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Design Room
@designroom.site
2K followers 13 following 56 posts
A new website dedicated to video game oral histories from @mattleone.bsky.social. Find us at designroom.site. Logo by asawallander.se.
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Design Room @designroom.site · 2d
Hi, we're a new video game oral history site. Some highlights so far:

Mirror's Edge: bit.ly/mirrorsedgeoralhistory
Sayonara Wild Hearts: bit.ly/sayonarawildhearts
Shadow of the Colossus: bit.ly/shadowotcolossus
Sound Fantasy: bit.ly/49xPfha
Rez Infinite: bit.ly/4pKj0BB

Find us at designroom.site.
An in-development screenshot from Sayonara Wild Hearts shows a different visual style. A photograph shows marketing materials from the unreleased Nintendo music game Sound Fantasy. An illustration shows a developer sitting at a desk while working on Mirror's Edge. An illustration shows all 16 bosses from Shadow of the Colossus in a single frame.
designroom.site
Thanks so much!
January 16, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Design Room
thecrossoverappeal.bsky.social
Been reading this excellent piece from @designroom.bsky.social about Mirror’s Edge. A lot jumps out at me but this really hit me like a ton of bricks.

In 2008, EA released:
Mirrors Edge
Left 4 Dead
Spore
Dead Space

Unrecognizable from today’s POV.

www.designroom.site/mirrors-edge...
Mirror's Edge: An oral history
17 years on from its release, DICE's first-person parkour thriller is a cult classic. We spoke to nine people who worked on it about how the revelatory game came to be.
www.designroom.site
January 16, 2026 at 4:26 PM
designroom.site
In less than three months!
January 16, 2026 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Design Room
seamau5.bsky.social
Thank you, Yoko Ono, for reminding everyone that John Lennon could be a real ass sometimes <3
Eran Egozy (co-founder and CTO, Harmonix): So there's this one famous scene — and I wasn't in the office at this point — where Yoko Ono comes in to see how things are going with her entourage and all that. She comes in and the animators show her some of the stuff they've been working on with John's models. Josh Randall (studio creative director, Harmonix): I would have meetings where it's like, "OK, Yoko, here is our depiction of your dead husband singing this super impassioned song ... What do you think?" Eran Egozy (co-founder and CTO, Harmonix): And she hates it. She's like, "That looks stupid. He doesn't act like that." Josh Randall (studio creative director, Harmonix): The thing is, she was totally right. I don't know how this happened — I mean, I know how it happens, because videogames are hard. John was less developed by the time Yoko came to visit us, compared to some of the other band members. He looked like a mopey shoe-gazer guy. He was like this, looking down at the ground. We hadn't figured out how to depict his personality. And so in this meeting, she's like, "No, he was a tough guy. He could be mean. Like, that's not him. Who is this guy?" Alex Rigopulos (co-founder and CEO, Harmonix): She was holding the development team to a very high standard with respect to how John was represented in the game — as she should have. She was a tough customer — as she should have been. You know, this was an important project, and we actually were grateful for that level of scrutiny. I mean, she actually made the effort to come all the way up to Cambridge and spend a day in the studio, sitting with our artists focused on minute details of the face modeling and the animations and everything else. So, as you can imagine, the artists and animators are all, like, sweating bullets having to justify the work to Yoko. But she was right! Her criticisms were spot on. And while it was stressful for us, we were really grateful to have her looking over our shoulder at the work, making sure we were doing it well. Josh Randall (studio creative director, Harmonix): I was like, "Well, can we maybe just look at some footage together and talk about it?" And so I put on footage of Shea Stadium, and immediately there's John Lennon standing at the front of the stage looking down his nose at everyone, like balls out rock and roll God not giving a fuck. We saw that, and me and our animation director just had this mind meld. We looked at each other and Chris, the animation director, clicked on the back of John's spine [and lifted him up a bit]. And she's like, "That's John. There he is."
January 15, 2026 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Design Room
metallicaisrad.bsky.social
the dream team rides again - excited to have an excerpt from my book on @mattleone.bsky.social's wonderful new site, @designroom.bsky.social. Loved writing this chapter on The Beatles, and especially learning more about the GOAT Yoko Ono.
January 15, 2026 at 7:18 PM
designroom.site
This is an excerpt from @metallicaisrad.bsky.social's new Guitar Hero/Rock Band oral history book from @readonlymemory.com, which is available now.
The Oral History of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Music Game Boom
The Oral History of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Music Game Boom tells the full inside story of a gaming phenomenon that lived fast and died young. Building on Blake Hester’s acclaimed 2021 Vice art...
readonlymemory.com
January 15, 2026 at 6:27 PM
designroom.site
"Directing The Beatles: Rock Band is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life."
"That looks stupid." How Harmonix made The Beatles: Rock Band
A new book excerpt reveals how Harmonix, MTV Games, and Electronic Arts teamed up with The Beatles for a rare video game collaboration.
www.designroom.site
January 15, 2026 at 6:24 PM
designroom.site
Hi, we're a new video game oral history site. Some highlights so far:

Mirror's Edge: bit.ly/mirrorsedgeoralhistory
Sayonara Wild Hearts: bit.ly/sayonarawildhearts
Shadow of the Colossus: bit.ly/shadowotcolossus
Sound Fantasy: bit.ly/49xPfha
Rez Infinite: bit.ly/4pKj0BB

