3 Bit Design

Tristan and Oliver strap on their Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device and bask in the rays of Nintendo’s Super Mario Sunshine, refracting it into these three bits: Swimming in Secrets - How the game drives innate player curiosity through its Shine, level, and Coin placement; FLUDD - Breaking down the splashy mechanics provided by Mario’s unique AI sidekick; Stages of Insanity - Diving into the platforming stages and how their punishing nature contrasts with the rest of the game. Let us know what you think: Leave us a review! 3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign Oliver - @oliverwauters Tristan - @theatrewalker Or email - [email protected] Some references: Concept to Console: ‘Super Mario Sunshine’ - Reece Goodall (blog) Super Mario Sunshine: The Mario That Should Have Been More - themancalledscott, WizardDojo (blog) The Complex Beauty of Super Mario Sunshine - Skyehoppers (video essay) Breaking Down Bianco Hills | A Super Mario Sunshine Deep Dive - 2CPhoenix (video essay) Game Design | Super Mario Sunshine VS Super Mario Galaxy | How Controls Define a Game - Aggressively Medium (video essay)

Tristan and Oliver put on their comically oversized toques and tuck their legs in as they scramble for tips in Ghost Town Games’s Overcooked, finely chopping it into these three bits: The Art of Readability - Exploring the game’s purposefully chunky art style and bold colours Well-orchestrated Nonsense - Breaking down how the game naturally encourages cooperation through the evolving level design and mechanics Three Star Mastery - Why Overcooked is one of the best references to date when it comes to star ratings Let us know what you think: Leave us a review! 3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign Oliver - @oliverwauters Tristan - @theatrewalker Or email - [email protected] Some References: How Overcooked’s Kitchens Force You to Communicate - Game Maker’s Toolkit (video essay) Overcooked: How Design Creates Teamwork - Abhishek Iyer, Medium (article) Overcooked — The Other as Gameplay - Yvens Serpa, Medium (article) Development by expo: How Ghost Town built Overcooked -  Christopher Dring, GamesIndustry.biz (article) A Simple, Yet Effective Game Design Method - Overcooked - Pixel Soup - The Indie Game Detective (video essay) The UX of Overcooked: From umami to unexpected design principles - HeyMilou, Medium (essay) How overcooked thrives on simplicity? The BENEFITS of shallow gameplay - Game Design with Michael (video essay)

Tristan and Oliver pair up, side-by-side, for their first ever in-person recording to venture deep into the land of giants in Starbreeze Studios’ Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, as they break it down into these three bits: Two Perspectives - How the two characters react to the world differently and the implications it has on puzzle design Your Other Half - The mechanics of controlling two characters at once and the resulting, physical character building as the narrative unfolds Show Not Tell - The wordless worldbuilding leveraging land and soundscapes Let us know what you think: 3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign Oliver - @oliverwauters Tristan - @theatrewalker Or email - [email protected] Some References: Designer Reviews BROTHERS: A TALE OF TWO SONS - Farlands Design Den Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - Masterful Game Design || A Retrospective Analysis - Baran Esen “Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons”. Intertwining Story Theme and Game-Mechanics - Gerald, Video Game Narrative (blog) A Critique of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - Matt, A Mind of Madness (blog)

Tristan and Oliver are joined by special guest game designer Ioana-Iulia Cazacu to ponder on the leisurely farm life of Eric ‘Concernedape’ Barone’s masterful Stardew Valley, as they harvest these three bits: A Fresh Start - Joja Mart’s corporate capitalism versus the leisurely pace of village community life Casual Pressure - The yearning for a peaceful life, the idealisation of a pastoral life and how the game uses time and character energy to comment on it Nudging to Explore - How the hands-off game cleverly leverages core loops and collection mechanics to drive natural exploration and discovery Find us on socials: 3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign Oliver - @oliverwauters Tristan - @theatrewalker Or email - [email protected] Some references: Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley - Game Design Perspectives (article) The Anatomy of Stardew Valley - JM8, Design Delve (video essay) How Stardew Valley Was Made by Only One Person - ThatGuyGlen (mini-doc) Game Design: Stardew Valley and the Farming Genre - Craig Perko (video essay) How Great Games Do Progression | A Stardew Valley Video Essay - James Likes Games (video essay) Why Players become obsessed with “farming games”? - Yongcheng Liu, Game Developer (article) An Objective Analysis of Stardew Valley’s Design - Tan Chong Han Alden, Game Analytics with Lenses and Tools (blog) Learning to love Stardew Valley’s terrible fishing game - Polygon (video essay)

Tristan and Oliver link up like two materia in a pod coming down with an Avalanche of thoughts as they break down Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake into these three bits: Redefining Remakes - How FFVII set a new bar of what a remake can be, from visual overhaul to larger gameplay and narrative changes. Best of Both Worlds - The evolution of Final Fantasy combat and how past learnings coalesced into the exhilarating ATB combat system (MK II). Class Dismissed - Exploring how the weapon and materia systems create flexible, versatile characters to experiment with. Find us on socials: 3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign Oliver - @oliverwauters Tristan - @theatrewalker Or email - [email protected] Some references: The making of FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE - SquareEnix (official website) Final Fantasy VII Remake review: Thundaga can’t strike twice - Josh Brown, Digital Trends (review) Anatomy of a Game | Final Fantasy VII Remake - Game Design with Chris (video essay) Perfecting Final Fantasy 7′s legacy, as told by its creators - Gene Park, Washington Post (article) Reverse Design: Final Fantasy VII - Patrick Holleman (book) Fight, Magic, Items: The History of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and the Rise of Japanese RPGs in the West - Aiden Moher (book) The Systems of FF7, Then and Now - Ajai Raj, Medium (article) Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a flawed, but fascinating, reimagining of a classic - Carolyn Petit, Polygon (review)

