The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for waking up, and then going back to sleep again. And waking up, and going back to sleep again. And waking up and Oh My God it's time for tea! And possibly The Sunday Papers.

• An interview with Teleglitch's creators: "We originally had a fully-destructible world and the resolution was actually even smaller, but somehow it transformed to Teleglitch. Somewhere along the way I got inspired by roguelikes, permadeath and ultra-replayability and without much consideration implemented procedural levels. A random level generator is also much more fun to code than a mid-level saving system. Those black shadows are clearly inspired from Nox, I really loved how you never knew what will happen behind the next door. The combination system was inspired by Notrium, a really awesome game about surviving in an alien world."
• Leigh Alexander asking 'What are previews for?' sparked a lot of discussion: "When we work in a system that virtually obligates us to show up to these things, a system that (much like scored review culture) many of us would not have chosen to install, how much should "respect" for the process be a journalist's concern, though? It's clear we don't have good answers about these things. We dispute and debate, whisper our private hypotheses about those early glimpses and how we think they might turn out, but in the end everyone publishes an obedient preview at the appointed embargo lift, cautiously optimistic."
• Leigh and Quintin's letters series continue on Polygon. This time the tricky issue of nostalgia.
• Examining the geology of Skyrim: "From this analysis, it's interesting to see that Bethesda was faithful to real-world geological principles when creating Skyrim. I asked some members of Bethesda's Skyrim developer team about the geology of Skyrim, assuming that the geology must be deliberate. Surprisingly, they didn't have a consulting geologist on their team, but instead had a dedicated team of artists and developers that did their research without any background knowledge. I believe Bethesda deserves some serious kudos for that."
• Simon Parkin on the importance of videogame violence: "That’s not to say that video games don’t have the capacity to depict violence in its grim, real-world horror. Indeed, they are the optimum medium, with their unreal actors and easily fabricated tools and effects of violence. But few game-makers currently appear interested in exploring this space. In part this is because the independent game movement, which drove Hollywood’s interest in truer violence post-1966 is more interested in non-violent games. When violence is the staple of the mainstream the subversive creative space is in creating games devoid of the stuff."
• TPCG tackle Old School Gaming.
• Split Screen on the relationship between console and PC hardware.
• Thoughts on games as conceptual art from Mr Yang: "Most people play chess with pieces and a board, but to many players that's not the actual game -- it's just a mnemonic aid, a thing that keeps track of chesspiece locations so you don't have to remember where your rook is. The people who live and breathe chess, however, can play chess just by reading chess notation in a book, which is to say that the game takes place entirely in their minds. This is more or less what happens when you lose a heated multiplayer match of Starcraft and agonize over what you could've should've didn't do, and wonder what alternate paths you might've taken. Likewise, I'd imagine the most skilled Starcraft players can play Starcraft entirely in their minds."
• This is crazy.

Music this week is play Teleglitch, for goodness sake.