2023-10-18 11:10
It’s been a long time coming, but Adventures in Games Analysis: Volume I is finally out in the wild! You can purchase a copy at the following link ($5.99).
From the book’s blurb… Read More
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Daniel Primed:: Hobbyist Game Analysis Blog
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My blog, about life, games, design and photography. Always fresh and interesting.
2023-05-14 13:02
Hi everyone,
I’m pleased to say that I will be releasing Adventures in Games Analysis: Volume I in the coming months. Those of you who have been following my work for some time will re… Read More
2021-04-14 12:48
I’m pleased to announce the release of my second book, Speed Boost: The Hidden Secrets Behind Arcade Racing Game Design. Once again, this is a digital-only venture. The book can be pur… Read More
2020-05-23 07:27
Metal Slug’s greatest asset, its sumptuously animated take on warfare, works for and against the play experience. The games merit an infinite credit ‘free play’ run purely… Read More
2020-01-12 09:52
The turn of the decade has prompted me to revive this ‘year in review’-ish article series I began 11 years ago (has it been that long? Wow!). The list below catalogues my brief… Read More
2020-01-09 09:52
The turn of the decade has prompted me to revive this ‘year in review’-ish article series I began 11 years ago (has it been that long?). The list below catalogues my brief thou… Read More
2018-10-13 08:35
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 r… Read More
2018-05-30 07:55
The Animal Crossing games have a unique talent of engaging player interest over a sustained period of time. However, the titles don’t rely on the traditional challenge-skill-reward lo… Read More
2018-05-06 23:30
To close this series of posts on Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros., I’ve compiled a few smaller thoughts into this one article. For more on Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros., look for… Read More
2018-05-03 23:30
Within games criticism exists a niche subset of “challenge-run” criticism where a player will attempt to beat a game while adhering to a set of self-imposed rules. These rules&m&helli…Read More
2018-04-30 23:30
“Compared to previous games in the series, this one has a lot of volume. A lot of people said they wanted more to play in the third game, so I definitely wanted to increase the volum… Read More
2018-04-27 23:30
Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros.‘s hub-based overworld design and Bowser’s Inside Story‘s organic overworld design function much like the circular dining tables of Chinese… Read More
2018-04-25 01:30
The best way I could summarise Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros‘s gameplay progression would be to say that it’s a hybrid of Partners in Time and Bowser’s Inside Story. In… Read More
2018-01-03 10:05
Player agency separates video games from passive media such as film and literature. Unlike these other art forms, players of video games must exert skill so as to overcome challenges. And s… Read More
2017-12-22 01:32
[When developing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, director Koji Igarashi wanted to make a game which would “overturn player’s ideas about Castlevania, yet also feel like a Ca… Read More
2017-12-19 21:45
[When developing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, director Koji Igarashi wanted to make a game which would “overturn player’s ideas about Castlevania, yet also feel like a Ca… Read More
2017-12-13 22:30
[When developing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, director Koji Igarashi wanted to make a game which would “overturn player’s ideas about Castlevania, yet also feel like a Ca… Read More
2017-12-12 02:20
[When developing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, director Koji Igarashi wanted to make a game which would “overturn player’s ideas about Castlevania, yet also feel like a Ca… Read More
2017-12-08 01:08
[When developing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, director Koji Igarashi wanted to make a game which would “overturn player’s ideas about Castlevania, yet also feel like a Ca… Read More
2017-12-06 07:27
[When developing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, director Koji Igarashi wanted to make a game which would “overturn player’s ideas about Castlevania, yet also feel like a Ca… Read More
2017-12-01 10:22
[When developing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, director Koji Igarashi wanted to make a game which would “overturn player’s ideas about Castlevania, yet also feel like a C… Read More
2017-11-03 09:56
Having extensively researched Resident Evil: Code Veronica‘s level design last year, I set myself an extra challenge when recently completing Resident Evil 3. I decided to defeat Neme… Read More
2017-06-24 12:09
Last year two friends and I played through Metroid Prime: Federation Force together. Overall, we invested about 80 hours into the game each, completing both the main campaign and Blast Ball… Read More
2017-04-09 02:55
In finalising copy for the (eventual) release of the Adventures in Games Analysis bookazine, I decided to roll several articles on racing games into the one essay. Four months of semi-regula… Read More
2017-01-06 05:15
Last year I wrote a chapter called ‘Cracking the Resident Evil Puzzle Box’ for the just-released edited book, Level Design: Processes and Experiences. Around the time I was invi… Read More
2017-01-05 12:31
In the last few years I’ve moved away from including game repair ideas in my critiques as any suggestions on my part ultimately reflect my own tastes. However, these alternative visio… Read More
2016-12-17 07:12
Bowser’s Inside Story‘s battle system adheres to Nintendo’s clean and functional approach to game design (see earlier articles on narrative and level design). Attacks oper… Read More
2016-12-11 09:08
[Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story employs a functional approach to RPG design where the experience is centralised around player actions. We saw this in the game’s story whi… Read More
2016-12-07 11:45
The Mario & Luigi series applies Nintendo’s function-driven perspective of game design to what is often a genre which skews towards abstraction. The benefits of more grounded gamep… Read More
2016-11-25 14:21
“Because you’re asking ‘Why? Why are they in the balls?’ With this story, you’re going to find out why they’re in the balls.”
—Marty Caplan… Read More
2016-11-18 08:40
[Originally written in 2014.]