Tristan and Oliver slick back their hair and put on their hat made of loose Jenga pieces, as they lock in to beat the following three bits out of Bandai Namco’s seventh (main) instalment of the iconic fighting game Tekken: Judging By Looks - Discussing the diverse character roster compared to other fighting games and how the game builds character depth with mystery. A Fighting Chance - Rage arts, power crushing, and other ways Tekken 7 is designed to be beginner-friendly. Adopt & Adapt - Depth & discovery through play, and how the game encourages experimentation in playstyle. Find us on socials: 3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign Oliver - @oliverwauters Tristan - @theatrewalker Or email - [email protected] Some references: Perfecting Tekken 7 - Designing the Definitive Version - IGN (video) Tekken 7 - PS4/XB1/PC - Character Development (Q&A Dev Interviews) - Bandai Namco How Tekken 7's Arcade Roots Are Shaping Its Console Form - Edmond Tran, Gamespot https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/between-a-rock-and-a-harada-place-the-massive-i-tekken-i-interview - Brandon Sheffield, Game Developer (article) The Making Of... Tekken - Edge staff, Edge (article) The Pure Game Design of Fighting Games - The Game Overanalyser (video)

Tristan and Oliver strap into their jetpacks and hope they don’t run out of fuel, as they hack Relic Entertainment’s sci-fi epic Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine into these three bits: Hordes of Fun - Fun in numbers; the joy of ploughing through enemy hordes and how the game capitalises on this; Takedown Heal - The execution mechanic and the game’s health design; Fictional World - The strong focus on gameplay and its effect on the believability of the worldbuilding; Find us on socials: 3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign Oliver - @oliverwauters Tristan - @theatrewalker Some references: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Be a Space Marine Gameplay Developer Diary (2011) - XboxViewTV (video) Wot I Think: Space Marine - Alec Meer, Rock Paper Shotgun (article) What Made Warhammer 40K Space Marine So Unique - Cameron Swan, GameRant How many ways can THQ’s Space Marine game rip off Gears of War? - Dean Takahashi, GamesBeat Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Combat System ViDoc (2011) - XboxViewTV (video)

Tristan and Oliver put on their warmest parkas and their creepiest clown mask as they head up to the snowy Washington Lodge, ready to slice Supermassive Games’ blockbuster, choice-driven, survival horror Until Dawn up into these three bits: The Lodge - Evaluating the level design of the game’s most iconic and recurring central space; Boom, Butterfly Effect - Discussing characters, narrative, replayability, and the thin line between life and death; Previously on Until Dawn - The ease of catching up and the pacing offered by recaps, totems, and The Analyst; Find us on socials: 3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign Oliver - @oliverwauters Tristan - @theatrewalker Some references: Creating the atmosphere of Until Dawn - Staff, MCV Until Dawn - Observations on Interactive Drama Design ➣ RagnarRox - RagnarRox, video essay Until Dawn: Anticipation as Horror - Shelby Carleton, Game Developer article ‘Until Dawn’: An Interactive Horror Story - Joelle Jacoski, Medium article Supermassive Games' top three rules for narrative-driven horror - Danielle Partis, Games Industry.biz (article) Experimental Games: Critique, Play, and Design in the Age of Gamification - Patrick Jagoda (book)

On tonight’s episode of Night Springs… Tristan and Oliver gather their thermoses and prepare to aim down hard on their beaming flashlights, as they unravel Remedy’s multilayered, narrative-action-adventure Alan Wake into these three bits: Follow The Light - Everything light and darkness; narratively, thematically, and mechanically; Multimedia Madness - Discussing the layering of storytelling mediums; including the episodic structure and the manuscript pages; Balancing Simplicity - The complexity of balancing approachability and minimalism with progression and pacing; Find us on socials: 3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign Oliver - @oliverwauters Tristan - @theatrewalker Some references: How Alan Wake Was Rebuilt 3 Years Into Development | War Stories - Ars Technica (video) The Cult Classic That Refused To Die (Alan Wake) - Nerdstalgic Gaming (video) The Making of Alan Wake - Remedy Entertainment (video) Alan Wake turns 10: Remedy's game took five years to emerge from the darkness of development, the studio explains how it finally saw the light - gamesradar+ (article) Dissecting Design -- The Action-Horror of Alan Wake - Game Wisdom (video) Alan Wake: Illuminated - Jorg Neumann & Tony Elias (book)

Tristan and Oliver huddle up to dive deep into Playdead’s masterful narrative platformer Inside, defining it through these three bits: Learning By Ear - The game’s unique audio driven design, often telling before showing. Impactful Minimalism - Less is more, one button controls and guiding the player through subtlety. Interpretive Narrative - The elements that made this compelling world of mystery, that sparks conversation long after finishing playing. Find us on Twitter: 3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign Oliver - @oliverwauters Tristan - @theatrewalker Some references: How Inside's levels were designed - Alex Wiltshite, Rock Paper Shotgun (article) Video games and the auteur theory  - Jeff Spoonhower, Game developer (article) How Games Tell a Story: Exploring the Different Methods of Interactive Storytelling - Randen Banuelos, Game developer (article) Developers provide their [spoiler-free] take on Inside - Joel Couture, Game developer (article) Low Complexity, High Fidelity: The Rendering of INSIDE - Mikkel Gjoel, GDC talk.  Huddle up! Making the [SPOILER] of INSIDE - Playdead, GDC talk. The Art of Minimalism | Limbo and Inside Retrospective - CloudConnection (video essay)