145 Fun Facts About Video Games

What classic arcade game stars a yellow, circular character eating its way through a maze?

Pac-Man was built around eating instead of shooting because its designer wanted a game that would draw women and couples into arcades then dominated by space shooters.

In which game series do players settle in a village of talking creatures and repay house loans to Tom Nook?

Animal Crossing grew out of co-creator Katsuya Eguchi's loneliness after he left family and friends behind to join Nintendo in Kyoto; he built a game around family, friendship and community.

Which mechanic is a hallmark of the roguelike genre, named after the 1980 dungeon crawler Rogue?

Permadeath is a hallmark of roguelikes: when the character dies the run is over, and because Rogue's dungeons were generated afresh each time, no two attempts played alike.

Which esports title has two teams of five competing to destroy the opposing "Ancient" structure?

Dota 2 is Valve's sequel to Defense of the Ancients, a fan-made mod for Blizzard's Warcraft III; Valve hired the mod's lead designer, known only as IceFrog, in 2009 to build it.

What was the name of the first commercial home video game console, released in 1972?

The Magnavox Odyssey could not make sound or keep score, so it shipped with plastic overlays to stick on the TV screen, plus dice and play money to finish its games.

Which programmer created Minecraft in Java before handing development to Jens 'Jeb' Bergensten?

Markus Persson, known as 'Notch', wrote the original in Java, handed the game to Jens 'Jeb' Bergensten after its 2011 full release, and left when his studio Mojang was sold for $2.5 billion in 2014.

Which iconic character serves as the protagonist of the "Halo" video game franchise?

Master Chief's face has never been fully shown in the games: their cutscenes are framed to hide it, so that players can more easily imagine themselves inside the armour.

The PlayStation 2 doubled as a home player for which movie disc format?

DVD playback was built into the PlayStation 2, a pivotal choice: it was sold as a games machine, but doubling as a film player widened its appeal well beyond people who wanted games.

"Doom Eternal" is primarily categorized under which video game genre?

First-person shooter Doom Eternal rewards aggression: finishing a staggered demon with a 'Glory Kill' restores health and chainsawing one spills ammo, so hanging back starves the player.

Who is the primary protagonist in the "Uncharted" video game series?

Nathan Drake claims descent from Sir Francis Drake, whose coffin he raises in the first game, but later games reveal he was born under another surname and took the Drake name as a boy.

Which developer is renowned for challenging action RPGs such as "Dark Souls" and "Elden Ring"?

FromSoftware's punishing games gave a whole subgenre its name: action RPGs built on tough combat and progress lost on death are now called 'Soulslikes', after the Dark Souls trilogy.

Which hand-drawn indie Metroidvania sends a silent bug through the fallen kingdom beneath Dirtmouth?

Hollow Knight was funded through a 2014 Kickstarter that beat its A$35,000 goal; one stretch goal, a playable version of the character Hornet, grew so large that it became the sequel, Silksong.

Which gaming console revolutionized gaming with its motion-sensing controller, released in 2006?

The Nintendo Wii was far less powerful than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, yet its simple swing-the-remote games helped it outsell both, with more than 100 million consoles shipped.

The character Kratos is the protagonist of which Sony video game series?

God of War began in Greek myth, with Kratos taking revenge on the gods of Olympus; the 2018 game moved him to the Norse world as a father travelling with his young son.

Which franchise began in 1996 as a pair of Game Boy role-playing games called Red and Green?

Pokémon grew out of creator Satoshi Tajiri's boyhood hobby of collecting insects; the Game Boy's link cable made him picture bugs crawling between consoles to be traded.

Which software engineer created Tetris in 1984?

Alexey Pajitnov wrote Tetris while working for the Soviet Academy of Sciences, so the state held the rights and he earned no royalties until he co-founded The Tetris Company in 1996.

Which fictional city in the state of San Andreas is the main setting of Grand Theft Auto V?

Los Santos is the series' take on Los Angeles: the developers shot around 250,000 photographs and hours of video of the real city to build it, down to a 'Vinewood' sign in the hills.

What jammed Atari's first arcade prototype soon after a California tavern installed it in 1972?

