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yessss thissss

every time i've started writing a video script, even if i think i know exactly what i wanna say, i'll start digging into some primary sources and within like ten minutes i'll find something that instantly makes my piece 10x better

excellent game and also i think the battle system works better on a 2d grid

Having studied journalism and understanding what makes a good journalistic investigation definitely ruined 90% of youtube for me

This is why having an actual historian do work is important. There is nothing -wrong- with this kind of approach, but it is lacking in a depth about those human details which provide true light and site in time/place. That’s all the stuff we learn how to do in grad school!

I’m obsessed with this topic too! I have other recs to if you need more

Big fan, I've actually been watching them a lot this week

Definitely going to be checking out The Sweatbox now though

It's a thing you notice when you've interviewed devs for a while, they tend to forget many things and to sweep under the carpet interesting details. You have to find someone who loves to talk and has an eye for detail, or you won't get very far (and interviews can't become third degree interrogs)

I'd take it a step further and cut out all the youtuber video essays entirely. give me actors on actors for game devs! I know there are many reasons why we dont get this kind of stuff but it would a much healthier industry if we did i think

"oh no his latest video is 1 year old" ... "what do you mean he makes videos that are four and a half hours"

no worries, it's rough out there, if I have to hear one more person give me a play by play of an entire game (I already played) as content I'll scream

My upcoming book is incredibly human-focused, I like to think. Lots of details about where people hung out, relationships between departments, what technology factored in - all without leaving out the very important development stories of significant games.

It's one of their best!

Majuular is the best tuber out there I've found for this kind of thing. Most retros are shallow nostalgia-bait where some dingdong whines about how sad it was that Aerith died or something.

You're where I heard about it first!

Ahoy is great for this Just a shame they don't upload very often

I'd say he's done some really good research too! He's dug up old magazine articles, internal company newsletters and videos, interviews, game reviews etc.

Co-signing Majuular. All of his retrospectives are incredibly detailed when it comes to dev work. Me personally I'm not as worried about the dev experience as I am about the technical work of the game, but he does both so it's very nice.

100% - The Ultima series is one of my foundational game experiences, and I absolutely love his videos.

Came to recommend the same, Maj's Ultima videos are fantastic!

Loved all of those, especially the Oddworld one

I've watched the extended Oddworld interview multiple times, I adore that one Huge fan of noclip/people make games Some Halo 3 devs recently dropped a great video about the making of one of the campaign levels that I found very refreshing There's some great stuff out there!

I love this channel's retrospectives www.youtube.com/@strafefox

The only hidden knowledge I know about any game’s development is Anson Maddock and Mark Tedin completed all of their work for Alpha MTG in a Seattle coffee shop. Every day they would go in and paint from open to close while buying just enough coffee to keep the manager from kicking them out.

This post is my reminder to write more journal/dev logs as I go…

If your looking for into troubled developments (regardless if the game is good) then I'd recommend @mattmcmuscles.bsky.social what happen?

Thank you! I loved putting those videos together! Planning a handheld series too… I’ll make sure to find out what everyone’s favourite coffee was this time! 😂

i need this

And I do discuss how the game's source code writing style changes between software engineers so that's fairly close to talking about which devs used tabs or spaces, lol.

There are games out there which supposedly have those amazing and very deep stories. But then I watch an 1 hour video about it and it's the most surface level "analysis" (lore recap) there is

This is basically just how I feel about gaming YouTube in general; I'm looking for some well-made educational content and not just what might end up being a mirror of my own experience/feelings. Also too many videos are also just someone going through a wikipedia article and reading it.

Hell yeah. That one was great

I don’t do videos, but I write articles for retro gamer magazine and we always try to have direct interviews with developers. One of my interviews revealed that Shigeru Miyamoto was obsessed with McVities cookies when they were QAing Star Fox SNES. It’s a great magazine. Check it out.

I really, really want a book similar to Our Band Could Be Your Life but for game development. One of my favorite non-fiction reads, as it's less about the music and more about the people.

Or even vids titled i tried retro gaming and got some revolutionary insights only to get a, oh my gosh games back then had great design! Making me want to dislike the video and hit their comments with a certain LotR meme featuring a certain high elf

from drinking so much coffee. But we had a newborn that didn’t sleep so it might also have been that. At Moore Games I have a delonghi espresso machine, and it’s great.

this one on Thief is one of my favs: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zmc... also for the Myst series deep cut fans, this is a nice chat about Uru/Myst Online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmdQ...

It's not video but we have a long line of "making of" written pieces on the site which do just that: www.timeextension.com/tags/the-mak...

Oh my god PortsCenter! I really dug that series

This is seriously one of my most favorite movies ever made. A top 5.

Here Ill stop being a lazy git and link them www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHLZ... www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgBO...

i think i knew someone who worked on foodfight once

I thought this two-parter was a great look at the entire pipeline of what it takes to make a level, what teams are responsible for what, workarounds to tech limitations, and the invisible work that makes things feel good: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdfI...

artists are notoriously horny so there's a nonzero chance of this

I feel you on this and that's why I try to make sure all of my game docs unearth brand new information and media that people haven't seen before. www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Reading Wikipedia videos are misery

Some channels that dig real deep into these stories: GameHut, from former Director of Traveller's Tales youtube.com/@gamehut Kim Justice, EVERY VIDEO IS A FULL DOCUMENTARY 🔥, mainly British gaming history youtube.com/@kim_justice

I like Grimbeard and jwlar (they tend to have a history section in their vids that's pretty interesting), someone mentioned majuular already.