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  • Exploring what made the 'Doom' and 'Titanfall 2' campaigns tick

    by 
    Timothy J. Seppala
    Timothy J. Seppala
    01.31.2017

    The new Doom was almost one of my favorite games last year. While it was edged out at the last minute, there's no denying how refreshing the game was. Developer id's laser-focus on speed, making the player throw caution to the wind and tossing modern shooter conventions out the window was incredibly exciting. Titanfall 2 on the other hand took a major complaint levied at its predecessor and delivered one of the most unique shooter campaigns we've seen in an awful long time. As Mark Brown of YouTube channel Game Maker's Toolkit points out, the story modes put fun ahead of everything else.

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    Deconstructing the legendary dungeons of 'Ocarina of Time'

    by 
    Timothy J. Seppala
    Timothy J. Seppala
    07.22.2016

    The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of those games that practically everyone has played and regards fondly. The landmark 1998 game was incredibly influential, and when folks put together lists of "best games of all time," it's usually within the top ten. Ocarina also marked the long-running franchise's move from a top-down view to full 3D thanks to the leap in power that the Nintendo 64 provided. But how do its dungeons stack up to previous games in the series? Specifically, A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening? YouTuber Mark Brown answers just that with a smart and thoughtful examination of the game.

  • The freedom to explore most open-world games is a lie

    by 
    Timothy J. Seppala
    Timothy J. Seppala
    11.18.2015

    Open-world games aren't going away anytime soon, but more often than not when we play them we're being led around by a breadcrumb trail instead of actually exploring. Sometimes even quite literally. The reasoning for that is because it's much easier for game developers to stick a mini-map or quest directions in the heads up display than it is to integrate means of navigation into the game world itself. It's a topic YouTuber Mark Brown knows well and he's taking it for a spin in developer Bethesda Softworks' sprawling Fallout 4. In his latest entry into his Game Maker's Toolkit series he explains why he's turning off the quest markers in Fallout's irradiated Boston and trying to let his nose lead the way, so to speak.

  • 'Uncharted' borrows from cinema to sidestep clunky game design

    by 
    Timothy J. Seppala
    Timothy J. Seppala
    10.27.2015

    Developer Naughty Dog's games have always had a flair for the cinematic and that's due in large part to their presentation. The studio takes a minimalistic approach to how it delivers information to the player, eschewing ugly on-screen means of directing you where to go by using filmic techniques like smart scene composition and color to subtly guide the players from one area to the next. In the video below, YouTuber Mark Brown explores Uncharted 3's opening, breaking down how Naughty Dog pretty masterfully keeps players on the right track during the rooftop chase sequence without it feeling claustrophobically linear.