Quarters: the engineer called to Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale found the 'broken' machine's coin box overflowing, the first sign that Atari had a hit.

Which major technology company developed and launched the Xbox line of gaming consoles?

Microsoft built its first console around its DirectX graphics software, so the team called it the 'DirectX Box'; the nickname was shortened to Xbox in emails and stuck.

Which 1989 game by Will Wright made players a mayor, zoning land and laying roads for a growing town?

SimCity grew out of the level editor Will Wright built for his helicopter game Raid on Bungeling Bay: he found designing the islands more fun than bombing them.

Who is the protagonist of the highly acclaimed "The Witcher" video game series?

Geralt of Rivia first appeared in a short story Andrzej Sapkowski wrote for a Polish magazine contest in 1986; it took only third prize, yet readers demanded more and a saga followed.

"Stardew Valley" is best described as belonging to which video game genre?

Stardew Valley, a farm life sim, began as a fan-made alternative to the Harvest Moon games, which its creator felt had been getting worse with each new release.

Which PC game store did Valve launch in 2003, at first just to update its own games?

Steam began in 2003 purely as a way to patch Valve's own online games automatically; only in 2005 did it start selling other publishers' titles and turn into a shop.

What is the name of the main antagonist and recurring villain in the "Super Mario" video game series?

Bowser was first imagined as an ox, modelled on the Ox King in the anime film Alakazam the Great, before a colleague's remark turned him into the turtle-like king of the Koopas.

Solid Snake, real name David, is a protagonist of which stealth-action video game series?

Metal Gear became a stealth game by necessity: the MSX2 computer could not draw many enemies and bullets at once, so Hideo Kojima had players sneak past guards instead of fighting them.

Which 1996 game was Mario's first 3D platformer?

Super Mario 64 was one of only two games on sale with its console at the US launch; its free camera and 360-degree analog control became the template for 3D platform games.

Which 2017 game by Brendan Greene drops up to 100 people onto an island to fight until one is left?

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is named for Greene's online handle; he had first built the idea as a mod for another game, titled after the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale.

Which developer took over the Fallout series with Fallout 3 in 2008?

Bethesda Game Studios inherited Fallout when its parent bought the rights from the struggling Interplay, then swapped the old isometric, turn-based view for a 3D free-roaming world.

Which character is the female protagonist of the "Metroid" video game series?

Samus Aran's gender was a twist: the 1986 game's manual called the armoured bounty hunter 'he', and only the ending revealed a woman under the helmet.

Which game won the coveted Game of the Year award at The Game Awards 2023?

Baldur's Gate 3 spent nearly three years in early access from 2020, with players' feedback and money sustaining Larian Studios until the full 2023 release that swept the awards.

What is the name of the primary currency used throughout the "The Legend of Zelda" video game series?

Rupees are the gem-shaped currency of The Legend of Zelda, introduced in the 1986 original, where Link spends them on items such as the candle and bait in hidden cave shops.

Which company developed the original "Doom" game, released in 1993?

id Software gave Doom's first episode away free as shareware, and so many people tried to download it at once that the university network hosting the files crashed.

In the first Zelda game, what does the old man hand Link, saying 'It's dangerous to go alone'?

The sword is optional, though: players can skip the old man's cave and reach the final boss of the 1986 game without it.

Which assassin is the central character of Assassin's Creed II and its sequels Brotherhood and Revelations?

Ezio Auditore da Firenze turns assassin after his father and two brothers are publicly hanged, and a young Leonardo da Vinci builds his hidden blades and lends him a flying machine.

What is the fictional continent where most of the "Elder Scrolls" series takes place?

Tamriel was first mapped for a game about gladiator teams touring its arenas; so many quests and dungeons were added that The Elder Scrolls: Arena shipped as a full role-playing game.

Which Nintendo console, sold in Japan as the Famicom, reached American shops in 1985 after the video game crash?

The NES was sold to wary American shops as a toy: retailers had lost faith in video games after the 1983 crash, so Nintendo launched it with a toy robot called R.O.B.

Which game introduced the "Nemesis System," where AI enemies remember past encounters?

