The Maxis Game Club letters are a short series of letters I wrote back and forth with fellow designer Matt Yang about our video game experiences in 2019. Read the previous letter here.

Dear Matt,

I was thinking about the absolutely wild number of games released on Steam in 2019 that you pointed out, and I think it reflects on the real evolution of the democratization of game-making. It’s interesting to consider that early games were developed by a single designer/engineer only to have the industry create mega-studios to dominate the space, which then caused creative burnout and the rise of the indie game.

The Maxis Game Club letters are a short series of letters I wrote back and forth with fellow designer Matt Yang about our video game experiences in 2019. Read the previous letter here.

Dearest Scott,

If there’s one major takeaway for me of the last 10 years of gaming (and media as a whole), it’s the absolute explosion of the number of titles, both large and small. In 2010, there were 276 games released on steam… for the entire year. In 2018, it was over 9000. That is INSANE. It’s literally impossible for me to keep up (although, I don’t think I need to play most of those).

The Maxis Game Club letters are a short series of letters I wrote back and forth with fellow designer Matt Yang about our video game experiences in 2019. Read the previous letter here.

Dear Matt,

Is it even possible these days to not feel overwhelmed by the amount of “good” media that we are supposed to consume? With so many outlets and recommendations, I often feel like spending too much time with one game hampers my ability to experience all the great games that I’m not currently playing! Perhaps that’s why, over the past few years, I’ve noticed that I tend to gravitate toward games that allow for satisfying short sessions and have eased away from games that have a long, steep learning curve.

The Maxis Game Club letters are a short series of letters I wrote back and forth with fellow designer Matt Yang about our video game experiences in 2019. Read the previous letter here.

Dear Scott,

2020 is here and I am terrified (for a multitude of reasons that are boring and not-game-related so I will spare you). 2019 was also crazy but some cool games came out so let’s talk about that.

The Maxis Game Club letters are a short series of letters I wrote back and forth with fellow designer Matt Yang about our video game experiences in 2019.

Dear Matt,

Happy 2020! This is the start of an experiment to see if having more than one person write about their experiences and feelings with games ends up being more interesting than limiting the blathering to the babbling hum of my singular mind attempting to figure out what I liked or didn’t like about playing video games this past year.