »

Midway ended up loving the anti-piracy features Ms. Pac Man had on there, even though the motivation to include them in the first place was completely different.
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