Matt Leone

An original illustration shows the 16 bosses from Shadow of the Colossus.

An original illustration shows the four games from Design Room's Sensory Overload music game series.

A photograph shows the packaging from the canceled Super Nintendo game Sound Fantasy.

A piece of concept art shows Rez Infinite's Area X level.

Holiday gift idea! Get someone a one-year Design Room subscription. Just go here, tip $70, and put their name, email, and the date you want it to start in the notes. www.designroom.site#/portal/supp...

Introducing our 15th Anniversary Art Book:
'Print Screen. Celebrating 15 Years of Video Game Art'

• A beautiful coffee table book featuring more than 150 iconic video game artworks, with essays and interviews from industry luminaries and artists!

And yes, that's an illustration from @wendyleftmealone.bsky.social that we haven't run on the site yet, showing the last story in our music series (coming soon!).

Become the Black Bird in this dark-fantasy shooting game with an operatic twist!

Discover the tale of a young girl who dies a pitiful death and is reborn as the calamitous Black Bird — now 50% OFF for your PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5!

store.playstation.com/en-us/concep...

⏰ THIS IS IT! FINAL 48 HOURS TO BACK THE APWOT 6 KICKSTARTER! 🤖✨ Link below! 👇

Funlad in space

AIM FOR THE STARS: FUNLAND NO. 5 HAS LANDED

@oniongames.bsky.social's YOSHIRO KIMURA on life on Earth. @lukewasthefish.bsky.social on life on alien worlds (or at least SLC). @kaittremblay.bsky.social on death in the cosmos.

Cover by @alexanderlaird.bsky.social

funland.itch.io/funland-zine...

Check out @designroom.bsky.social if you’re into video game history and behind the scenes interviews!

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...

Toshio Iwai's journey from Sound Fantasy to Electroplankton We profile the artist behind two of Nintendo's attempts at making experimental music games in the '90s and early 2000s -- one a canceled Super Famicom game based on musical insects, and the other a Ni...

Next up in our music game series: a big profile of Sound Fantasy and Electroplankton creator Toshio Iwai, based on a three-hour call with @radishgames.com.

Otocky illustrations from Toshio Iwai show the game's main character playing music.

A photo of Otocky's box art shows a spherical game character in the middle and a photo of a woman in the corner.

A game starring a flying "sound warrior" that started life as a video game stage show with three people playing simultaneously, all synced to the same soundtrack? It could only be Otocky. www.designroom.site/toshio-iwai-...

Fun fact: This story came about because I noticed Iwai had done an art installation 30 years ago for the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco. The museum's staff was able to connect us, and this is the result.

Fun fact: This story came about because I noticed Iwai had done an art installation 30 years ago for the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco. The museum's staff was able to connect us, and this is the result.

Issue 5 is out now! 🦄 🎉

Featuring our incredible collaboration with Vanillaware for our Unicorn Overlord cover, interviews with some of the medium's most iconic creatives, and beautiful essays with original art from cover to cover.

Let's walk through the latest issue: 👇🧵

Happy Lumines day!

Despite the ravages of age and an internet steeped in misinformation, your eyes – in this one case – do not deceive you: Website different. It’s taken an immense amount of time and effort, but welcome to Aftermath version 2.0:

aftermath.site/aftermath-rela...

$1 gets you...

•25 incredible interviews with the most fascinating people in video games
•5 deep dives on storytelling, reviews, and media
•1 oral history of Street Fighter: The Movie
•Video episodes
•Weekly bonus segments
•And a community of over 1,000 passionate gamers
www.patreon.com/c/PostGames

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.

A Profound Waste of Time: Issue 6 The beloved gaming mag returns, with Astro Bot's Nicolas Doucet, Danganronpa's Kazutaka Kodaka, Team Ninja's Fumihiko Yasuda and more!

New @apwot.bsky.social is live!

Maybe someday!

YouTube video by Portland Retro Gaming Expo We Launched the NES 40 Years Ago Today - Gail Tilden, Lance Barr, Bruce Lowry - PRGE 2025 Portland

Hear about the NES US launch 40 years ago from the people that made it happen: Gail Tilden, Bruce Lowry and Lance Barr with @frankcifaldi.bsky.social from the @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social moderating! Panel recording at youtu.be/f2WDfsiLiRA
#prge #prge2025 #retrogaming #VGHF

Fun fact: I originally wanted to run this story the day @designroom.bsky.social launched because I thought it was going to be Rez Infinite's 10th anniversary. Turned out I was a year off, but then I figured, might as well do it anyway.

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

i just signed up as a subscriber for @mattleone.bsky.social and co's new hotness! The FF7 and Street Fighter Oral Histories were critical pitstops on my journey to get into game dev, and I am excited to support an independent outlet helping chart the history of our artform from the words of artists!

Thanks so much!

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.

Delighted to announce Heartbeats, Dreams and Laser Eyes: 15 Years of Simogo, and equally thrilled to be working with @hollynielsen.bsky.social, @nadiaoxford.bsky.social, @illogicaljoker.bsky.social and Christian Donlan, who will be contributing essays to the book. Preorder at the link below!

Why Can’t Sony Make More Multiplayer Hits? How the PlayStation maker lost—but still survived—gaming’s live-service struggle

​Over at The Ringer, I went long on the history of PlayStation online, from SOCOM and Uncharted 2 to its current live-service woes.

Notable hearing Shawn Layden on​ GaaS:​ “A live-service game to me isn’t really a game. It’s a repetitive action engagement device.”

www.theringer.com/2025/10/24/v...

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.

Thanks so much!

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.