Categories › Games & Game Development
Game design Videos Recommended on Hacker News (65)
Game design is one of the 150 topics Hacker News readers organize their video recommendations around. These 65 videos each earned real recommendations in real HN threads between 2011 and 2026 — 220 recommendations in total — and they're ranked by how many separate months the community kept coming back to them, not by view count.
Game design: mechanics, level design, game feel and juice, balance, player psychology, monetization ethics, narrative design, Jonathan Blow, GDC talks, design theory and postmortems.
Why HN keeps sending people here — on Juice it or lose it - a talk by Martin Jonasson & Petri Purho: “Gotta be one of the best talks for anyone trying to make things interactive that also feel good.” — an HN commenter, 2016.
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12 mo on HNJuice it or lose it - a talk by Martin Jonasson & Petri Purho
grapefrukt
12 HN recommender · 2013–2025
11 mo on HNJan Willem Nijman - Vlambeer - "The art of screenshake" at INDIGO Classes 2013
Dutch Game Garden
10 HN recommender · 2014–2025
12 mo on HNPreventing the Collapse of Civilization / Jonathan Blow (Thekla, Inc)
DevGAMM
14 HN recommender · 2020–2025
8 mo on HNFailing to Fail: The Spiderweb Software Way
GDC Festival of Gaming
11 HN recommender · 2018–2025
7 mo on HNExploring the Tech and Design of Noita
GDC Festival of Gaming
7 HN recommender · 2020–2026
7 mo on HN'Diablo': A Classic Game Postmortem
GDC Festival of Gaming
8 HN recommender · 2018–2023
7 mo on HNJonathan Blow: Game design: the medium is the message
CreativeMornings HQ
7 HN recommender · 2013–2020
7 mo on HNManufactured Discontent and Fortnite
Folding Ideas
6 HN recommender · 2019–2025
6 mo on HNJonathan Blow: Video Games and the Human Condition
rubbermuck
6 HN recommender · 2011–2017
5 mo on HNDOOM: Behind the Music
GDC Festival of Gaming
4 HN recommender · 2017–2023
5 mo on HNClassic Game Postmortem: Sid Meier's Civilization
GDC Festival of Gaming
4 HN recommender · 2017–2021
6 mo on HNPropaganda Games: Sesame Credit - The True Danger of Gamification - Extra Credits
Extra Credits
7 HN recommender · 2015–2018
5 mo on HNClassic Game Postmortem: Ultima Online
GDC Festival of Gaming
5 HN recommender · 2018–2024
4 mo on HNNintendo - Putting Play First
Game Maker's Toolkit
3 HN recommender · 2017–2025
4 mo on HNDwarf Fortress Creator Explains its Complexity & Origins | Noclip Interview
/noclip
6 HN recommender · 2020–2022
4 mo on HNRoss's Game Dungeon: Deus Ex
Accursed Farms
4 HN recommender · 2017–2024
4 mo on HNPitfall Classic Postmortem With David Crane Panel at GDC 2011 (Atari 2600)
GameSpot
4 HN recommender · 2013–2025
4 mo on HNSid Meier's Psychology of Game Design
GDC Festival of Gaming
4 HN recommender · 2016–2019
4 mo on HNPractical Creativity
GDC Festival of Gaming
3 HN recommender · 2018–2026
4 mo on HNHow Gamers Killed Ultima Online's Virtual Ecology | War Stories | Ars Technica
Ars Technica
3 HN recommender · 2018–2026
3 mo on HNSpace Station 13 Review | AHELP: Clown Grief Pls Ban He™
SsethTzeentach
3 HN recommender · 2021–2023
4 mo on HNWhat Games Are Like For Someone Who Doesn't Play Games
Razbuten
4 HN recommender · 2019–2023
3 mo on HNTUN: Un-Ruining the MMO
MrBtongue
2 HN recommender · 2016–2022
3 mo on HNProcedurally Crafting Manhattan for Marvel's Spider-Man
GDC Festival of Gaming
3 HN recommender · 2019–2022
3 mo on HNPRACTICE 2018: Joseph White
NYU Game Center
2 HN recommender · 2018–2022
3 mo on HN1,500 Slot Machines Walk into a Bar: Adventures in Quantity Over Quality
GDC Festival of Gaming
3 HN recommender · 2020–2026
3 mo on HNPlaying to Lose: AI and "Civilization" (Soren Johnson)
Google TechTalks
2 HN recommender · 2011–2026
3 mo on HNClassic Game Postmortem: Fallout
GDC Festival of Gaming
3 HN recommender · 2018–2025
3 mo on HNGDC 2010: Sid Meier Keynote - "Everything You Know is Wrong"
GameSpot
2 HN recommender · 2014–2019
3 mo on HNGambling and the desire machine | Pay to Win
Jimmy McGee
3 HN recommender · 2022–2024
3 mo on HN"Devs Play" S1E06 - Psychonauts "The SMK Speedrun" [1/1]
Double Fine
3 HN recommender · 2019–2022
3 mo on HNRoss's Game Dungeon: Deus Ex - Human Revolution
Accursed Farms
3 HN recommender · 2020–2022
3 mo on HNLet’s go whaling: Tricks for monetising mobile game players with free-to-play
PocketGamerbiz
3 HN recommender · 2019–2026
3 mo on HNMeaningful Play: Getting Gamification Right
Google TechTalks
3 HN recommender · 2012–2014
3 mo on HNSequelitis - Mega Man Classic vs. Mega Man X
Egoraptor
3 HN recommender · 2012–2020
3 mo on HNClassic Game Postmortem - Another World
GDC Festival of Gaming
4 HN recommender · 2020–2023