This page offers a collection of postmortems by indie developers and AAA studios.

Postmortem normally means “after death” (when forensic doctors examine the death cause etc. of a dead body). However when the word is used in the gaming world it means that developers analyze their finished game and reflect on everything they did during its creation. Basically they talk about what went right and what went wrong.

Indie Postmortems

• Aaaaa! — A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (Dejobaan Games)
• Another World / Out Of This World [VIDEO] (Eric Chahi)
• Armadillo Run (Peter Stock)
• BIT.TRIP BEAT (Gaijin Games)
• Cinders (Moacube)
• Cogs (Lazy 8 Studios)

• Darwinia (introversion)
• Dead Nation (Housemarque)
• Droplitz (Blitz Games)
• Dust: An Elysian Tail (Humble Hearts)
• Explosionade (Mommy’s Best Games)
• Eets (Klei Entertainment)
• Fez [VIDEO] (Polytron)

• Forge (Dark Vale Games)
• Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games)
• Gemini Rue (Joshua Nuernberger)
• Gish (Chronic Logic)
• Gun Godz (Vlambeer)
• Guns Of Icarus (Muse Games)
• Igneous (Going Down In Flames)
• Intrusion 2 [VIDEO] (Aleksey Abramenko)

• Jetpack Joyride [VIDEO] (Halfbrick Studios)
• Lume (State of Play)
• Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess (Mediatonic)
• Natural Selection 2 (Unknown Worlds Entertainment)
• NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits (Over the Top Games)
• Octodad (Octodad Team)
• Ray Ardent: Science Ninja (Ninja Robot Dinosaur)

• RoboBlitz (Naked Sky Entertainment)
• Recettear (Carpe Fulgur)
• Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)
• Schizoid (Torpex Games)
• SpaceChem (Zachtronics Industries)
• Speedrunner HD [VIDEO] (Casper Van Est)
• Splosion Man (Twisted Pixel)

• Swords & Soldiers (Ronimo Games)
• The Adventures Of Shuggy (Smudged Cat Games)
• The Binding of Isaac (Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl)
• The Blackwell Convergence (Wadjet Eye)
• The Graveyard (Tale of Tales)
• The Path (Tale of Tales)

• Trine (Frozenbyte)
• Trino (Trinoteam)
• Weapon of Choice (Mommy’s Best Games)
• Wik & The Fable Of Souls (Reflexive)
• Zack Zero (Crocodile Entertainment)
• Zeno Clash (ACE Team)

• Humble Indie Bundle [VIDEO]
• Humble Indie Bundle (Indiegames Blog)
• Humble Indie Bundle (Joystiq)

Ludum Dare Game Jam Postmortems

• Infographic: Game Jam Postmortems – What Went Wrong/Right (McFunkyPants)
• Infographic: Game Jam Postmortem Survey (McFunkyPants)
• Ludum Dare Postmortems (Ludum Dare)

AAA Studios Postmortems

• A Boy and His Blob (WayForward)
• Black & White (Lionhead Studio)
• Baldur’s Gate II (BioWare)
• Bejeweled [VIDEO] (Jason Kapalka)
• Bionic Commando Rearmed (Capcom/GRIN)

• BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia)
• Brutal Legend (Double Fine)
• Crackdown (Realtime Worlds)

• Crash Bandicoot (Naughty Dog)
• Darkest of Days (8Monkey)
• Deadliest Warrior (Pipeworks Software)
• Deus Ex (Ion Storm)

• Diablo II (Blizzard)
• DOOM [VIDEO] (Tom Hall, John Romero)
• Elite [VIDEO] (David Braben)
• Fallout [VIDEO] (Timothy Cain, Obsidian Entertainment)
• Fallout Tactics (Micro Forte)
• Gauntlet [VIDEO] (Ed Logg)
• GoldenEye 007 [VIDEO] (Martin Hollis)
• Galactic Civilizations (Stardock Entertainment)
• Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords (Stardock Entertainment)

• Harvest Moon [VIDEO] (Yasuhiro Wada)
• Hydro Thunder Hurricane (Vector Unit)
• Indigo Prophecy (Quantic Dream)
• Jak and Daxter: the Precursor Legacy (Naughty Dog)

• Magicka (Arrowhead Game Studios)
• Maniac Mansion [VIDEO] (Ron Gilbert, Double Fine Productions)
• Marble Madness [VIDEO] (Mark Cerny)
• Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond (Vicious Cycle)
• Neverwinter Nights (Bioware)
• No One Lives Forever (Monolith)

• Okamiden (Capcom)
• Operation Flashpoint (Bohemia Interactive Studios)
• Outland (Housemarque)
• Pac-Man [VIDEO] (Toru Iwatani, Namco)
• Pittfall [VIDEO] (David Crane)
• Populous [VIDEO] (Peter Molyneux, Lionhead Studios)
• Prince of Persia [VIDEO] (Jordan Mechner)
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations)
• Ratchet & Clank (Insomniac Games)
• Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (Insomniac Games)

• Renegade Ops (Avalanche Studios)
• Sins Of A Solar Empire (Stardock Entertainment)
• Splinter Cell (Ubisoft)
• Super Monkey Ball 2 (Sega/Other Ocean)
• System Shock 2 (Irrational Games)
• The World Ends With You (Square Enix)

• TRON 2.0 (Monolith)
• Tomb Raider: Underworld (Crystal Dynamics)
• Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2 (Krome Studios)
• Raid on Bungeling Bay [VIDEO] (Will Wright)
• Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II (Factor 5)

• Ultima: Online [VIDEO] (Raph Koster, Rich Vogel, Starr M. Long)
• Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Naughty Dog)
• Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Sony Bend Studios)
• Unreal Tournament (Epic Games)
• Vampire: The Masquerade — Redemption (Nihilistic Software)
• Wild 9 (Shiny Entertainment)
• WipEout Pure (SCEE)
• Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania (Blue Fang)

• Video Games Turn 25: A Historical Perspective and Vision for the Future (Satoru Iwata, Nintendo)
• What Went Wrong? Learning From Past Postmortems (Gamasutra Special)