“Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.”
These are wise words, but I doubt Winston Churchill intended for this statement to apply to electronic games. Yet the industry would be wise to heed his words. To ignore them would be to fall into the same pit that so many developers foolishly dropped into. How can you make a good game if you don’t know what makes a good game? Besides the rich history of existing games to draw upon, they also have to be well-versed in what video game enthusiasts will and won’t pay for. Trends are important, but not as important as history. Our behavior is predictable; this is one of the reasons we see so many sequels year after year. Isn’t that learning from history? READ MORE
Most third-party studios not called Konami or Capcom are largely overlooked when it comes to retrogaming, as if their great games were flukes or their only worthy property. It’s unfortunate, because there’s always more than meets the eye: the golden days of Hudson before it stopped making anything but Bomberman, the unique titles of Game Freak and, of course, the polished gems of Sunsoft. READ MORE
Digital rights management (DRM) methodology is one of the most hotly-debated topics in the industry. As games get bigger and more expensive, companies do more and more to lock their products down in an effort to prevent piracy. It’s a big problem in the game industry, and one that needs to be discussed more often. We decided to discuss the pitfalls of modern DRM schemes, and their overall impact on the market. READ MORE
Many retro game fans like to theorize and fantasize about what might have saved Sega. Many say that it was the Sega CD and 32X that undermined consumer confidence in Sega. Others say that it was the PlayStation 2’s unparalleled dominance of the console market that killed the Dreamcast, and by extension, Sega itself. Others even say that it was its lack of effort in the handheld space to keep up with Nintendo’s Game Boy to help stave off defeat during the lean years. One factor that most agree contributed is that Sega didn’t really carry the genres that were popular on the Genesis into the next generation on the Saturn, causing a huge backlash of disinterest outside of Japan. READ MORE
17-Bit’s Skulls of the Shogun has been a highlight of indie festivals and competitions for a few years now. The turn-based strategy game is, even before release, known for its pick-up-and-play nature and subtle tactics. Its transformation into a multi-platform, Windows-8-and-Windows-Phone-showpiece project has caused it to take a bit longer to get to our hands, and also raises inevitable concerns about development priorities. We’re happy to say that it had little effect on the game itself, and that the full release of Skulls delivers on a lot of the promise of that earlier work. READ MORE
