Seasons & Episodes
How Gamers Killed Ultima Online's Virtual Ecology
When creating Ultima Online, Richard Garriott had grand dreams. Richard and Starr Long planned on implementing a virtual
How Thief's Stealth System Almost Didn't Work
1998's Thief: The Dark Project was a pioneer for the stealth genre, utilizing light and shadow as essential gameplay mec
How Stardock's Elemental: War of Magic Failed
Brad Wardell, founder of Stardock Corporation, details the difficulties in the development of Elemental: War of Magic, a
How Serious Sam's Demo Saved the Game From Extinction
Croteam founder Davor Hunski discusses the long development history of the first game in the Serious Sam series. Startin
How Star Control II Was Almost TOO Realistic
Toys for Bob's Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford talk in-depth about the development history of Star Control and Star Contro
How Aliens versus Predator's Late Design Change Made It a Classic
Tim Jones, lead artist and producer for the classic PC game "Aliens vs. Predator," talks about the risky development cho
How Total War: Rome II's Ambition Was Almost Its Undoing
With 150,000 possible land battle locations, 2,500 river crossing locations, 20,000 possible ambush locations and much m
How Dead Space's Scariest Scene Almost Killed the Game
Glen Schofield, the co-founder of Sledgehammer Games and the creator/director of Dead Space, goes in-depth on the develo
How Blade Runner Reinvented Adventure Games
In 1995, Westwood Studios set out to make a game based on one of the most beloved science fiction films ever made. They
How Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun Solved Pathfinding
Westwood Studios co-founder Louis Castle talks about the development of the classic RTS, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
How MechWarrior 5's Team Fixed Their Player-Killing Level Generator
Reactor Online. Sensors Online. Weapons Online. All Systems Nominal! In this Special Edition of War Stories, Russ Bulloc
How Amnesia: The Dark Descent Tricked Players Into Scaring Themselves
Frictional Games' Thomas Grip, designer of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, discusses the development of one of the most frigh
How Slay the Spire’s Original Interface Almost Killed the Game
Mega Crit Games co-founders Casey Yano and Anthony Giovannetti set out to combine the roguelike and deck building genres
How Localizing Return of the Obra Dinn Nearly Sunk the Game
Lucas Pope, creator of Return of the Obra Dinn, explains how the localization of the game's logbook put the game in some
How This War of Mine Plays on Your Emotions
Aleksander Kauch, lead game programmer for This War of Mine, goes behind the scenes of the game's development and explai
How Subnautica Succeeded Without Weapons
Charlie Cleveland, design director for Subnautica, goes behind the scenes of the game's development and explains how the
How Dead Cells Cheated to Make the Game More Fun
Sébastien Bénard, lead designer at Motion Twin, goes behind the scenes of Dead Cells' development. Sébastien explains
How Sid Meier Almost Made Civilization a Real-Time Strategy Game
Sid Meier, the creator of the popular Civilization video game series, goes behind the scenes of the development of the f
How Mind Control Saved Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
When Lorne Lanning first conceived of what would become Oddworld, he wasn't necessarily setting out to make video games.
How Myst Almost Couldn't Run on CD-ROM
Cyan Worlds co-founder Rand Miller goes behind the scenes of the development of one of the best selling PC games of all
How Crash Bandicoot Hacked The Original Playstation
For today’s episode of War Stories, Ars Technica sat down with Naughty Dog Co-founder Andy Gavin to talk about the hur
How Prince of Persia Defeated Apple II's Memory Limitations
For today’s episode of War Stories, Ars Technica sat down with Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner to learn about
How Homeworld Almost Got Lost in 3D Space
On this episode of War Stories, Ars Technica sits down with Rob Cunningham to revisit the groundbreaking 1999 3D real-ti
How Netflix's "Extraction" Engineered a 12-Minute, One-Shot Action Scene
For today’s episode of War Stories, Ars Technica is joined by Sam Hargrave, director of the Netflix action film “Ext
How Alan Wake Was Rebuilt 3 Years Into Development
In conjunction with the 10th anniversary of its release, today Ars Technica is joined by Sam Lake, Creative Director of
How "Robert the Bruce" Continued the Story of "Braveheart" Under Brutal Conditions
On today’s episode of War Stories, Ars Technica is joined by the creators of the film “Robert The Bruce” to breakd
How NBA JAM Became A Billion-Dollar Slam Dunk
Boomshakalaka! Today on War Stories, Ars Technica is joined by NBA JAM lead designer and programmer Mark Turmell to talk
How Amazon’s “Undone” Animates Dreams With Rotoscoping And Oil Paints
Today on War Stories Ars Technica is joined by Hisko Hulsing, director and production designer of the Amazon original se
How One Gameplay Decision Changed Diablo Forever
Today on War Stories, Ars Technica is joined by Diablo lead programmer David Brevik to break down the genesis and develo
How Forza's Racing AI Uses Neural Networks to Evolve
Today on War Stories, Ars Technica is joined by Dan Greenawalt, Creative Director of the Forza franchise, who takes us t
How Deus Ex Blended Genres To Change Shooters Forever
Today Ars Technica is joined by Warren Spector, designer and director of the highly influential Deus Ex. Released in 200
How Gears Of War Almost Didn't Have Multiplayer
On this edition of War Stories Lee Perry, Gameplay Designer and Level Designer of the original Gears of War, joins Ars T
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