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor has orcs who survive a fight remember it and return for revenge; Warner Bros. went on to patent the Nemesis System, granted in 2021, keeping it out of rivals' games.

In which 2012 indie game does a cloaked figure cross a desert toward a mountain using a magical scarf?

Journey quietly pairs players with anonymous strangers who can communicate only through a musical chime; their usernames appear only after the end credits.

Which developer made the 2018 God of War and its sequel, God of War Ragnarök?

Santa Monica Studio no longer works in Santa Monica: founded in the beach city in 1999, it moved to a much larger site in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, in 2014 and kept the name.

Who is the player character in BioWare's sci-fi RPG series "Mass Effect"?

Commander Shepard can be played as a man or a woman, and for Mass Effect 3 BioWare let fans vote online for the default female Shepard's look; a red-haired design won.

Which Fallout game is set in the ruins of Boston, known in-game as 'the Commonwealth'?

Fallout 4 casts the player as the Sole Survivor, who leaves the vault after seeing their spouse murdered and their son Shaun kidnapped.

Which Polish video game developer created "Cyberpunk 2077" and "The Witcher" series?

CD Projekt Red's parent company began with two friends trading games at a Warsaw computer bazaar; in 1994 they set up CD Projekt to import American CD-ROM games, years before making their own.

Meta Platforms, formerly Facebook, sells its line of standalone virtual reality headsets under what name?

Meta Quest began as the Oculus Quest: Facebook bought Oculus, a startup launched on Kickstarter, for about $2 billion in 2014 and retired the Oculus name after rebranding itself Meta.

Which game pairs its popular Battle Royale with a cooperative building and survival mode against zombie-like creatures?

Fortnite launched in 2017 as the paid co-op game Save the World; the Battle Royale mode was an afterthought, built in about two months and released separately as a free game.

What is the name of the main antagonist in the classic JRPG "Final Fantasy VII"?

Sephiroth was a celebrated war hero until a mission to the village of Nibelheim revealed he had been created in an experiment using alien cells; the discovery turned him against all life.

Which 2013 PlayStation game follows smuggler Joel escorting teenage Ellie across a fungus-ravaged United States?

The Last of Us took its plague from nature: its makers saw a BBC Planet Earth segment on Cordyceps, a fungus that takes over ants, and imagined it spreading to people.

Which war was the setting of the original Call of Duty?

World War II is seen through American, British and Soviet soldiers' eyes; the studio, Infinity Ward, was formed by developers who had just made the rival Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

Which turn-based tactical game has a squad of elite soldiers fighting an alien invasion?

XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012) reimagines the 1994 strategy game UFO: Enemy Unknown; neglect a panicking member nation for too long and it quits the project for good, taking its funding with it.

Ryu and Ken throw the "Hadouken" projectile in which Capcom fighting series?

Street Fighter's 1987 arcade original hid the Hadouken behind a joystick motion players had to discover, and one cabinet had rubber pads that hit harder the harder you punched them.

Atari's notorious E.T. game for the 2600 was programmed by Howard Scott Warshaw in roughly how long?

Five weeks was all Howard Scott Warshaw had: the film rights were settled in late July 1982 and Atari wanted E.T. in shops for Christmas, when a game normally took six months or more.

The 2014 excavation that recovered buried Atari cartridges took place in a landfill in which town?

Alamogordo, New Mexico, is where Atari dumped truckloads of cartridges in September 1983; the April 2014 dig, filmed for the documentary Atari: Game Over, unearthed about 1,300 of them.

Which 1993 game was the first to use the Super FX chip, built into its cartridge to draw 3D polygons?

Star Fox was built to show off the Super FX, a graphics chip Argonaut designed to sit inside the cartridge itself, because the console alone could not draw 3D polygons fast enough.

Star Fox 2 was shelved in 1995; which product finally released it in 2017?

The SNES Classic, a mini console with 21 built-in games, unlocked it once players cleared the first game's opening level; Nintendo had feared its 16-bit graphics would look dated beside newer 3D games.

Which US agency contacted Blizzard after World of Warcraft's 2005 'Corrupted Blood' plague, hoping to use it as outbreak data?

