Following on from part one's release yesterday, part two of our retrospective look back at 2021 takes a look back at the second half of the year, including the breaking of the biggest story of the year with Activision Blizzard embroiled in seri

#17 - A Look Back at 2021 (Part One)

Dec 30th, 2021 47m 12s

2021 has been a year, shall we say.There is way too much to go over in text form what has happened, but to name a few: Ubisoft and Star Wars, Bethesda and Indiana Jones, Bethesda and Microsoft, closures of Japan Studio and Google Stadia’s first

#16 - The Wholesome Games Movement

Nov 10th, 2021 1h 27m

Over the past few years, but especially since the pandemic began and has gone on, an emerging trend has appeared within the games industry: cosy, wholesome games. These games have existed long before 2020, but in a time where the world has beco

#15 - Demon Turf: A Love Letter to the Platformer

Oct 26th, 2021 26m 49s

Fabraz's Demon Turf is a love letter in numerous ways.It’s a love letter to the platforming genre. It’s a love letter of self-expression through the art of gameplay. And more than anything else, Demon Turf is a love letter of telling slapstick

#14 - Loddlenaut, Venice 2089 and Saving the Planet

Oct 12th, 2021 33m 20s

Loddlenaut and Venice 2089 are two very different games. Loddlenaut is an aquatic survival game where you look after creatures on the ocean floor. Venice 2089 is a 2.5D adventure game where you ride a hoverboard around a ruined Venice.Both game

#13 - Skatebird (or How One Skatebirb is Leading Gaming’s Skating Resurgence)

Sep 16th, 2021 38m 17s

Nearly four years since it was first announced as an actual game after some initial inspiration seeing a GIF of an actual bird skating, today, Skatebird finally arrives on PC, Xbox (including Xbox Game Pass) and Nintendo Switch. Even with a las

#12 - Behind the Frame of Behind the Frame

Aug 25th, 2021 25m 43s

When Behind the Frame debuted for the first time earlier this summer during E3 and the summer showcases held during it, it had an immediate thing in its favour: a massive influence from Studio Ghibli. It wears on its sleeve what the Japanese an

#11 - A Game Director's Story

Aug 18th, 2021 35m 3s

When you’re in AAA, you usually go from one game to the next. It’s a cycle that lasts every four or five years, if not longer.At BioWare Edmonton, Fernando Melo was coming off the back of working on Mass Effect: Andromeda and hopping on to the

#10 - Button City and the Power of Friendship

Aug 5th, 2021 30m 32s

If you only go in from the outset of Button City thinking its core theme is being a love letter to games, you wouldn’t be that far off. Subliminal Gaming co-founders Ryan and Shandiin Woodward certainly helped shape Button City with that motif

#9 - Tunic’s Secret Legend

Jul 29th, 2021 36m 47s

In 2017, an adventure game was shown to the world for the first time at The PC Gaming Show at that year’s E3. Then initially known as Secret Legend – shorthanded by certain players as ‘Fox game’ – it was given new life under the name of Tunic.

#8 - The Road to PlayStation 5

Nov 11th, 2020 52m 18s

It all starts again for Sony tomorrow.By the time this goes out, PlayStation 5 will launch in two waves, starting tomorrow in North America, Japan and other countries (in fact, it's already rolling out in Australia and New Zealand) - but not th

#7 - The Road to Xbox Series X|S

Nov 9th, 2020 49m 9s

For the past few months, we’ve been maintaining chronological guides on how both Sony and Microsoft have gotten to the launches of the next-gen machines launching this week (and in PS5’s case, Europe and the UK next week).But in the first of tw

#6 - Grand Theft Auto 5’s Successful Long Legs

Oct 1st, 2020 35m 20s

Seven years since its release and ten years since its reveal as of October next year, Grand Theft Auto 5 thrives.As of a few weeks ago, it's seven years since Grand Theft Auto 5 launched to massive anticipation and excitement on PlayStation 3 a

#5 - Being Queer in the Games Industry

Jul 15th, 2020 1h 22m

So I’ve not really talked about this aspect of myself on the site a whole lot, if at all, since Play Diaries launched back in January. But I am a queer-identifying person.And there are a lot of queer-identifying people in the LGBTQIA community

#4 - Run for the Border

Apr 1st, 2020 1h 4m

Mid-JanuaryI’m on my way from my home in Derry, Northern Ireland – literally four days after launching Play Diaries – for a three hour trip across the border to the Republic of Ireland. Depending which way you’re going from in Derry, if you hea

#3 - Delving Into Eastshade

Mar 26th, 2020 29m 35s

Six years ago, Danny Weinbaum decided to leave his job as a 3D environment artist at Sucker Punch. just as the studio was on the cusp of launching inFamous: Second Son for PlayStation 4 as well as continued development on inFamous: First Light

#2 - Cris Tales: From Japan to Colombia, With Love

Feb 11th, 2020 27m 23s

When Final Fantasy 4 released in 1991 in Japan, it marked the beginning of one of the most influential periods in the JRPG genre and signaled one of Square Enix’s – or SquareSoft as it was then – most successful periods ever. Not only with FF4,

#1 - The Making of Tick Tock: A Tale for Two

Jan 14th, 2020 31m 4s

Tanja Lind Tankred and Mira Dorthe met as students at the IT University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Both came from a bachelor’s literary background. Tankred a bachelor in comparative literature, Dorthe a bachelor in creative writing and linguisti

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