Find us at designroom.site.
An in-development screenshot from Sayonara Wild Hearts shows a different visual style. A photograph shows marketing materials from the unreleased Nintendo music game Sound Fantasy. An illustration shows a developer sitting at a desk while working on Mirror's Edge. An illustration shows all 16 bosses from Shadow of the Colossus in a single frame.
January 14, 2026 at 9:43 PM
Reposted by Design Room
johnnyrep.bsky.social
Everybody should be reading @designroom.bsky.social Excellent oral history of Mirror’s Edge just posted
January 14, 2026 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Design Room
designroom.site
Our next big project is live! @lewisgordon.bsky.social spent the past few months tracking down nine people who worked on DICE's innovative 2008 parkour runner.
Mirror's Edge: An oral history
17 years on from its release, DICE's first-person parkour thriller is a cult classic. We spoke to nine people who worked on it about how the revelatory game came to be.
www.designroom.site
January 13, 2026 at 4:58 PM
designroom.site
Best accidental homepage story placement.
A screenshot of two images on the Design Room homepage shows an arm from one image looking like it connects into the other image.
January 13, 2026 at 10:44 PM
Reposted by Design Room
samitsarkar.bsky.social
So many cool stories in @lewisgordon.bsky.social's oral history of Mirror's Edge, including about the now-iconic art style, along with some eye-opening ones about how marketing decisions were made at EA back then. (I feel like corporations are *somewhat* more willing to delay games these days?)
January 13, 2026 at 8:21 PM
designroom.site
What could have been: We talk to members of the original Mirror's Edge team about the sequel they wanted to make.
The lost Mirror's Edge sequel
Former DICE team members talk about their plans for a Mirror's Edge sequel following the game's release in 2008 -- and why those plans didn't pan out.
www.designroom.site
January 13, 2026 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Design Room
sallybeaumont.bsky.social
Sally Lore: one of the first video games I auditioned for was Mirror’s Edge!

I was somehow shortlisted- though I had no idea what I’d auditioned for until years later because it was anonymised.
January 13, 2026 at 5:10 PM
designroom.site
Lots of new details in here on how the game came about, discarded experiments, sequel attempts, and more. With header art from the great @kim-hu.com.
January 13, 2026 at 5:00 PM
designroom.site
Our next big project is live! @lewisgordon.bsky.social spent the past few months tracking down nine people who worked on DICE's innovative 2008 parkour runner.
Mirror's Edge: An oral history
17 years on from its release, DICE's first-person parkour thriller is a cult classic. We spoke to nine people who worked on it about how the revelatory game came to be.
www.designroom.site
January 13, 2026 at 4:58 PM
designroom.site
Big new story coming next week! You'd already know what it is if you subscribed to our newsletter, though... www.designroom.site#/portal/signup
January 8, 2026 at 12:25 AM
Reposted by Design Room
annapurna.com
Read (and hear!) how “Begin Again” from Sayonara Wild Hearts came to be. www.designroom.site/how-simogo-b...
By @designroom.bsky.social
How Simogo built Sayonara Wild Hearts' best stage
We talk with four members of the team about how "Begin Again" came about, why it took them a year to finish it, and the challenges of building something new.
www.designroom.site
January 6, 2026 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Design Room
designroom.site
Happy new year! We've got big plans for 2026, but this seems like as good a time as any to poll the room: What games do you want to see oral histories on in 2026?
January 2, 2026 at 6:13 PM
designroom.site
Happy new year! We've got big plans for 2026, but this seems like as good a time as any to poll the room: What games do you want to see oral histories on in 2026?
January 2, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Design Room
designroom.site
The final story in our music series is live!
How Simogo built Sayonara Wild Hearts' best stage
We talk with four members of the team about how "Begin Again" came about, why it took them a year to finish it, and the challenges of building something new.
www.designroom.site
December 19, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Design Room
designroom.site
Our music game series is now done, so let's recap it with original art by @wendyleftmealone.bsky.social.
December 22, 2025 at 5:56 PM
designroom.site
And finally, we talked with Simogo about Sayonara Wild Hearts' best stage, why it took them a year to finish it, and the challenges of building something new. www.designroom.site/how-simogo-b...
How Simogo built Sayonara Wild Hearts' best stage
We talk with four members of the team about how "Begin Again" came about, why it took them a year to finish it, and the challenges of building something new.
www.designroom.site
December 22, 2025 at 6:05 PM
designroom.site
Iwai had lots to say about his first game, the Famicom musical shooter Otocky, as well, so we then made that into its own story.
A rhythm-based shoot-'em-up in... 1987?
Before making Sound Fantasy and Electroplankton with Nintendo, Toshio Iwai designed a Famicom Disk System game starring a flying “sound warrior” called Otocky.
www.designroom.site
December 22, 2025 at 6:03 PM
designroom.site
Next, @radishgames.com tracked down Toshio Iwai to talk about the canceled SNES first-party game Sound Fantasy and how that ultimately led to Electroplankton.
Toshio Iwai's journey from Sound Fantasy to Electroplankton
We profile the artist behind two of Nintendo's attempts at making experimental music games -- one a canceled Super Famicom game based on musical insects, and the other a Nintendo DS cult-favorite base...
www.designroom.site
December 22, 2025 at 6:01 PM