JM8 and Ludo are delving into game design in this animated video essay series. New episodes every other Monday at 10 AM CT.
Curated by: Second Wind (65 videos)
00:00:00 Intro 00:00:17 What Developers Misunderstand About Dark Souls Level Design 00:11:34 Designing an Underwater Temple That Doesn't Suck (ft. Thierry Boulanger) 00:22:32 The Scarily Good Design of Alien Isolation 00:34:46 The Worst Puzzle of All Time 00:45:42 Why League of Legends' Design Encourages Toxicity 00:54:02 How to Asset Flip Irresponsibly 01:02:14 Can a Badly Designed Game Still be Good? 01:10:18 Mario Kart's Balance Is Pure Depravity 01:21:06 Was Dark Souls' Blighttown a Mistake? 01:34:11 Looter Shooter Devs Still Don't Understand Loot 01:43:28 Are Health Bars Making Games Worse? 01:53:26 The Secret to Making Any Game Satisfying 02:02:11 Games Are so Pretty It's Ruining My Job 02:09:43 The Baffling Design Decisions of Dragon's Dogma 2 02:19:10 A Game Designer Ranks FromSoftware's Healing Systems 02:30:43 Why Balancing Multiplayer Games Is a NIGHTMARE (ft. Riot Mortdog) 02:46:27 Disco Elysium Is Lying to You 02:58:19 Designing the Secrets of Animal Well (ft. Billy Basso) 03:13:46 The One Simple Mechanic Holding Elden Ring Back 03:24:27 How Beyond Good and Evil Changed My Life 03:39:25 There's a Disease Infecting the Game Industry 03:48:33 The Mechanic Killing Games Before They Start 03:58:52 Game Devs Lying to You is a Good Thing, Actually 04:07:17 How Warcraft Has Kept Me Addicted for 16 Years 04:18:15 Is Concord the Biggest Gaming Failure of All Time? 04:28:18 Does Astrobot Basically Play Itself? 04:39:02 Did This One Detail Ruin the Silent Hill 2 Remake? 04:51:04 The Worst Boss Fight of All Time 05:01:38 The Best Multiplayer Stealth Horror Game You're Not Playing 05:12:24 Is Live Service UI Designed to Confuse You? 05:24:20 The Top 5 Best-Designed Games of 2024 05:36:04 Marvel Rivals Is Beating Overwatch Because It's Broken 05:46:00 Over a Million Players Wasn't Enough for Prince Persia: The Lost Crown 05:56:36 Ranking the Worst FromSoftware Swamps 06:09:24 Monster Hunter Keeps Making Itself Worse, and I Love That 06:20:22 The Worst Tutorial of All Time 06:31:32 Why Having Too Much Content Can Ruin a Good Game 06:41:14 The Baffling Dungeon Designs of Oblivion 06:52:19 Doom: The Dark Ages' Designers Think You're Dumb 07:08:52 The Curse of Needlessly Copying Dark Souls 07:21:22 Elden Ring Nightreign Is a Design Anomaly 07:35:02 I'm in Love With but Deeply Worried About Dune: Awakening 07:48:28 What Devs STILL Misunderstand About Open World Design 07:57:23 How Video Game Patents Are Hurting the Games Industry 08:08:20 Hollow Knight Is Designed to Make You Feel Bad 08:17:58 Hollow Knight: Silksong's Beautiful but Baffling Designs 08:32:10 The Insane Imbalance of Hades II 08:42:18 Should Difficulty Options Even Exist? 08:54:30 Is Pokémon Intentionally Designed to Waste Your Time? 09:06:52 The Hidden Secrets of Dark Souls Design 09:23:20 These Were 2025's Best-Designed Games 09:33:45 The Actual Credits Every Design Delve from the last two years, all in one video just for you. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SecondWindGroup Second Wind Merch: https://store.dftba.com/collections/second-wind https://sharkrobot.com/collections/second-wind