The CDC contacted Blizzard about the outbreak, which began on 13 September 2005 when Hakkar the Soulflayer's Corrupted Blood debuff escaped Zul'Gurub via players' pets and infected crowded cities.

Super Mario Bros.' glitched 'Minus' stage is reached by clipping through a wall in which level?

The Minus World is entered from World 1-2 by squeezing through the wall by the exit pipe; on cartridge it is an endless water level stored as 'World 36-1', while the Japanese disk version gives three playable stages.

Why do the aliens in Space Invaders speed up as you shoot them?

Fewer sprites freed up the processor: the hardware drew the survivors faster as each one died, and designer Tomohiro Nishikado kept the accident as the game's rising difficulty.

Every GoldenEye 007 cartridge secretly holds a deactivated emulator for which British home computer?

The ZX Spectrum emulator, with ten games from Rare's early days, began as a side experiment and was switched off before release; fans later unlocked it with their own patches.

Which two publishers moved Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Warrior VII from the N64 to PlayStation?

Square and Enix took Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest VII to Sony's CD-based PlayStation after Nintendo kept cartridges for the N64; the two firms later merged as Square Enix in 2003.

Which Nintendo accessory does a smug rival show off in the 1989 film The Wizard, declaring 'It's so bad'?

The Power Glove, made by Mattel, got a starring role in the film, yet only two games, Super Glove Ball and Bad Street Brawler, were ever released with features made for it.

Which Nintendo console of 1995 was dropped after only 22 games?

The Virtual Boy showed everything in red because red LEDs were the cheapest its designer could use, colour ones being far too costly; it sold only about 770,000 units.

Which composer of the Super Mario Bros. theme joined Nintendo in 1984 as its first dedicated music hire?

Koji Kondo found the job on his university's placement board; in 2023 his best-known tune became the first video game music added to the US National Recording Registry.

Spacewar!, written in 1962 by Steve Russell and colleagues at MIT, ran on which computer?

Spacewar! ran on the DEC PDP-1, a $120,000 machine of which only 53 were shipped; the game spread to many of them, and DEC's technicians reportedly ran it as a final test on new units.

In which 2009 mobile game do players use a slingshot to knock down the forts of egg-stealing green pigs?

Angry Birds was Rovio's 52nd game: the Finnish studio had spent years on work-for-hire titles and was close to bankruptcy when the bird-flinging puzzler topped the App Store.

Which phone maker launched the N-Gage, a handheld console and phone in one, in 2003?

Nokia built the N-Gage so that changing games meant taking off the back cover and pulling out the battery; a redesigned model the following year, the N-Gage QD, let players swap games with the battery left in.

What item does Sonic the Hedgehog collect to protect himself from losing a life?

Rings are Sonic's lifeline: taking a hit with at least one ring scatters them instead of costing a life, and collecting 100 in the 1991 original earns an extra life.

Which studio made Halo, the original Xbox's headline launch game?

Bungie first showed Halo as a computer game, unveiled by Steve Jobs at the 1999 Macworld show; a year later the studio was bought and the game remade as an Xbox launch exclusive.

Ken Levine was creative lead on which series, which opens in the underwater city of Rapture?

BioShock's Rapture is a utopia gone wrong: Ken Levine built its founder, Andrew Ryan, around Ayn Rand and her philosophy, with a dash of Howard Hughes, to ask what such a city would become.

Which studio led development of Grand Theft Auto V?

Rockstar North is Scottish: the studio whose games lampoon American cities began in Dundee as DMA Design, makers of Lemmings, and now works from Edinburgh.

Which console, launched in Japan in 1998, was Sega's last before it stopped making hardware?

The Dreamcast was the first console with a built-in modem for online play, but the hype around the coming PlayStation 2 sank its sales and Sega quit making consoles in 2001.

Which game is often credited as the first commercially successful arcade video game?

Pong began as a training exercise: Atari's co-founder gave a newly hired engineer a simple table-tennis game to practise on, and it turned out good enough to sell.

Which Nintendo designer directed and produced the first Super Mario Bros.?

