The 100 Games That Taught Me Game Design

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One of the best ways to learn about game design is to just play a whole bunch of games. But with thousands of titles to choose from… where do you start? Well, this video lists 100 games that have most helped me in my journey to understand game development – from arcade classics to virtual reality thrills.

=== Corrections ===

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was developed by Infinity Ward, not Treyarch.

Spaceteam is actually still on the iOS App Store!

=== Important information ===

Content warning: Blood, Language, War

Backloggd list – https://www.backloggd.com/u/GameMakersTK/list/100-games-that-taught-me-game-design/

While most of the games are available on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch, a few can be found elsewhere. Use these links to begin.

Space Invaders – https://www.vizzed.com/play/space-invaders-+-space-invaders-m-mame-online-arcade-49180-playable
Pac-Man – https://www.vizzed.com/play/pac-man-25th-anniversary-edition-(rev-200)-mame-online-arcade-44130-playable
Rogue – https://www.myabandonware.com/game/rogue-4n/play-4n
Tetris – https://www.retrogames.cz/play_136-GameBoy.php
Diablo II – https://eu.shop.battle.net/en-gb/product/diablo-ii
The Sims – https://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-sims-bf5
September 12th – http://www.newsgaming.com/games/index12.htm
Cookie Clicker –https://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/
Spelunky – https://spelunkyworld.com/original.html

=== Sources ===

[1] Resident Evil Creator Shinji Mikami Reflects… | Gamespot
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/resident-evil-creator-shinji-mikami-reflects-on-th/1100-6435918/

[2] Preview: Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars | 1UP
https://web.archive.org/web/20070927204306/http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3158197

[3] 40 years and I’m still here | Game Developer
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/my-40-years-in-the-game-industry

[4] The Last Guardian creator… | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/28/the-last-guardian-fumito-ueda-interview

[5] Rez – Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s Timeless Masterpiece | Time Extension
https://www.timeextension.com/features/the-making-of-rez-tetsuya-mizuguchis-timeless-masterpiece

[6] Keita Takahashi talks Katamari Damacy | GameSpy
http://www.gamespy.com/articles/595/595110p1.html

[7] Spelunky by Derek Yu | Boss Fight Books
https://bossfightbooks.com/products/spelunky-by-derek-yu

[8] Designing side quests? Study these 7 games | Game Developer
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/designing-side-quests-study-these-7-games-and-some-chris-avellone-pointers-

[9] Soundbite: Age of Empires and Civilization… | The Life & Times of Video Games
https://lifeandtimes.games/episodes/files/soundbite-bruce-shelley

[10] Ahead of the Curve: The SpaceChem Postmortem | GDC Vault
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH7gL3ivgFA

[11] Designing Mark of the Ninja – Nels Anderson | Full Indie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsHNpoleFp0

[12] Jake Solomon | Designer Notes
https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/jake-solomon-part-1

[13] Brilliant Indie Game The Stanley Parable… | Wired
https://www.wired.com/2011/08/the-stanley-parable/

[14] Cow Clicker | Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Clicker

[15] 18 things we learned about Alien: Isolation… | MCV UK
https://mcvuk.com/development-news/18-things-we-learned-about-alien-isolation-last-night/

[16] ’80 Days’: Jules Verne-inspired game… | LA Times
https://web.archive.org/web/20140831040548/http://herocomplex.latimes.com/games/80-days-jules-verne-inspired-mobile-game-is-all-over-the-map/

[17] How Fortnite’s success… | Polygon
https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/23/18507750/fortnite-work-crunch-epic-games

[18] …The aesthetics of frustration in Getting Over It | Gamasutra
https://web.archive.org/web/20190419044650/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/312553/Designer_Interview_The_aesthetics_of_frustration_in_Getting_Over_It.php

[19] Designing Florence… | Game Developer
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/audio/designing-i-florence-i-to-convey-the-ineffable-feeling-of-being-in-love

[20] Understanding the meaningless … Disco Elysium | Game Developer
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/understanding-the-meaningless-micro-reactive-and-marvellous-writing-of-i-disco-elysium-i-

[21] Road to the IGF … Outer Wilds | Game Developer
– https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/road-to-the-igf-alex-beachum-s-i-outer-wilds-i-

=== Chapters ===

00:00 – Intro
02:39 – 1 to 10
15:18 – 11 to 20
28:34 – 21 to 30
41:15 – 31 to 40
55:26 – 41 to 50
1:08:07 – 51 to 60
1:19:55 – 61 to 70
1:32:56 – 71 to 80
1:45:45 – 81 to 90
1:58:50 – 91 to 100
2:11:28 – Outro

=== Credits ===

Some music provided by Epidemic Sound – https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/vtdu5y (Referral Link)

Other music from original soundtracks of games shown

Video credits – https://pastebin.com/iDY3GaAn

source

42 thoughts on “The 100 Games That Taught Me Game Design”

  1. Hey! This is not what I normally do on GMTK, but to celebrate the 10th year of doing this channel I thought it would be fun to do something a bit different. I'm now working on Mind Over Magnet with the aim of releasing the game before the year is out – so expect more Developing updates throughout 2024!

