“We had no idea what we were doing, none whatsoever, and I think that’s an important lesson, because sometimes you just need to do things, and sometimes thinking too much and knowing too much can hurt more than it can help.”
-Ron Gilbert, in his postmortem of Maniac Mansion
Exactly why is it suddenly all the rage to “postmortem” decades old games?
I think there’s an increasing trend in anxiety about the history of games, now that we’re 25-ish years on. GDC especially seemed to really have an undercurrent of recognizing influences and historicization/periodization.