Shigeru Miyamoto trained in industrial design and hoped to draw manga; his first game, Donkey Kong, was ordered up to salvage a warehouse of unsold arcade cabinets.

Which console did the PlayStation undercut by $100 at E3 1995?

The Sega Saturn had just been priced at $399 when Sony's Steve Race walked to the podium, said only 'two ninety-nine' and walked off again.

Which 2001 shooter built its gunfights around 'bullet time', letting players dive and aim in slow motion?

Max Payne took its slow-motion dives from John Woo's Hong Kong action films; once The Matrix made the effect famous, its makers added nods to the film to ride the hype.

Who composed the iconic 'Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII'?

Nobuo Uematsu is self-taught: he was working in a music rental shop when someone from a game company asked whether he would write music for its titles, and he took it on as a side job.

What is the name of the main playable protagonist in 'Red Dead Redemption 2'?

Arthur Morgan's story is a prequel: set in 1899, it ends by handing the player over to John Marston, hero of the first Red Dead Redemption, who rides here as a younger member of the gang.

Which Nintendo series has Mario, Link and Kirby knock each other off floating stages?

Super Smash Bros. began as Dragon King, a four-player brawler with generic fighters; Masahiro Sakurai then swapped in Nintendo's stars in a prototype he built without asking permission.

The original Diablo, developed by Blizzard North, was first released for which platform?

Diablo reached Windows PC at the turn of 1997 together with Battle.net, the online service Blizzard built so players could team up in its dungeons; console owners waited another year for a port.

Which programmer wrote the engines behind Wolfenstein 3D and Quake, then left games for Oculus?

John Carmack spent two decades as lead programmer of the studio he co-founded, ran a rocket company, Armadillo Aerospace, on the side, and resigned in 2013 to work full-time as Oculus's chief technology officer.

Minecraft is usually classed as which genre of video game?

Sandbox games set no fixed goal, and Minecraft's players took that freedom far: its redstone dust can be wired into circuits and logic gates to build working machines inside the game.

What is the name of Mario's younger, taller twin brother?

Luigi began as a palette swap: in 1983's Mario Bros. he was simply Mario recoloured green for the second player, and only later became the taller twin with a look of his own.

Which 2006 Xbox 360 shooter pits Marcus Fenix's squad against the Locust Horde?

Gears of War borrowed its over-the-shoulder view from Resident Evil 4 and its duck-behind-walls cover system from the 2003 shooter Kill Switch, designer Cliff Bleszinski has said.

Which Sony handheld, launched in Japan in December 2004, played games on UMD discs?

The PlayStation Portable's UMD, a small disc in a plastic shell, carried feature films and music as well as games; a later model, the PSP Go, dropped the disc drive altogether.

What does Nintendo call the detachable controllers that slide onto the Switch's sides?

Joy-Con sticks became known for 'drift', moving characters when nobody is touching them; after a 2019 class-action suit Nintendo began fixing them free of charge, and its president apologised in 2020.

Under which name was Sega's Mega Drive console sold in North America?

Genesis was the pick of Sega's David Rosen, who has said he disliked 'Mega Drive' and wanted a name that meant a new beginning; its ads then boasted 'Genesis does what Nintendon't'.

Which independent developer single-handedly created Stardew Valley?

Eric Barone could not find a programming job after graduating, so he worked evenings as a theatre usher and built Stardew Valley alone to sharpen his skills, writing its code, art and music himself.

Toru Iwatani has said his famous yellow arcade character was inspired by what?

A pizza missing a slice is Iwatani's usual answer, but he has called it a half-truth: the shape also came from rounding off the Japanese character for 'mouth', kuchi.

Before becoming a plumber, Mario had what trade in the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong?

Carpenter: Donkey Kong is set on a construction site, so its hero was given that trade; he became a plumber in 1983's Mario Bros. because so much of that game is set underground among pipes.

Mario was named after Mario Segale, who had what relationship to Nintendo of America?

Its landlord: Mario Segale rented Nintendo of America its warehouse near Seattle; in the oft-told version he burst in to demand overdue rent, though a former manager says the name was simply a joke.

Nintendo was founded in Kyoto in 1889 to make and sell what?

