Latest articles by Austin Wood
Palworld dev explains what's going on with its slick Dead Cells-style "Metroidvania x Roguelite," which has its own team who "used to be at Pocketpair"
News The team still works in Pocketpair's offices, unconventionally, but they're somewhat separate
Nintendo Switch 2 price remains $450 in US despite tariffs but "accessories will experience price adjustments," and US pre-orders open April 24
News "Other adjustments to the price of any Nintendo product are also possible"
Even if it isn't a Soulslike, Phantom Blade Zero still wants to channel that "pre-Elden Ring" FromSoftware level design with secrets and layers
News "Level design is something that's very important for us"
Palworld developer says reaching 32 million players is "unexplainable" and "a lot of people don't realize how much of an anomaly that is"
News One of a kind
In a custom "nightmare mode" where any damage permanently deletes his character, MMO daredevil ends 15-month Old School RuneScape challenge with a 68-minute finale
News Resident OSRS sicko Settled does it again
In a brutal 60-hour YouTube video, one devoted fan preserves notorious Genshin Impact streamer's legendarily bad luck for all eternity: "What am I doing with my life"
News Years of bad RNG for Genshin Impact content creator Zy0x, condensed to just 30 feature films
Marathon feels like a good extraction shooter, but it's not free-to-play, and I hope Sony and Bungie don't price it into an early grave
Features Marathon needs to be both: good and affordable
After playing Marathon for 8 hours, I don't think Bungie's extraction shooter will be the next Helldivers 2 hit, but I don’t think it will be the next Concord bust either
Hands-on Hands-on | Marathon might be the most polished extraction shooter yet
All Elden Ring Nightreign classes and abilities
Guide Elden Ring Nightreign has a selection of character classes you can choose from before starting a run, each with unique abilities
How does Pocketpair spend all that Palworld money? Dev says they can take "risks" even if "we don't know what we're doing," trusting the CEO has "squirreled away enough to keep us alive"
News It's good to be Pocketpair
"We're not just making Dark Souls over and over again": For this indie team, making a Smash Bros-infused Metroidvania alongside an open-world roguelike just makes sense
News Possessor(s) is another distinct example of what makes a Heart Machine game
"Most of the games that are Metroidvanias are just Metroid games": The director of this Smash Bros-infused Metroidvania hates the word because "it's a silly term and Japan did it better"
News Possessor(s) from Heart Machine is full-on search action
Hollow Knight: Silksong will finally launch in 2025, and the long-awaited Metroidvania is also coming to Nintendo Switch 2
News SILKSONG MENTIONED!
Ex-Bethesda dev turned indie says "good things often happen by accident," like that time Skyrim players convinced themselves the RPG's foxes were leading them to treasure
News "Players don't realize how many happy and sometimes unhappy accidents" happen in games
Palworld dev says the studio went dark for months because "the team was getting burnt out from all the social media stuff, I was getting burnt out, our CEO was under attack in Japan"
News "We really tried to push back on the AI stuff specifically"
At a ridiculously detailed showcase of the open-world engine behind the RPG Crimson Desert, I asked a ridiculously detailed question about water and all hell broke loose
News How wet is water, exactly?
"Should JRPGs be considered a distinct genre?": Lunar icon Kei Shigema reflects on the genre with new remasters on the way and how RPGs have changed 33 years later
Interview Interview | "The time I spent working on this game was the happiest and most fulfilling period of my life"
24 years later, RuneScape gets its own survival game – RuneScape: Dragonwilds turns the MMO into a co-op game with RPG juice and Valheim energy, and it's out this year
News RuneScape: Dragonwilds will launch in Steam early access this spring
"Minutes after Palworld released," Pocketpair was already getting game pitches from "some really big names" before it even set up its own publisher: "No one has money at the moment"
News "we're kind of open to helping people with their weird little ideas because they have them"
Valve leads considered making a "mediocre" game before Half-Life to build the team up, but original marketing exec said "if you do that, the company will fail"
News "I told Gabe that I thought the only way that Half-Life was really going to work was if it was named Game of the Year"
The lead UI designer on Metaphor: ReFantazio had never designed for a game before – he just rolled up and made some of the best UI I've ever seen in a JRPG
News "Hyper stylish" became the guiding light for Metaphor: ReFantazio
Behold, the most intimidating demo I’ve had in 12 years of covering video games: playing "literal walking simulator" Baby Steps in front of Getting Over It mastermind Bennett Foddy
Features Baby Steps, from Bennett Foddy and the Ape Out crew, is a singular experience
Ex-Bethesda dev says his new studio isn't making a "little Skyrim," but does channel a key part of the iconic RPG: "Stuff got built because somebody cared about building it"
News Soft Rains has a first-person sci-fi game in the works
"There is an expectation we're gonna make a little Skyrim": Ubisoft and Bethesda veterans form new studio headed by Skyrim and Fallout designer, debuting with first-person sci-fi and "crunchy mechanics"
Features Soft Rains studio head Joel Burgess says "it would be unfun and foolish not to use our strengths to challenge our weaknesses"
