Noclip
If you were to rank video game resources simply by the number of times I’ve sent people to them, the YouTube channel Noclip would be near the top. Specializing in in-depth feature-length documentaries on important titles, themes, and production companies, there are few better ways to learn about the intricacies (and inanities, and joys, and frustrations, and…) of creating video games. For a myriad of reasons, knowledge of the tools, methods, artistic considerations, and technical concerns of how video games get made is often sorely lacking both amongst both ardent games fans and otherwise astute arts academics/institutions. Owing to an independent funding model, NoClip’s documentaries bring together a rare combination of rigor, humor, research, production quality, and unprecedented access which results in the perfect delivery vehicle for gaining the foundational knowledge on which to build games-related projects. (They are also brilliant to show in educational contexts.) You can start pretty much anywhere—they’ve even covered how games get audience age-rated, the dissolution of the Oakland game museum, and do tutorials on how to make a video game documentary! But if you’ve got a little extra time, the series Hades: Developing Hell is the most thorough depiction of a game development cycle put to video, starting from concepting and continuing along over years, even checking back recently to explore how a studio handles winning awards and patching a live game.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-THgg8QnvU4hAKCwZwgtvD_skc7v6rh7