G’day team and happy pride month! 🏳️🌈
Woof it’s been a wild week of non stop gaming news, we really do just get a fire hose twice a year don’t we?
As a point of difference, I deliberately steer this newsletter away from the topic on everyone’s lips. There’s a million places you can read about the latest SGF news, so why don’t I spend some time highlighting other works, though there may be a few related stories.
As always this is the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter to my website Reconnect, the only place on the internet that aggregates nearly 300 active video game blogs of a variety of flavours.
This week we’re covering, game genres, nurturing games, censorship, analytics, and much much more.
Let’s dig in!
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Great Write Ups
What’s in a rating?: Crossplay guest poster Katya Ryabova looks into whether game ratings are actually doing their job in regards to parents picking appropriate games.
Censoring Pride: Video Games Industry Memo has a great deep dive into how queer content in video games is censored eight ways from Sunday.
Looking back at Mudman: Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games takes a look at the character Mudman from World Heroes 2 and asks the question, was the representation of this character above board?
Schrodinger’s Cat: Thinky Games interviews the developer who successfully turned the philosophical concept of Schrodinger’s Cat into a puzzle game.
Parental Figures: Sad Dad, and now Glum Mum, games have become a staple in storytelling, Amy J starts a mini series on the portrayal of parental figures in games.
Toxic Players: Path Oracle ExitLag wants to know, are games more or less toxic now? Have the tools meant to curb toxic multiplayer experiences working or moving the problem?
25th Anniversary: Dylan Cornelius celebrates the Game Boy Advance’s 25th Birthday, feel old yet?
Not so Cozy: Liu writes about an emerging new trend with cozy games, they are getting darker.
What’s in a genre?: Laura Michet muses over the concept of a games categorical genre, and how her experience in both the east and the west provides a different viewpoint on the same category.
The wrong list: Games Wisdom provides a top 50 of what not to do when launching your indie game.
Death by numbers: The Bottom Feeder make’s the argument for why review scores have gotten a bit out of hand.
Dodging the bull: Harrison Polites reflects on SGF, the slew of new games and the obvious elephant in the room.
Hate to replay: As Lawrence 'Scanlines' Lichfield say’s you know those games you would happily replay if it wasn’t for that one bit, here’s his list of those moments.
Growth Potential: Game growth always was very linear, you just kept releasing games, but how does user generated content, nostalgia, and Hollywood influence the growth of today’s games? Game Dev Assembly Editors explains.
Fun Tidbits
Really appreciate you including my article, thank you!
The entire list looks fantastic!
Thanks for mentioning Game Dev Assembly, Alex! Great collection!