    Reply

  14. Wanted to take the time to say thank you for all the content over the years, Mark! I've been working in games for almost 20 years and since finding the channel years back, I've learned a lot from following along and have recommended GMTK to just about every co-workers I have had. I consider GMTK to be foundational to my growth as a dev, so thank you sir!

    Reply

  16. As a videogame enthusiast I do my best to play every really relevant game that has ever been released, and so I often happen to search something like "the most influential games of all time"; this video comes very close to it, and I appreciated it.

    Here's the ones I haven't beaten yet:

    Rogue

    Thief Gold

    Crazy Taxi

    Tony Hawk's™ Pro Skater™ 1 + 2

    Rez Infinite

    September 12th: a Toy World

    Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

    Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

    Dead Rising

    Skate

    Far Cry 2

    Fruit Ninja

    Amnesia: The Dark Descent

    Fallout: New Vegas

    Civilization VI

    SpaceChem (I tried my best, but I don't think I'm intelligent enough)

    The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

    Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

    Spec Ops: The Line

    Spaceteam

    Dishonored

    Cookie Clicker

    80 Days

    Yakuza 0

    Kerbal Space Program

    Factorio

    Persona 5 Royal

    HITMAN World of Assassination

    Furi

    The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

    Getting Over It (I don't know if I will be able to)

    Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™

    Celeste

    RimWorld

    Florence

    Half-Life: Alyx

    Tunic

    Shadows of Doubt

    In time, I'll do my best to play them all, but happy to see I already played 62 of them. This video will be my Bible for the years to come.

    Reply

  19. You only show games that do something good or interesting, but you can equally learn a lot about what not to do from bad games and bad/poorly-balanced game mechanics. Dead By Daylight and League of Legends are interesting examples because they are games with massive playerbases but are also polarizing, with a lot of people complaining about either the companies behind them or them constantly introducing content that breaks the balance of the game. I don't know as much about LoL, but like, there's a whole 40 minute video calling DBD the "worst balanced game ever", and recounting the development history of the game including many, many game-breaking patches the devs have made to the game over the years.

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  22. For anyone who loved Journey and is itching for more, Sky: Children of the light, from the same dev, is kind of like that, but more! It's free to play and available on pc, mobile and current gen consoles

    Reply

  25. I am surprised F.E.A.R and Gears of War didn't make the list, as one game revolutionized AI in enemies and the other inspired a full genre of cover shooters for at least 10 years.

    Reply

  31. I know this is going to sound negative, but I think it would be cool to hear the 100 games that taught you what not to do in game design.
    For example, I personally love dark souls 2 for nostalgia reasons, but it has some serious problems. I think one major thing I would take as a lesson from that game is to not hide critical gameplay features from the player (e.g. ADP)

    Reply

  34. My biggest game design takeaway from Outer Wilds was how you already have EVERYTHING you need from your first loop. Everything is done within the rules of the game and it's just a matter of learning how everything works. The player is the one that grows, not the game character.

    Reply

  36. 1:52:48 slight correction, but that's not really what happened. They didnt say "lets do that instead" AT FIRST. Rather, they said "hey, PUBG os super crazy popular right now and we have this whole shooter engine thats like 99% done; lets just slap together a BR mode thats a blatant ripoff of PUBG and release it for free as publicity for our REAL game." But then, the cheap PUBG ripoff blew the absolute fuck up, so THEN they said "oh shit, this is making us shit loads of money; leta abandon our original game and just do this!"

    So yeah, they didn't decide they wanted to do a BR instead; they just made one as a super half-assed attempt at free publicity andnit just so happened to explode in popularity, so they just switched to it after that. It was never a decision to switch from one to the other; it was entirely an accident that they just rolled with.

    Reply

  38. Disappointed that Rimworld got the nod over the game it copied; Dwarf Fortress. its good but it effectively took advantage of the fact that DF had a terrible interface. Now there's a reworked steam version of Dwarf Fortress with a full interface I could never recommend Rimworld. Especially as the Adams brothers gave theirs away for free for 18 years.

    Reply

  40. Journey — I learned today that the single "NPC" I came across in the game was actually another player. I found the game restrictive and boring and gave up on it very soon after leaving the desert

    Reply

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