general - the other articles (the early ones at the very least) are all incredibly interesting discussions wrt video game design.
Highlights:
"The Reason Mario Wears Overalls" (character design by pixel): "Before you know it, you've used up 8 X 8 pixels. But if you draw a nose then a moustache, you don't really know if it's a mouth or a moustache, and it saves pixels."
"Letting Everyone Know It Was A Good Mushroom": "That's the reason why it's designed so that whatever you do, you'll get the mushroom."
If you're interested, you should play Portal in the 'commentary' version -- a lot of thought went in to making the game intuitive with zero explicit instructions. I think they were pretty successful.
Highlights: "The Reason Mario Wears Overalls" (character design by pixel): "Before you know it, you've used up 8 X 8 pixels. But if you draw a nose then a moustache, you don't really know if it's a mouth or a moustache, and it saves pixels."
"Letting Everyone Know It Was A Good Mushroom": "That's the reason why it's designed so that whatever you do, you'll get the mushroom."