Book One
Articles that went into the first No Time To Play book, as originally published between 2010 and 2015. Note that the complete book contains revised and extended versions, plus exclusive chapters.
Old articles
These two predate No Time To Play, but belong here even so, for archival if nothing else:
- Text-based virtual worlds (7 February 2010)
- Console woes (27 April 2009)
Old links
- 200 Word RPG Challenge: Design a role-playing game using 200 words or less.
- DOOM: SCARYDARKFAST: an academic book about the eponymous game.
- OpenBSD Gaming Resource: For those of us who don't use other operating systems.
- Wolfenstein 3D & Spear of Destiny for Symbian Series 60 Devices
- Fixing E.T. for the Atari 2600
- Libro de los juegos: a medieval treatise on (board) games
2018
- Mathematics in Games, Part 1 (18 December 2018)
- Metro 2033 film has been cancelled because the scripter wanted to 'Americanize' it (10 December 2018)
- Itchio outshines Steam by staying small and weird (29 November 2018)
- Rockstar's history of America (22 November 2018)
- Cultural Concepts as Principles of Design (7 November 2018)
- Blizzard and Black Women: Is it beef? (30 October 2018)
- GOG makes another offensive tweet, offers non-apology (24 October 2018)
- Zombie Orpheus cancels contract with GOG over transphobia (23 October 2018)
- Making games like Red Dead Redemption 2 shouldn’t be such hard work (16 October 2018)
- The Games Industry is Toxic (5 October 2018): Content Warnings: crunch, burnout, layoffs, general toxicity
- There’s not enough videogames; everyone should be encouraged to make them (or, videogames are just art) (3 October 2018)
- The state of blackness in games (3 October 2018)
- How the World of Warcraft community rallied to save this modder in need (28 September 2018)
- Saving punk from Cyberpunk (25 September 2018)
- Duke Nukem (1991) (at HG101) (24 August 2018)
- A team of Dota 2-playing AI bots beat the pros - and now they're gunning for more (16 August 2018)
- ANGELINA is an AI that makes games, and now you can play them via Itch (4 July 2018)
- ANGELINA @ EGX Rezzed (April 2018)
- Fez (at HG101) (25 February 2018)
- Made in China: every new video game you love (6 February 2018)
- Scientific Victory | Games By Angelina (January 2018)
- Game Cities: Those Handy, Simplified Urban Structures (10 January 2018)
2016-2017
- Cave Noire at HG101 (13 July 2017)
- The City and the RPG That Never Were (15 March 2017)
- The Game Developers Who Are Also Witches (9 March 2017)
- But What Does This Tell Us About Art? (7 January 2017)
- Pokemon Yellow Total Control Hack (8 February 2016)
2015
- "Something Terrible Has Happened Here": The C***y Story Of How "Clue" Went From Forgotten Flop To Cult Triumph (10 December 2015)
- "I actually was hunting Ewoks." The Original Lucasfilm Games Team Talk About Life at Skywalker Ranch. (26 December 2015)
- TotalBiscuit Diagnosed With Inoperable Cancer (15 October 2015)
- How GOG.com Save And Restore Classic Videogames (16 September 2015)
- Cigarettes, Space Invaders and the birth of the game watch (12 July 2015): Part 2 of a longer feature; via the Dragonfly BSD Digest.
- A constructive look at the Atari 2600 BASIC cartridge (16 June 2015)
- 1-Pixel Pacman (1 June 2015)
2014
- 'Gamers' don't have to be your audience. 'Gamers' are over (28 August 2014)
- Fox News rips off BioShock Infinite logo, irony ensues (2 July 2014)
- Little Zelda & Link Cosplay 📷 (28 April 2014)
- Gaming In Color Reviewed (23 April 2014)
- “The Door Problem” (April 2014): excellent example of just how complicated the work of a game designer can be.
- Male Protagonist Bingo: A study in cliches [MANY IMAGES] (12 March 2014)
- Classic Video Games Reimagined as Romance Novels (11 February 2014)
2013
- 'Hyper Light Drifter' is a dark and stunning take on classic 16-bit games
- Warren Spector's Commandments of Game Design (4 September 2013)
- If Films Were Reviewed Like Video Games (29 June 2013)
- Gaming's new frontier: Cancer, depression, suicide (9 May 2013)
- Will Wright: Games "falling way short" as a medium (4 May 2013)
- Best Warhammer 40K Costume Ever (21 April 2013)
- More, More, More—How Do You Like It? (February 2013)
- Alien retrospective (10 February 2013)
- Real life Mario Karts react to launchable items (26 January 2013)
2012
- Flea Market Find: Tetris Boardgame (August 2012)
- Intro to accessibility in games (3 August 2012)
- Meet Borderlands 2's Ellie: The "opposite of how most females tend to be represented in games" (16 July 2012)
- The touching story of Ribbitribbit and the EQII community (17 March 2012)
2011
- Computer Space and the Dawn of the Arcade Video Game (11 December 2011) Very long and dumbed down, but in-depth, with novel details.
- Fear the Well-Meaning (16 August 2011)
- Why So Few Violent Games? (15 August 2011)
- Japanese ‘culture’ isn’t the reason why Japanese games no longer sell worldwide (6 July 2011) Content warning: ableist language. Also a pretty bad take, but with a kernel of truth.
Older
- Chess: An interesting concept ruined by too many design flaws (15 September 2009) A little humor from the Board Game Geek forums
- Beyond Pacing: Games Aren't Hollywood (21 May 2009)
- Analysis: Sid Meier's Key Design Lessons (5 May 2009)
- Why do games (still) have levels? (October 2007)
- Black Triangles (October 2004): a now-classic piece of (game) programming folklore.