Playing cards were Nintendo's first product: founder Fusajiro Yamauchi made hanafuda, the traditional Japanese flower cards, by hand in Kyoto, and the firm stayed in cards for decades before electronics.

Which Atari co-founder went on to start the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant chain in 1977?

Nolan Bushnell opened the first Chuck E. Cheese in San Jose in 1977, while still running Atari, as a family restaurant that doubled as a home for the company's arcade machines.

Which game heroine, created in Derby, has part of its ring road named after her?

Lara Croft Way won a public vote in Derby with 89 per cent support; her designer, Toby Gard, had first sketched a male adventurer with a whip and a hat before switching to a woman.

On which platforms did Innersloth's Among Us first launch in June 2018?

Among Us arrived on iOS and Android on 15 June 2018 and on Windows that November; it drew little notice until 2020, when Twitch streamers and YouTubers took it up during the pandemic.

Princess Zelda was named after the wife of which American novelist?

F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife Zelda, a novelist, dancer and socialite, lent the princess her name; the series' co-creator has said he simply liked the name and built the title around it.

In Portal, what does GLaDOS promise Chell for completing every test chamber?

Cake is the promised reward, but graffiti scrawled behind the test chambers warns that 'the cake is a lie'; the game's final shot reveals a real Black Forest cake all the same.

Besides Japan, in which country was the Wii sold without Wii Sports bundled in?

Korea, like Japan, sold Wii Sports separately; packing it in with the console everywhere else carried the game to sales of nearly 83 million copies.

Which life-sim series did Will Wright conceive after losing his home in the 1991 Oakland firestorm?

The Sims drew on Will Wright's experience of rebuilding his life from scratch after the fire. A focus group disliked the concept so much that he struggled to get it made.

Which green Minecraft monster began as a coding error that swapped a pig model's length and height?

The Creeper exists because its creator liked the botched pig's unsettling shape, kept the mistake and turned it into a new enemy.

Which fantasy novelist wrote the mythic backstory for the 2022 action role-playing game Elden Ring?

George R.R. Martin was given free rein over the world's ancient history, while director Hidetaka Miyazaki wrote the story players actually see in the game.

Which Atari arcade game did Steve Wozniak prototype with Steve Jobs before the pair founded Apple?

Breakout paid off twice: Wozniak later reused ideas from its logic design in the hardware of the Apple II computer.

Which 1992 fighting game's gory finishing moves helped prompt the creation of the ESRB age ratings?

Mortal Kombat and the video game Night Trap were singled out at 1993 US Senate hearings, and the industry set up its own rating system in 1994 rather than risk government oversight.

Which heavyweight champion was the final boss of a 1987 Punch-Out!! game until his license expired?

Mike Tyson was replaced by a fictional boxer named Mr. Dream when the license lapsed in 1990, and later re-releases have kept the stand-in.

Which Hollywood actor plays the rebel rock star Johnny Silverhand in the game Cyberpunk 2077?

Keanu Reeves was approached for the part in July 2018, and his character, a digital ghost lodged in the hero's head, is even playable in some scenes.

Which chart-topping mobile game did its Vietnamese creator Dong Nguyen pull from app stores in 2014?

Flappy Bird was removed because Dong Nguyen said he felt guilty about how addictive it had become, even though he said it was earning around $50,000 a day.

In which strategy series does an urban legend say a bug made Gandhi launch nuclear attacks?

Civilization never had the bug: creator Sid Meier confirmed in 2020 that it would have been impossible in the original game, though later sequels nod to the legend on purpose.

Which 1988 sports game bears the name of a Raiders head coach who insisted on full 11-player teams?

John Madden Football was planned with six or seven players a side because of technical limits, until the Super Bowl-winning coach refused to put his name on anything unrealistic.

In which life-sim series does a tanuki shopkeeper named Tom Nook lend the player money for a house?

Animal Crossing's Tom Nook charges no interest on his loans, yet one gaming site still ranked him among its 100 best video game villains.

Which live-streaming site, spun off from Justin.tv in 2011, did Amazon buy for about $970 million?

Twitch began as the gaming corner of a site where founder Justin Kan had broadcast his own life 24 hours a day.

