[ginko]

One of my dreams was always if Nintendo released "development diary" editions of old titles(in particular Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time) where you'd get to try out a playable showcase of the game's builds at particular states in development from very early initial tests, to Alpha, Beta, various trade conference demos etc. Each with developer commentary, perhaps design sketches, deleted content and maybe maybe also some source code.

Essentially like what's pretty much standard for special edition BluRays. Pack that in a nice hardcover booklet and people would eat it up.

[striking]

You might enjoy the content on https://tcrf.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor and https://www.unseen64.net/, among others.

[ginko]

Yeah, I'm aware of these. The point is these sites exist because the interest is there but game developers aren't interested in serving it. That's why people try to find leaked beta copies and even resort to hacking like here.

[sleepydog]

I really enjoy reading about some of the techniques the developers use to get the most out of the hardware. Here are some of my favorites from recent memory:

https://medium.com/@gordonnl/wind-waker-graphics-analysis-a0...

https://blog.mecheye.net/2018/03/deconstructing-the-water-ef...

https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2014/03/15/pixel-processing-pro...

[GuiA]

Valve did this for a number of their games (e.g. Portal, Half Life 2). You can play the game in a developer commentary mode, where (iirc) "orbs" that play recorded audio commentary are littered throughout the regular game world.

[robotnikman]

I remember replaying the Portal games just to find and hear all the developer commentary snippets.