Design Room

The Oral Histories of Video Games (with Matt Leone)

New episode! How do you create an oral history feature about a game like Final Fantasy VII or Street Fighter 2? Former Polygon editor @mattleone.bsky.social joins us to discuss this, and his new site, @designroom.bsky.social.

Listen wherever you get podcasts: open.spotify.com/episode/0dAo...

Nothing planned at the moment, but would love to at some point.

ICYMI here’s matt leone talking to mark macd and the miz about how rez infinite and area-x got built, a pleasant Iwata Asks vibe read at designroom.site for when you have 10 min

My subscription is already paying off. Join me!!

After nine years, Rez Infinite remains gaming’s greatest tease “If we're using the word ‘prologue,’ obviously something has to come after...”

We're kicking off a series of music game oral histories with a look back at Rez Infinite -- and why it's been nine years without a follow-up.

With Shadow of the Colossus behind us, our next project kicks off Monday: a music game series running throughout November.

Shawn Layden and others on The Last Guardian's 10+-year dev cycle We talk to six former Sony employees about the long development cycle, the technical challenges, and the move from PlayStation 3 to PlayStation 4.

This is a little peek at what paid subscribers have been reading. See the full thing for more.

A screenshot of three paragraphs of text shows The Last Guardian executive producer Yasuhide Kobayashi saying he didn't want to move the game from PlayStation 3 to PlayStation 4.

The Last Guardian executive producer Yasuhide Kobayashi didn't want to move the game from PS3 to PS4.

Jenova Chen on how Shadow of the Colossus inspired Journey We dig up a time capsule in the form of a never-before-seen interview conducted a decade ago.

Another 10,000 words on Shadow of the Colossus?! Today, we're posting two never-before-seen interviews @nsuttner.bsky.social did for his @bossfightbooks.com book on Shadow that came out back in 2015. For the first, he talks to @thatgamecompany.com's Jenova Chen.

Honored to contribute something to @mattleone.bsky.social's wonderful new jam! I really enjoyed reading back on these, still amazed that I got to talk to so many incredible devs about my favorite thing.

Josef Fares on how Ico inspired Brothers We dig up a lost interview to learn more about Ico's influence on the 2013 co-op hit.

For the second of these, @nsuttner.bsky.social talks with Josef Fares about Ico, wordless storytelling, and why developers shouldn't listen too closely to players.

Jenova Chen on how Shadow of the Colossus inspired Journey We dig up a time capsule in the form of a never-before-seen interview conducted a decade ago.

Another 10,000 words on Shadow of the Colossus?! Today, we're posting two never-before-seen interviews @nsuttner.bsky.social did for his @bossfightbooks.com book on Shadow that came out back in 2015. For the first, he talks to @thatgamecompany.com's Jenova Chen.

The cover art for Design Room's Shadow of the Colossus oral history shows Wander in the foreground and all 16 colossus in the background.

Gravity Rush concept art shows main character Kat standing on the side of a building with a city in the background.

Takeshi Oga, the former Gravity Rush concept artist who did our Shadow of the Colossus cover, has just joined Bluesky. @ogatakeshi.bsky.social

Was great talking about @designroom.bsky.social with the Aftermath folks!

Wrapping up our first week — thanks to everyone who checked out the site, followed, and/or subscribed! Next week, we’ll be back with more Shadow of the Colossus coverage from an old friend.

Working on a feature for Design Room right now and it covers one of the most unique game designers I’ve ever researched. Even had a chance to sit down with them. Stay tuned 👀

Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Team Ico’s masterpiece by looking back with 11 people who worked on it (and three who didn’t).

Yesterday we posted a big Shadow of the Colossus oral history. Threading a few bits of trivia about that story below...

The making of our Shadow of the Colossus cover art We hired Gravity Rush concept artist Takeshi Oga to illustrate the cover art for our Shadow of the Colossus oral history, then we talked to him about the process.

And third: A look behind the scenes at how we worked with Gravity Rush concept artist Takeshi Oga on the cover art for our Shadow of the Colossus story.

Shawn Layden and others on The Last Guardian's 10+-year dev cycle We talk to six former Sony employees about the long development cycle, the technical challenges, and the move from PlayStation 3 to PlayStation 4.

Second: We talked to six former Sony employees about The Last Guardian’s decade in development, and how one of them didn’t like moving it from PS3 to PS4.

Extended Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido interview Parts of our interview with Shadow of the Colossus' director and line producer ended up on the cutting room floor, so we put together an extended cut for those who want to read the full thing.

Alongside today’s big Shadow of the Colossus oral history, we have three bonus stories for paid subscribers. First up: Our full interview with Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido, talking about Wander’s character design, Warp’s influence on Team Ico, and why Ueda feels conflicted about the game’s ending.

These stories take a lot of time and resources, so if you like what you see it would help greatly if you follow us here or sign up for one of our subscription options: www.designroom.site#/portal

Thanks for checking it out!

Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Team Ico’s masterpiece by looking back with 11 people who worked on it (and three who didn’t).

For the Shadow of the Colossus story, we interviewed 14 people including project leads Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido, hired Gravity Rush concept artist Takeshi Oga to illustrate the cover, and put together a 10,000-word story with help from @milkman.bsky.social @shmuplations.bsky.social and others.

The site is an experiment to see if an outlet specializing in high-production value longform feature stories can work through a subscription model. The oral histories will always be free, and we’ll supplement them with bonus stories for paid subscribers.

Read all about our plans: bit.ly/3W0rXdA

Design Room Video game oral histories

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We are live! Welcome to Design Room, a new independent games media site.

• We specialize in oral histories like the Final Fantasy 7 and Street Fighter 2 ones I (@mattleone.bsky.social) did at Polygon
• Our first big story is on Shadow of the Colossus: bit.ly/4hjwz8n
• See more: designroom.site

Rogue Signal ep. 6: The arrival of Canadian Thanksgiving (featuring Matt Leone) The one where we talk about Ghost of Yotei, CloverPit, and more

Episode 6 of Rogue Signal, our weekly podcast, is here!

This week, the crew chats about a variety of new games, like Ghost of Yotei.

And we end the show with an interview with former Polygoner @mattleone.bsky.social about his new project: @designroom.bsky.social

www.rogue.site/podcasts/rog...

Street Fighter: The Movie: The game: An oral history Our Street Fighter history series continues with a look at the time Capcom copied the copycats

Possibly the last one of these posts repromoting old Polygon oral histories -- looking back on the time we talked to the team behind Street Fighter: The Movie (the game).

Capcom vs. SNK: An oral history We continue our Street Fighter history series with a look at the time Capcom partnered with its crosstown rival

We're running low on Polygon stories to repromote, which is probably a good sign. Here's one on Capcom vs. SNK that bookended our Street Fighter series, with art from @humanmgn.bsky.social. web.archive.org/web/20211017...

With great art from @stevecourtney.bsky.social.

The legacy of PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi, in 24 stories Look back at the early days of PlayStation and its ambitious, innovative and complicated father

We're a little late to tie this to the PlayStation 30th anniversary, but it's still worth looking back on this profile/pseudo oral history on PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi.

With one of the best illustrations we ever commissioned, from @marcaspinall.bsky.social.