Individual games

The ports to console and handheld do cost money, but charging players for the game didn't diminish Cave Story's popularity. People seemed happy they could finally support the developer behind one of their favorite games. Cave Story is still remembered as one of the best Metroidvania games out there, and has earned widespread critical acclaim for the sheer size of its scope and compelling narrative.

He created the game piece by piece, starting with title screen music and character movements. The main reason the game takes place in a series of interconnected caves is because Amaya originally built a bunch of enclosed spaces like the ones he remembered from Metroid and Castlevania.

Amaya just ran with these similarities, and implemented further level design decisions that resemble those seen in Metroid, like an intro level with two paths and an item down path one that unlocks the ability to further explore path two. Amaya felt this was necessary to teach players that they could solve problems on their own without a series of tutorials, something he believes is important for all Metroidvania titles.

Of course, Amaya's method of design wasn't without its issues. In an interview with The Independent Gaming Source , Amaya admits that building the game piece by piece without a strategy or overall plan beforehand went on to cause unforeseen problems.

By the time he realized that dedicated map editing and data management tools would have proven useful, he was already too far into the game's development to turn back without losing a lot of his work.

A Switch version has been announced, but there's no release date yet. Dust: An Elysian Tail takes place in the fictional world Falana. Players take control of Dust , one of the anthropomorphic animals that lives there, whose discovery of a sentient sword and its playful guardian leads him on a journey to stop a villainous general. Though he didn't write the soundtrack or voice the characters, Dodrill is responsible for designing and programming the entirety of Dust: An Elysian Tail.

Dodrill told Polygon that he taught himself everything he knows about both illustration and animation, and began on An Elysian Tail as an independent animated film called Elysian Tail. When he decided Elysian Tail 's story would better serve as a video game, Dodrill dropped the movie idea to focus on game design. In an interview with Ars Technica , Dodrill admitted that he first thought the process would only take three months.

In actuality, it took Dodrill almost four years to finish the game. The workload took its toll on Dodrill, who tweeted out close to An Elysian Tail's launch date that he was still working and had discovered the " perfect diet " for losing weight: game development. Dodrill also tweeted he lost 15 pounds in the final two months working on An Elysian Tail, and he'd had days where he'd sit at a computer for 18 hours just to meet his deadline. Critics weren't wild about the game's combat--we also criticized the voice acting and story in our review --but An Elysian Tail has near universal praise for its character art, animation, and backgrounds.

The newest game in this gallery, Iconoclasts is developed by Joakim "Konjak" Sandberg. Players take on the role of Robin, a naive and rebellious mechanic whose desire to always help others leads her to be increasingly involved in the religious and political conflicts that plague her planet and threaten her friends.

Sandberg worked on Iconoclasts for eight years. When he first started in , the game was called Ivory Springs and was exclusively for PC. The name changed to Iconoclasts when Sandberg officially announced the game in Sandberg followed up with semi-regular updates on his progress until and went mostly silent after that.

Sandberg also used the opportunity to write about his inspiration behind the Iconoclasts. He wanted to create a game that mixed the strong narrative and detailed world-building seen in Metroid Fusion and Monster World IV , and also featured the types of characters that evoked the same levels of charm and emotion found in Final Fantasy IX.

Iconoclasts was positively received. In our review , we commended the game for its art style and mechanics that call back to old-school Metroidvania, as well as its gripping story and numerous unique boss battles. Lone Survivor is developed by Jasper Byrne. It is a post-apocalyptic survival horror game where players take on the role of a nameless protagonist who must survive a world overrun by an infection that turns humans into mutants. The protagonist suffers hallucinations, making it difficult to discern what's real and what's not.

Byrne took inspirations from David Lynch's films while developing Lone Survivor. Like Lynch, Byrne wanted his characters' motivations and life history to simultaneously be the most important themes of his story and the most difficult details to define. Lone Survivor has three different endings--the director's cut adds two more--and each is a confusing piece of a much larger story. Byrne deliberately kept Lone Survivor's narrative a secret throughout development, and still hasn't revealed the exact message the game is trying to present.

Byrne has expressed that one of the hardest parts of developing Lone Survivor was advertising the game, as most of its enjoyment comes from knowing nothing about the game before diving into it. Trailers exist, but Byrne hopes people don't watch them before playing. Mainichi is developed by Mattie Brice. Released in for PC, Mainichi allows players to roleplay as Brice, a transgender woman, and temporarily experience the difficulties of trying to pass as the gender you identify with within a world that largely believes gender is determined by the body you're born with.

Mainichi was an integral part of the movement centered around personal lived experiences, or "personal games" as they are usually referred to as today. These type of games are typically on the shorter side--Mainichi can be completed in one sitting--but they capture the emotions and mind-sets of a particular person or disenfranchised group.

Brice was an active video game critic prior to developing Mainichi, and she continues to speak out and write against the industry's lack of diversity to this day. Background, age and honest preference are some of the factors that play roles in whether an athlete decides to practice individual or team sports, or a combination of the two. Simple Science: Quantum Physics, Explained. What Is the Federal Minimum Wage? They are currently scheduled to next play on Wednesday night when they host the Nashville Predators at Capital One Arena.

In the meantime, we can wrap-up our holiday-break analysis of the team through the first 31 games of the season. Today we look at shots, or more specifically, individual player shot metrics. A reminder, as always, if you have any questions or need further definition of any of the statistics or terms used in this post, you can always reference our NHL Analytics Glossary.

No surprise here. Alex Ovechkin has shot the puck the most and nearly double that of the next closest Capitals skater John Carlson. A couple of notables include Nick Jensen, who has climbed up the list this season, and Connor McMichael, who is also firing the puck in good quantity. Later in this post we will look at how accurate these shots have been.

Reminder, this is based on total shot attempts, not total shots on goal. The second graph plots goals per shot attempt.

The next graph plots the percentage of all shot attempts that are on goal shots on goal. Connor McMichael has been the most accurate among the regulars, while Alex Ovechkin has been the least accurate among forwards, with Justin Schultz bringing up the rear for all skaters. The following graph simply plots the even-strength shooting percentage for all Capitals skaters through the first 31 games. The red lines represent the league average, approximately 9.

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