The Impact Factor

News & Views

9/12/15-9/18/15

This week’s News & Views is a landmark! This is the 100^th post up on The Impact Factor! Wow. I can’t really believe it myself. Since I began in January, I haven’t missed a week of posting articles, reviews, and News & Views for you all to enjoy. Now 100 posts in and over 5000 page views (!) later, The Impact Factor has been more than I could ever ask for. I wanted to thank everyone who has stuck with me for these nine months, either every week or off and on. I’ve loved every second so far. 100 posts is just the beginning! As always, more to come on the horizon. Please continue on this exciting adventure with me. Love you all.

But now to the meat of News & Views! I have put together great video game writing about design principles for online fighting games, a 14-year-old Hearthstone pro, the role of randomness in games, and how a game can change the way you think about sound. All the links are below!

And of course you can check out the brand new episode of The Impact Factor podcast that was posted today! This week was a landmark for the podcast, too. 20 episodes in and we’re only getting better. In honor of 20 straight weeks of the podcast, all episodes are up EVERYWHERE. That’s right, whenever and however you want to listen I’ve got you covered. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or if you prefer other methods, check out our SoundCloud. We’re on YouTube too!

Spotlight

The Mario maestro speaks: Koji Kondo on composing classics

Christian Nutt, Gamasutra

Worth Reading

The horror of Resident Evil 2's police station

Ed Smith, Kill Screen

The Role of Randomness

Dan Felder, Gamasutra

Panoramical will change the way you conceive of sound

Leigh Alexander, Offworld

Meet the Hearthstone wonderkid who the pros come to for help

Tim Clark, PC Gamer

History of Awesome - Magic: The Gathering

IGN

With Comments

Training the Older Brain in 3-D: Video Game Enhances Cognitive Control

Laura Kurtzman, UCSF

I love when science and games intersect. Kurtzman gives a nice write up of researching being done at my school, UCSF, about using games as brain fitness. Speculative and low power studies have previously suggested a role of video games in improving mental acuity, but it finally seems like we’re seeing some substantial and well-controlled work being performed. While training with the lab’s tailor made 3D game, NeuroRacer, the researchers observed enhancements to cognitive control and multitasking in older brains. Very cool.

Seth Killian's 3 principles for bringing fighting games online

Bryant Francis, Gamasutra

I cling to anything Killian has to say. I’ve said it here once and I’ll say it again: the guy is a fighting game design genius. In an interview about his newest game, Rising Thunder (which I still really want to play but is unfortunately PC only :( ), Killian identifies the three key considerations for designing a fighting game with online play in mind. The 3 are: accessible controls, designing moves & movesets around online systems, and creating a good netcode.

Revisiting Descent, the Most Literal Interpretation of "3D Shooter"

Jeremy Parish, US Gamer

News broke this week about Sublevel Zero, a game heavily inspired by Descent. Descent was a staple in my childhood gaming wheelhouse: I spent hours and hours scouring the polygonal 3D world. The developer released some gif sets that brought me right back to the mid 90s when I was playing Descent on the family computer. Sublevel Zero, along with the franchise prequel Descent: Underground, are both games I’ll be following closely.

Beating This Mario Maker Level Felt Like Defeating A Dark Souls Boss

Patrick Klepek, Kotaku

The more games that feel like Dark Souls, the better. I’ve been watching Klepek’s morning Super Mario Maker streams and man oh man do some of those levels look tough. But (the good ones at least), look fair. I haven’t seen any writing that makes me want to pick up Super Mario Maker more than this. The gaming community can produce some really cool stuff.