Today we talk about that stuff that goes in your ears when you play a video game. No, not the wet fingers of an annoyingly immature roommate or little brother (though, in this case I’m pretending both the immature roommate and the little brother are named Wily, so getting a “wet Willy” at least […]

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 The game-making lessons we learned are: Button combos don’t have to be complicated if the designers leverage “domains of knowledge” (also mentioned: Caleb’s video, “Button Combinations Should Be Complicated! Why Aren’t They? (Video Game Controls)” “input recycling”… “input pairing”…? Almost every virtual action in the game shares a physical input with another virtual action […]

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 The game-making lessons we learned are: Lack of exposition + personal artifacts = introspective environmental storytelling. Gamifying the mundane. Anywhere decisions can be made (ex: where to place physical items in a room) a game can be born. (Unpacking). Shout out to Ian Bogost’s “How to do Things with Video Games.” All characterization is […]

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 The game-making lessons we learned are: Music both directs and enhances the mood. Chill must support a chill atmosphere but also it provides feedback to the player that this is a game (or section of a game) that should allow for chilling out. Lack of enemies alone doesn’t signify a conflict-free scenario. (Valheim) Pawns […]

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 The game-making lessons we mentioned are: Don’t waste the player’s time. A novel input system cannot survive on novelty alone; it MUST serve good gameplay. Otherwise, the forced input falls from delightful to frustration (Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask) Movement in a platformer MUST feel great above all else. If a game has […]

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 Listen in as we talk about our game development “ah ha” moments, including: The importance of commenting even as a solo dev Self-documenting/readable code The importance of having fun as part of the learning & development process Shaders are black magic Unity events are suuuuper useful The absolute need to LEARN THE TOOLS YOU […]

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 The game-making lessons we mentioned are: Re-use of levels doesn’t have to be boring. Narrative, along with day segments, means each environment feels very different despite their repetition. (Death Loop). Mentioned: Dishonored 2 Devs Explain the Clockwork Mansion. Simplicity can be deceiving. Simplicity doesn’t mean boring. (Super Auto Pets). Difficulty doesn’t make Caleb hate […]

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 The game-making lessons we mentioned are: Inscryption – A game’s mechanics don’t have to be novel in order to be worth playing or developing around Luigi’s Mansion 3 – Puzzles should have feedback to guide the player. Meandering and luck are not satisfying game mechanics. Doki Doki Literature Club – Video games can still […]

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In episode 1 of the Tales of the Lesser Medium video game podcast, where we discuss Resident Evil 1 and with it, Barry’s unintentionally funny “Jill Sandwich” quip. Travis suggested that a Jill Sandwich is nothing more an inch thick layer of horseradish between two stale cookies from Subway. So Caleb decides to try one. […]

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The New Tales of the Lesser Medium Podcast Launches May 26th, 2020! Set a calendar reminder now! We (you and me) love video games. But we (you and me and your mom) know they aren’t always concerned with conveying a serious story. Wouldn’t it be fun to poke holes in these stories? That’s where Tales […]

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I like trivia…well, correction, I like knowing answers to trivia questions. Anyone who likes trivia but hates knowing the answers is a straight-up idiot. But that’s not what this post is about. This post is about a cool think that I thought would be cool and in fact turned out to be cool. I asked […]

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