Adam Millard - The Architect of Games

How Games Communicate, Without Saying Anything

Believe it or not, games are CONSTANTLY talking to us, not just through text or voice, but through the way they’re designed.

The Architect, fluent in thousands of languages from across the cosmos, is ready to give you a glimpse into just some of the ways that games can communicate with us, mostly without us even knowing.

You Saw:

DOOM (2016)

Metroid Prime (2002)

Sentinels of the Multiverse (2014)

HEARTBEAT (2018)

Metal Slug 3 (2000)

Phoenix Wright (2...

Architect Address- August 2018

Surprise Surprise it's an Architect Address, right on schedule!

Expect this month's reviews either tomorrow or the day after, sorry for the delay!

Why Perfect Difficulty Is Impossible

What is difficulty? and why can no-one seem to agree on it? Well, The Architect thinks that we're coming at the subject from the wrong end of the stick.

There's no better game to help prove it than monster hat making simulator, Monster Hunter World, a game that has some interesting struggles with difficulty and challenge.

You Saw:

XCOM 2 War of the Chosen: 2017

Monster Hunter World: 2018

Mini Metro: 2015

Divinity Original Sin 2: 2017

In...

The Four Fundamental Quests

Adventurer! Adventurer! My farm is under attack by level 2 spiders who don't seem to know how quests work! Watch this video and explain to six of them that there are really only four kinds of quests and they might leave us alone!

That Architect bloke was around here a while ago but he told me I wasn't real and to shut up he was recording some footage, I don't know about you but he doesn't seem very helpful.

Reward: Knowledge?

[ACCEPT]  [REJECT]

Oh just as a headsup, as m...

Architect Recomends: I'm not a monster!

This one isn't so much a recomendation as it is a suggestion for something to keep an eye on, plus it's not something everyone has already played like dead cells!  

The first thing you'll notice about I'm Not a Monster is it's striking 50's aesthetic, situating itself as somewhere between the original star trek series and the day the earth stood still, whilst I can't say I'm a massive fan of the booby space ladies (theme appropriate though they may be), I am however in love with the goofy...

The Architect Address- July 2018

This got uploaded and was public for a few mins, whoops!

Anyway, here's the Architect Address for July!

Why Are Games So Hard To Balance?

Balancing games is difficult. Really difficult. To make things worse, we don't understand a lot of the thought that goes into making games interesting to play and replay. 

Who better to tell you all about balance than world renowned Wrong About Videogames Person, The Architect? It turns out, the best way to balance a game, might not be to make it completely balanced to begin with.

You Watched:

Battle Chef Brigade (2018)

Hearthstone (2014)...

Architect Recommends: Dead Cells

I’m usually a bit hesitant to recommend Early Access games because they’re a risk for people to buy, but man am I impressed with Dead Cells.

For those not in the know, it’s kind of a hybrid between a metroidvania and a rougelike, and those genres fit together way better than I thought they would. Each run starts off with you getting some random gear and trekking out into a randomised series of levels, killing enemies, getting newer slightly more stabby swords, you know the drill, classic...

The Best Boys- Making FF15's NPC's

Sorry for this one being a little late, between rewrites and internet troubles this came out a little later than I'd like. Hope you enjoy though!

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Final Fantasy 15 was a weird game, wasn't it? Great systems, a fantastic open world and yet it was essentially not finished and that ruined a lot of the game. Luckily, Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus survived FFXV's turbulent development and went onto become the best bit of the game.

The Architect, having developed a hankering fo...

The Architect Address- June 2018

 In the very first Architect Address, a monthly series of update videos where I ramble on about the month's goings on, we talk about the aniversary of the  channel, Morality, Failure and why Wolfenstein 2 wasn't very good.

If you've got any ideas for things to discuss (please I need help) slap them in the comments and I'll give them a look!

Finding the Fun in Failure

Finally I've managed to upload this damn thing. Apologies for the wait, people, this really should have gone up yesterday. On the bright side, the June reviews are uploading as I speak and I'm about to record the 1st and coincidentally special channel anniversary edition of the monthly update! 

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Losing isn’t fun. Or is it? What if I told you that the many differnt ways we can lose in video games actually makes them more fun? Specifically, failure in videogames is really importa...

Architect Recommends: Prismata

Hi, and welcome to a series of short game recommendations exclusively for my Patrons, in these articles I’ll talk to you about a game you probably should play and the reasons why I think it’s interesting and/or worth your time.

In the spirit of that, let’s take a look at Prismata, a game that about 75% of you are going to take one look at and immediately write off.

Prismata is a competitive economy-building game that pits two players against each other to see who can build the most...

Are morality systems making us less moral?

Morality systems are a huge trend in videogames, and with good reason- games are maybe the best medium for analysing and exploring ethics. So why are most games with morality systems rubbish at exactly that?

The Architect is going to have to journey to the middle of the ocean, the arctic circle and to the darkest of dungeons to work out what the problem with morality systems is.

I hope I managed to say all of your names correctly, and apologies for some slight audio issues you might noti...

Open for business!

Okay, this thing is finally up and running, thank you for your support and expect content to start coming your way soon!