Fascinating, great video!

Thank you. Will never buy now. Apreesh.

Help, what's the game at 20:16???

Great video! I feel like this was an even better list than a "best games of all time" list. Which I feel sometimes doesn't properly convey what games people might recommend to others. This feels like a list of games that you'd ACTUALLY use to suggest games to someone who's unfamiliar with a given concept or genre, because these games are truly masters at what they do. Also, from the 61-70 timestamp onward, the timestamps all start marking games with a 0 (instead of a 1) in the 1's place. (Eg. 61-70 --is--> 60-69, 71-80 --is--> 70-79)

No Man's Sky is really one of the most interesting stories of game design/development being damaged by industry hype, followed by an equally interesting story of continuously designing for the same video game well after release.

I know xcom was about RNG but I'm surprised mario+rabbids wasn't mentioned in the same conversation about having only 0%, 100% and 50% hit chance values

Thanks for sharing

Excellent list! One game I'd add (which you briefly showed at the very end) is Final Fantasy VII, simply for the opening mission. It introduces every system the game will use (aside from party member switching), starts almost all the major plot threads, establishes the main characters, and has incredible pacing, all set behind one of the best soundtracks in video games. That vertical slice of the game is unmatched to this day, IMO. That is how you open a game.

I don't think people realize this but its worth noting that Apple did NOT make the first touch screen phone. The first was by IBM in the 90s, and then LG made one before the iPhone even released. The LG Prada had games on it that used touch screen controls. iPhone popularized the Smart Phone (mostly in the US) it but lets not give Apple credit for the inception, despite them often acting like they did.

big dirth of games 2017-now. Im curious about what's happening here

Silent Hill 2 (31:04) is available on Xbox as part of the Silent Hill: HD Collection (although that version isn't particularly good). Portal (45:58) is also available on Xbox as Portal: Still Alive.

The cozy genre is not defined by the absence of time limits. This is the second video in so many days where someone has claimed cozy games don't have time limits. But they do. Animal Crossing clearly does as shops close if you play too late, as well as the fact you can literally miss entire events if you don't play it on specific days. Stardew Valley and its original inspiration Harvey Moon also have very clear time limits where you pass out if you don't sleep by 2pm - as do many of the farming games inspired by Stardew. Animal Crossing also clearly has fail states (you die in combat). Unless we're for some reason not defining Stardew and its like as Cozy games anymore? Which wouldn't make any sense.

Great history lesson! I've been collecting authentic games with original and revolutionary gameplay mechanics my whole life, and there are a lot of brilliant gems that haven't made your list. Still an amazing video though, good work!

30:46 close your eyes

My first watch

"MAH-rio"

My pencil is speeding across the paper.

Genuinely couldn't give a rat's ass about this game in particular...but this is still genuinely alarming news from a game preservation standpoint. Keep Circulating The Tapes.

I wasn't initially drawn to this video but now that I've watched it I think it was my favorite gmtk video, at least in a long while.

And not one side b was used

3:09 "On this screen" what screen? i can't figure out how to get to that screennnnnn

I would put the witness on the list

Dead Rising is a game of 2006 while the Pathologic is from 2005 and it has much stronger relation with time limitations

Now I understand why I didn’t play XCOM again after I finished it.

36:24 You completely lost me there buddy, "games don't have to be fun"? Then what's the point? I don't want to be proselytized when I sit down to play a game, if a game goes out of its way to make it unfun for me, after playing it once I'll problably never touch it again. Sure you can indoctrinate and deliver political messages through games, but if that's not what the player expects from the experience when they sit down to play, I think you're being dishonest and manipulative.

Surprised you never mentioned the patent behind the Nemesis system, AFAIK if you wanted to make a similar system you'd have to check to make sure it's legally differentiable

Team fortress 2 mentionned 🗣🗣🗣

80 days isn't at slot 80. Literally unwatchable.

Well done!

Not just play. Play, then ask, “why is this fun?” Have to do the analysis part as well!!

Hundreds of thousands video games? Why not say billions? It would have even more dramatic effect.

You can't really consistently beat balatro at higher difficulties without calculating, or at least being good at estimating your score. Personally having a calculator app out seems too tedious and slow down the game, I'd rather just make estimated guesses and play more runs. BUT I would argue that "calculating" is simply part of the gameplay skillset/loop that develops as you progress through the stake. And given that this is how poker works as well, having a score preview seems really cursed to me, because it would remove that depth from the game, like playing poker/chess by consulting an engine (optimal chess moves are technically "derived information" as well)

I would say there is stuff to learn about game design from bad video games. "See kids, this is why this convention exists because in its absense, it doesn't work."

As a developer, this is the single best video I’ve ever stumbled across

In BoI, the problem is that you get that mystery to start, but then when you've learned things you have to *remember* what hundreds of them do. The original purpose to them not having descriptions is already moot by that point so having them only makes sense.

Some of these games are so brilliant in their creation I can't believe it

patent game mechanics looks like: "i draw this circle, i patent it and everyone who draws the same or just similar - i can sue"

"Doom... it's available on steam, and the major consoles(and your fridge, and your car, and your phone, and your shoes...)" XD XD

I don't know why, but this video got recommended to me countless times.

"But this isn't supposed to be a history lesson." It kind of feels like it tbh.

Warioware is Nintendo's best party game. Fight me.

I'm quite surprised that none of the Little Big Planet games were on this list. They really took the idea of allowing multiple different genres to be not only playable in the game, but give players the ability to make them as well, with at the time a strong sense of community

Love LOVE that you have Spaceteam on the list. It's so good.

Idk if someone has said this before but Crazy Taxi is also free on mobile with some ads (you can also pay 2-3€ to remove them)

no Obra Dinn or Chants of Sennaar is criminal

"hey kid" "you want to se my geodude😨"

As a game designer, I loved this and I'd love to see a follow-up with games that taught you about game design that are, objectively, not good games! :D I've learned as much from what games have done wrong as I have from good games doing great things! Maybe not 100 though.

OMG 999 Yes !!! I never liked visual novels but the Zero Escape trilogy opened a door that I'm not closing

A delightful video. I've gained considerable new respect for the medium of video games from these short two hours.