Reconnect Recap - w/e 27th July
A weekly recap of some of the best video game articles to feature on Reconnect.
Kia Ora folks
Another week, another deluge of great games writing is here for you to enjoy. As always, this is the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter to Reconnect, the games writing discovery platform.
This week we’re diving into AI, marketing your indie game, sales numbers, cyberpunk, ethical games, and the not-so-ethical Mario Party.
Enjoy!
Great Write Ups
Money talks, and controls whose talking: Its been a few weeks of Payment providers putting the pressure on game reselling platforms to ban all pornographic games, Stephen Totilo dives into the impact on Itch.io. Also, Aftermath has a similar more in-depth write up.
Artificial Commentary: As I write this, I have discovered a small irony. We worry about the threat AI has to writing, but as writers we combat this by writing more words about the threat of AI to writing. Funny, but still a concern to have. This week 1UP Vault gives their thoughts on the realities of the AI threat, some of which parallel my own writing on AI.
Handheld wishlist: Distant Arcade reflects on the handhelds they already own and the ones they still want to buy, I had forgotten the fun colours the PS Vita came in.
Playing heaps of games at BitSummit: Toomanywires jumped on the train and spent the weekend in Kyoto playing indie games and was gracious enough to write all about it for us.
Let me trial your game: Button Musher explains their thoughts on why every PC game should come with a demo, and honesty I agree. The two hour return window or the game pass model helps a little bit but shouldn’t be seen as a replacement. Though I fully understand the development costs.
Video killed the radio star: For many reasons we are past the hey-day of YouTube, and one of those reasons is just volume, more people than ever can have a channel spreading a finite amount of attention over more and more users, which creates problems for discoverability. Where indie games once thrived on getting featured by YouTube creators, Push to Talk explains why it’s getting harder and harder.
What sparked your passion?: Happy Birthday to Leefa who shared their own personal list of games that got them into gaming. I definitely vibe with Lara Croft, we might be similar ages, but also for me was definitely, Pokemon and Fallout.
We nearly got another Order: 1866, but VR became the focus: This week The Game Business spoke to Ready at Dawns founder who talks about their studios history, The Order: 1866, and their approach to making VR games happen.
Party Poopers: Rewinder puts into words what we’ve all been feeling, Mario Party is a great concept, but some of its execution leaves a bad taste in our mouths.
Leading the party: What can Final Fantasy teach us about being a great leader? The Boss Level demonstrates good leadership with these fictional characters.
The vibes are ethical: I’ve been diving into a lot of mobile games lately as a way to heal my burnout , and of course I’m being brow beaten into some pretty unethical monetisation strategies, so it was a wonderful breath of fresh air to read Mindful Gamer ‘s article on designing games for wellbeing and being ethical.
Switching up the numbers: The latest Circana report brought to use by GameDev Reports shows us that the Switch 2 injected a lot of cash into the industry last month.
Wishlist success: Another one by GameDev Reports diving into how wish lists contribute to a games success.
Scouting for Indies: Video Games Industry Memo interviews the managing director of publisher Fellow Travellers and asks how they find great indie games to support.
Platform Diversity: Very topical at the moment, the idea that games cannot rely on one platform to have their best interests at heart, Game Wisdom explains the ramification of designing for multiple platforms.
Fun Tidbits
You would think 30 years would be enough to find everything a game has to offer, however, three decades later a keen eyed gamer has found new cheat codes for this aging game.
I love a yellow console, so much so that if they made a yellow PS5 that’s probably what would push me over the edge to get one. The Playdate isn’t the only yellow gaming hardware in town any more, as a new Pac Mac Atari was announced.
Super-Rare 3DO M2 Console Worth Over $20,000 Withdrawn From Sale Following Online Abuse - That’s it, the title.
I’m unsure if this has come through in any of my writing, but I love Star Wars. In fact I have two Star Wars Tattoos, that I designed myself to not look like Star Wars. But I digress, Game Wisdom explains the science of the Lightsaber and how realistic / feasible it would be.
Cyberpunk has come a long way as a genre in the past decade, Dubious Media looks at the genre through books, movies, and games to assess whether it’s painted itself into a corner or not.
Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles Is Using A Rebuild Of The Original Source Code
Writer Recap
I admire many things about this week’s writer, Game Wisdom.
For one, they pump out at least 2-3 articles a week, I often end up with multiple Game Wisdom articles in the recap nearly every week. Another thing I admire is that among regular content you would expect, they cover a really niche area of the games industry, gambling.
Before coming across this blog I really wouldn’t have had any interest in reading about Casinos and gambling culture, but over time I’ve gotten curious and find the articles to be quite insightful.
The last thing I like about GW is the brevity of how they write, they really have mastered the art of getting some complex and elaborate concepts along to the reader without it turning into a 4000 word essay.
I think you should check them out, they are well worth a follow.
Housekeeping
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That yellow Atari 2600 is gorgeous, not a console I own/am looking to buy but definitely an icon and important part of gaming history
Thanks again for the mentions