Balloon Kid Video Analysis Series and Writing Updates

October 13th, 2018

Don’t let the seemingly deserted nature of the blog fool you. I’ve been busily working away behind the scenes and can thankfully share some updates and new material.

Firstly, I recently completed the manuscripts for my forthcoming two books, Adventures in Games Analysis Vol. I and Speed Boost: The Hidden Secrets Behind Arcade Racing Design. Both titles have been sent away for editing and I’m hoping to be able to release the pair in early 2019. More details will arrive in due course.

Secondly, I’ve contributed to a few podcasts and video projects over the past few months as part of VG Commune (a sort of video game book club). The first item of which is a podcast on cult classic Killer 7. In the podcast, thinker / game developer Adrian Santiago and I discuss the worst parts of Killer 7, such as the janky enemies, shallow bosses, and trivial puzzles. Killer 7 is an interesting distillation of Resident Evil with amazing aesthetic qualities. However, the issues in the game design are immense, to say the least. Our discussion counterbalances an earlier podcast on the positive aspects of Killer 7.

Adrian also invited me to talk about The Cave of Atman with various members of Design Orientated, another games analysis community which I am involved in. The discussion starts off a bit slow as we slowly tease out some pretty fundamental ideas within puzzle game design (e.g. complexity vs. depth).a

Lastly, I partook in a series of audio recordings on Game Boy platformer Balloon Kid, which were subsequently edited to fit a video form. Greg Livingston, who headed up this project, has done an excellent job in distilling the conversation and presenting the comments in an easy-to-understand manner. If you haven’t played it, Balloon Kid captures the best aspects of early Game Boy game design, simple concepts done well and fit to the limitations of the hardware.

Otherwise, Adrian, Greg, and I are currently recording a series of podcasts on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. This title, with its boundary-pushing game design, has made great fodder for discussion. I look forward to sharing more about this title in the future.

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