Which Swedish YouTuber found fame with Let's Plays of horror games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent?

PewDiePie paid for his early videos by working at a hot dog stand, after his parents refused to support him when he quit university.

Which gaming abbreviation became a 2018 online insult for people with no opinions of their own?

NPC stands for non-player character, the scripted bystanders of a game world, and the insult is often drawn as a grey, expressionless cartoon face.

Which gaming term was coined at Atari after Warren Robinett hid his own name inside Adventure?

Easter egg was coined by an Atari manager who compared the search to an egg hunt. Robinett had hidden the credit because the company refused to name its programmers.

Which Naughty Dog game about smuggler Joel escorting immune teenager Ellie became an HBO drama?

The Last of Us owes its infected to a BBC nature documentary: a Planet Earth segment on the Cordyceps fungus gave the developers the idea.

Which action role-playing series teams a boy named Sora with Disney's Donald Duck and Goofy?

Kingdom Hearts was pitched in an elevator: its producer ran into a Disney executive because the two companies shared an office building in Japan.

Which chat app with communities called servers was launched in 2015 by Jason Citron's game studio?

Discord rose from a failure: the studio's first product, a mobile battle game called Fates Forever, was not a commercial success, so the team turned to chat instead.

Which platform for user-made games did David Baszucki and Erik Cassel first call DynaBlocks?

Roblox was built in 2004 by two engineers who had previously made physics-simulation software for classrooms, and it opened to the public in 2006.

Which skateboarder who landed a 900 at the 1999 X Games gave his name to the Pro Skater games?

Tony Hawk's 900 came so close to launch that the developers added the trick late, working from footage of his X Games run that summer.

Which 1981 Konami arcade game shares its name with a Seinfeld episode about George's old high score?

Frogger's sitcom fame had a real sequel: a $1,000 bounty was later offered to anyone who could beat the fictional score George sets in the episode.

Which Capcom zombie horror series is sold under the name Biohazard in Japan?

Resident Evil got its Western name after a Capcom executive warned that Bio Hazard could not be trademarked in the United States, so staff held an internal contest for a new title.

Which Scott Cawthon horror series has a guard survive until 6 a.m. among killer animatronics?

Five Nights at Freddy's began with an insult: players said the hero of Scott Cawthon's earlier family-friendly game looked like a scary animatronic animal, so he turned the criticism into horror.

Which Mario Kart item, introduced in Mario Kart 64, homes in on whichever racer is in first place?

The Blue Shell is a deliberate catch-up tool: racers near the back are likelier to draw it, and in its first appearance it was impossible to stop or dodge.

Which studio developed the first Guitar Hero games before leaving to build the rival Rock Band?

Harmonix was bought by MTV in 2006 for $175 million and pursued its plan to expand the plastic guitar into a whole band, while other studios took over Guitar Hero.

Which Elder Scrolls game casts the player as the Last Dragonborn, able to absorb dragons' souls?

Skyrim's main theme is sung in an invented dragon language by a choir of about 30, recorded three times and layered to sound like 90 voices.

Which video game heroine was first imagined by artist Toby Gard as a man with a whip and a hat?

Lara Croft took over when Gard decided a female lead would work better, and she has since collected six Guinness World Records.

Which French publisher of Assassin's Creed and Just Dance was founded by five Breton brothers?

Ubisoft grew out of the Guillemot family's farm-supply business in Brittany: the five brothers branched into selling computers and software by mail order before founding the games company in 1986.

Which Riot Games title awards the Summoner's Cup to the winners of its annual world championship?

League of Legends' Summoner's Cup was redesigned in 2022 by the jeweler Tiffany & Co., whose version of the trophy weighed 44 pounds.

Which Blizzard hero shooter was salvaged from a cancelled online role-playing game code-named Titan?

Overwatch reused ideas from Titan, which Blizzard scrapped after about seven years of work, when part of the team turned to a smaller shooter built around teamwork.

Which tactical shooter began as a fan-made Half-Life mod by Minh Le and Jess Cliffe?

Counter-Strike became so popular as a free add-on that Valve acquired the rights and teamed up with its two creators to sell it as a full game.