Thanks to the wonders of custom firmware I recently equipped my PSP with a screen capture plugin. All I have to do is press that useless music note button and&m&hell…Read More
2016-10-21 14:25
A few months ago I played through Startropics with my friends over at the VG Commune. We recorded a couple of podcasts together and I also wrote up a rough photo diary of the two Start… Read More
2016-10-08 03:08
It is as though we spend our whole life resisting, in search of the path of least resistance. Learning, though, requires that we abstain from the easy path and submit ourselves to struggle… Read More
2016-09-20 02:25
[This piece was originally written for Adventures in Games Analysis: Volume I back in 2013. I now feel that it would be too indulgent to dedicate some 6,000 words on myself to paid copy. Plu… Read More
2016-09-13 01:50
[This piece was originally written for Adventures in Games Analysis: Volume I back in 2013. I now feel that it would be too indulgent to dedicate some 6,000 words on myself to paid copy. Plu… Read More
2016-09-06 09:08
[This piece was originally written for Adventures in Games Analysis: Volume I back in 2013. I now feel that it would be too indulgent to dedicate some 6,000 words on myself to paid copy. Plu… Read More
2016-08-30 09:40
[This piece was originally written for Adventures in Games Analysis: Volume I back in 2013. I now feel that it would be too indulgent to dedicate some 6,000 words on myself to paid copy. Plu… Read More
2016-08-23 05:50
[This piece was originally written for Adventures in Games Analysis: Volume I back in 2013. I now feel that it would be too indulgent to dedicate some 6,000 words on myself to paid copy. Plu… Read More
2016-07-20 01:53
Click here to view the embedded video.
Zootopia‘s differentiated animal society is a rich allegory that reflects issues of race, gender, and disability. Every element is anchored aroun… Read More
2016-07-15 11:58
Stolen Projects, the outfit which published Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4, has recently closed. Yesterday I opened a Gumroad account to continue selling the book… Read More
2016-07-14 13:06
Click here to view the embedded video.
Watch a few minutes of the video above. What do you notice about the nature of the environment? And what effect do you think these things would have on… Read More
2016-07-09 10:45
Click here to view the embedded video.
I guess my writing hiatus is officially over now, right? I’m currently working through old notes and drafts, and so some of the short-form pieces… Read More
2014-07-01 12:57
Play Here (in browser)
“The Cave of Ātman is a sequential strategy RPG puzzler inspired by games such as Fire Emblem (GBA) and Jeanne d’Arc (PSP). A band of brave warr… Read More
2014-06-19 13:33
This video was too funny to pass up.
For the first time in a long time I was completely satisfied by the E3 showing this year. Loads of great games and plenty of innovation. After hours of… Read More
2014-05-12 00:55
Over the Christmas break, I burned through Mega Man Anniversary Collection on the PS2. It was the first time I’d ever played Mega Man, and now I’m a big fan of the series. A lot… Read More
2014-05-06 04:02
A number of readers have requested that I do a write up on my personal opinion on Wario Land 4. So this post is going to be just that, a bit of an indulgence. But before I out what I think… Read More
2014-05-02 07:23
You can find part #1 here.
Fire Emblem Awakening
Fire Emblem with the edges rounded off. Yusuke Kozaki’s character designs, an expressive localisation, and a streamlining of systems a… Read More
2014-04-28 06:53
Last Christmas, Santa gave me a 3DS. I’d been hoping I’d get a 3DS because Nintendo had their Super Mario 3D Land promotion going, where anyone who registered their system and a… Read More
2014-04-25 02:53
Another World is considered a classic in the video games industry, and rightfully so. The cinematic, rotoscoped cutscenes and minimalistic storytelling were groundbreaking for its time. The… Read More
2014-01-06 22:21
[NB: I've held onto this post for about a year so that I could publish it around the same time as Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4. It's not particularly enlighten… Read More
2014-01-01 00:17
[The following is a scrapped bit of content from my book Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4. I don't know why I didn't just add this to the Loose Ends article. In an… Read More
2013-12-16 17:40
Finally, after 3 years of talking about it, my Wario Land 4 book will be released this Wednesday. Unfortunately, Adventures in Game Analysis Volume #1, my new games analysis bookazine, has… Read More
2013-11-24 01:59
Click here to view the embedded video.
When I was 9 years old, I had my own CD player, which I thought was a pretty big deal. The problem, however, was that when you’re 9 years old, yo… Read More
2013-11-15 04:16
So, here’s the cover for Rethinking Games Criticism. It was illustrated by Harry Plane. You can find more of his work here. I came up with the concept and Daniel (Purvis) recommended… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Ah, so here is that mysterious group project I’ve been working on. It’s something Richard and I have been discussing for years and is a seed for something that I hope develops in… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
In order to talk about games as I do, I need a specialised vocabulary of words to help me along. For several years now, I’ve been using Richard Terrell’s Critical Gaming Blog and… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Updates. Updates. Updates. A few weeks ago, I finished the video you see above, and now I’ve made it public. If you like it, then please share it around with your friends. You won&rsqu&hell…Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
This essay builds off the points I made in the On The Book’s Structure heading in the How to Read This Book section of Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4. You d… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
As is probably evident by now, I’m currently on a writing hiatus. I’ve stopped writing since September last year and will probably remain inactive for the near future. I’m… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
The setup The Mario player uses the stick, buttons, and the Wii-mote’s gyro to run and jump their way from the start of a level to the end. The co-star player uses the Wii-mote as a po… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Not long after I released Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4 a handful of readers emailed in and gave suggestions for amendments. I’d like to share them here. Q… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Every now and then I come across a great quote that articulates something that’s been sitting in one of the dark corners of my brain, patiently waiting for that light bulb moment of ar… Read More
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