Wireframe Magazine

Wireframe looks at how games are made and who makes them, and even guides you through making your own.

To buy or not to buy? That is the question

WELCOME

CRASH COURSE • Micro Machines meets crazy golf? Happy Volcano introduce us to its one-of-a-kind arcade racer, You Suck at Parking

A medieval kind of future • The futuristic and fantastical collide in Fabular: Once upon a Spacetime, a new roguelike action-RPG aiming to be a fairytale set in space

Burn bright like no other • Creative director Jake Solomon explains Firaxis’ ambitious attempt to craft a new kind of superhero experience in Marvel’s Midnight Suns

Bewitched • Metroidvania meets bullet hell shooter? It can only be The Knight Witch

That was the month that was

Driving games are older than you think • When was the first driving game released? You may be surprised!

Incoming

Where we’re going, we don’t need wheels… • In the wake of WipEout staying absent for a decade, we speak to the indies continuing its legacy by developing their own anti-gravity racers

Behaving like a dick: a condensed video game history

custom PC

The Knight Witch

Escaping the night trap • The British studios and filmmakers using homegrown tech and talent to reinvent full-motion video games

The curious mind of the Stray • As a character, and especially as a protagonist, Stray’s cat is a weird and thought-provoking case, well worth a deeper look

The principles of game design • What significance does the number 2000 have for Atari and E.T.? Howard explains all

Make a multiplayer racer in Unreal Engine 5 • Getting a networked, multiplayer racing game up and running is easier than you think. Ryan shows you how

Create a 3D world in Unity • You too can get an animated character running around a 3D world in seconds. Here’s how

Ico’s level design: when less is more • The castle in Ico delivers a powerful atmosphere, demonstrating that games are stronger when elements are removed, not added

Code an homage to Excitebike • Make your own side-scrolling racer in the vein of the NES classic

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The Unliving

Breaking the fourth wall for fun and profit • The developers behind Lair of the Clockwork God, The Procession to Calvary, and OneShot discuss the joys and perils of breaking down the barrier between game and player

Interactive • Developer Mikael Tillander made his own take on a Toaplan shooter – then set about turning it into a arcade machine…

Interactive • Subtales Studio’s Filipe Rodrigues on channelling his love of arthouse films and B-movies into a gritty, hand-drawn adventure game

How I became a… Level Designer • Kolbe Payne from Crystal Dynamics talks shipping Halo as his first game and the key to great level design

Studio highlights

Penning the writer’s journey • Denki’s Gary Penn reflects on his varied career path, from journalism to game development and potentially beyond

Whoops, it’s 4am: a novice’s guide to management sims

OUR SCORES

Two Point Campus • A scholarly addition to the management sim genre

Lord Winklebottom Investigates • The game’s afoot

Bear and Breakfast • A woodland retreat that offers more than the bear necessities

Rollerdrome • On a roll

Lost in Play • Close your eyes and make believe that you could be anywhere

Endling: Extinction Is Forever • For fox sake

Itch.io roundup • Picking out some of the platform’s standout titles

Stream of consciousness • Self-proclaimed “queen of the stream” AshSaidHi on what Twitch and games mean to her

The Wireframe HOTLIST • The best PC games,...