Which Naughty Dog mascot went by the placeholder name Willie the Wombat during development in 1994?

Crash Bandicoot got his final name from the way he smashes through crates, after the team had picked his species from a field guide to Tasmanian mammals.

Which MIT-trained theoretical physicist is the crowbar-wielding silent hero of the Half-Life games?

Gordon Freeman never says a word, and the games have no cutscenes at all: everything is seen through his eyes to keep the player in the role.

Which game-making technology from Tim Sweeney's Epic Games takes its name from a 1998 shooter?

Unreal Engine outgrew the shooter it was written for: it went on to power games of every genre and was adopted by film and television makers.

Which football series did EA Sports rebrand as EA Sports FC in 2023 after a licensing deal ended?

FIFA had headlined the series since FIFA International Soccer in 1993, and the final game under the old name arrived only after a one-year extension of the deal.

The first paid download for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in 2006 was armor for which animal?

Horse armor drew complaints about its price, yet by 2009 it was one of the publisher's ten best-selling add-ons, which helped justify paid extras in later games.

Which 2017 shooter's loot boxes made an EA reply the most downvoted comment in Reddit history?

Star Wars Battlefront II's backlash worked: EA first defended the system, then switched off all real-money purchases in the game.

Which Hawaii-born YouTube gamer co-founded the clothing line Cloak and directed the film Iron Lung?

Markiplier, born Mark Fischbach, wrote, financed and starred in Iron Lung himself, adapting a 2022 indie horror game for his cinema debut.

Which educational game did three Minnesota student teachers write in two weeks for a history class?

The Oregon Trail began with no graphics at all: its first players typed commands into a teleprinter, because the school computers of 1971 had no screens.

Which 2015 indie RPG by Toby Fox lets players spare every monster instead of killing them?

Undertale was made almost single-handedly: Toby Fox wrote the script and composed the whole soundtrack himself, funded by a Kickstarter campaign.

Which 1993 island puzzle adventure remained the best-selling PC game for nearly a decade?

Myst sold more than six million copies and helped drive the adoption of the CD-ROM drive, the new format it shipped on.

The Witcher games are based on fantasy novels and short stories by which Polish author?

Andrzej Sapkowski sold the game rights for a single sum instead of royalties, then in 2018 demanded about $16 million more once the games were hits; the two sides settled amicably a year later.

Which twice-yearly speedrunning marathon raises money for charities such as Doctors Without Borders?

Games Done Quick grew out of a charity marathon held by users of the site Speed Demos Archive in January 2010; a year later its first five-day winter event raised more than $50,000.

Which comedy web series by Rooster Teeth was made by filming soldiers inside the Halo games?

Red vs. Blue grew out of its creator's voice-overs on his own gameplay videos, and it is credited with bringing machinima, film-making inside games, to a mainstream audience.

Which publisher did ex-Atari programmers found in 1979 as the first third-party console developer?

Activision's founders quit after Atari refused them royalties and credit, so their new company gave each designer a page of the manual, the way a record label credits its musicians.

Which 2004 Namco game has a tiny prince roll up objects to rebuild stars his father destroyed?

Katamari Damacy was a hard sell inside Namco: designer Keita Takahashi ended up building it with student help for less than $1 million.

Which hot-sauce seller and arcade champion defends his record in the documentary The King of Kong?

Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong scores were struck off in 2018 after claims that he had used emulation software, though Guinness World Records later restored them.

Which 1958 game did physicist William Higinbotham build on an oscilloscope for a lab open day?

Tennis for Two was dismantled for parts after 1959 and largely forgotten, until its creator was called to testify in court battles over video game patents.

Which colony sim by brothers Tarn and Zach Adams was exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art?

Dwarf Fortress originally drew its whole world in text characters, with a dwarf shown as a smiley face and a cat as a letter c, and it went on to influence Minecraft.

Which arcade game of urban legend is said to have given Portland players amnesia in 1981?

Polybius has left no evidence that it ever existed, but in 1981 two Portland players really did fall ill at an arcade, ten days before the FBI raided arcades there over gambling.