This chimed with me, and I enjoyed it – it nails much of why I enjoy the game, why I haven't really enjoyed other survival/crafting games, and I particularly nodded along with its more nuanced take on NMS as a post-colonial artefact.

In absolute agreement with Michael Cook: this is a great article about what procedurally generated sound is like – the answer being, a lot of up-front work on parameters before procedure kicks in; the role of the sound designer being in designing systems and simulations as well as sound (rather than *just* the sound); and most importantly, something that can be explained to a lay audience with truthful language, rather than hyperbole. A good piece of technology journalism.

"The campaign’s second big lie was that the UK would be able to have access to the single market without accepting the free movement of people from the EU. No country has this arrangement, and there is no reason to think it is possible. If Britain were to secure a deal whereby it had access to the single market and control over EU immigration, it would be the end of the EU – because other countries would leave the EU and demand the same. Leave campaigners don’t seem to understand that Continental elites feel just as strongly about the continued existence of the EU as the Leavers feel about Brexit. For the EU to survive, it will be important for the UK to be seen to pay a high price for leaving. We don’t know what that price is going to be, and I don’t look forward to finding out." Strong stuff from John Lanchester – a delight to read as always – but god, I don't half feel queasy doing so.

Alex's column on game mechanics is one of my favourite new RPS features – they're all cracking, and a good example of understanding games by going to the source, rather than guessing – and also highlighting the fact that games are made by *people*, not just conjured out of thin air. Really good stuff.

These are all excellent lessons for any industry, not just games.

Text editor / IDE for ink; really straightforward, and looks lovely.

Great lineup for Feral Vector next weekend; shame I'm not around for it, but so glad to see it continuing so well. (And it's in a lovely part of the world).

This sounds good.

A great summation – and some choice quotations – from one of my favourite books about games, design, and play.

I've not been pre-amping my piezos, so this sounds like something I should put together.

I always love seeing debug screens from game developers – what they call things, how they conceptually model the work they're doing visually, and what metrics they track. Also, a reminder of the budgets for doing everything a modern game does. This post about Uncharted 4 is full of that sort of thing. Show everything!

"There are so many good stories to tell about relationships with some history. The stakes are higher than the stakes of a first crush; there’s all that context to add meaning to the interactions. The characters are invested in each other. And relationships between older people typically have involve juggling other responsibilities and commitments — jobs, children from previous relationships." Excellent stuff from Emily Short on all the *other* shapes of relationships you can show. (It made make think of two very different films I've seen recently that showed deep, adult, *sibling* relationships, for starters).

Lovely interview with Disasterpeace about the procedural soundtrack of Mini Metro.