Shows
Up Up Down Down48. We Made a GameMalin Sundberg joins us to discuss Two Spies, the new turn-based iOS spy strategy we’ve made, along with its UI, Swift as a game development language, and the pros and cons of shipping a game as a side project.
Two Spies
The game on the App Store
Steamclock
2020-01-231h 32Up Up Down Down47. You Suck at MicroSoren Johnson joins us to discuss making strategy games. We discuss his new game Offworld Trading Company, touch on his work on the Civilization series, and the challenges of balance. Afterward, we express our early bewilderment at Overwatch.
Offworld Trading Company
Designer Notes
2016-06-181h 04Up Up Down Down46. Goofy as HeckSerenity Caldwell joins us to discuss the Apple TV as a gaming platform. We talk about what games we’ve tried so far, the weaknesses of the Siri Remote, and what kind of games could be great on Apple TV. We discuss runner games, party games, and gams that are purposely bad. Afterwards we talk about Star Wars, since this episode was recorded in December when that was the cool thing to do.
Alto’s Adventure
Space Age
SongPop Party
@settern on Twitter and Instagram
Serenity’s writing on iMore
The Incomparable Radio Theatre
Rayman Adventures
Pako
Neven Mrgan’...
2016-03-061h 21Up Up Down Down45. How the Hell to Make FirewatchCampo Santo’s Nels Anderson joins us to discuss making narrative games, and in particular, Campo Santo’s new hit game Firewatch. Waving the spoilers flag high, we dig in to what makes Firewatch tick, the crazy world of branching narrative, tricky aspects of making the game, flapjacks, and the horrors of first-person character models. Afterward, we talk about weird bugs, The Witness, and 1988.
Let Me Pick Three Colors, UpUp #41 with Jane Ng
Firewatch!
IGN interview with Campo Santo
The hilarious consequences of modeling a first person character
Crysis’ model in disturbing third person
Nels’ and Campo Santo’s tweets
...
2016-02-191h 17Up Up Down Down44. You're Buying a ChildChris Bourassa, Creative Director of Red Hook Games, joins us to talk about their hit new game Darkest Dungeon. We talk fairness, difficulty, early access, and corpses. Then we dig in to Chris’ art direction, including the look and feel of the characters, and the tools and processes he uses to create the game’s distinctive art. Afterward, we talk about some of the games we’ve been playing, stealth, and magic whales.
Darkest Dungeon
Full Indie Summit
The art of Mike Mignola and Mike Davis
The Spine animator
@darkestdungeon
Chris’ Deviant Art profile
Vermintide
Helldiver
Peaky Blinders
2016-01-231h 10Up Up Down Down43. What the Heck?Tiff Arment joins us to discuss the ups and downs of survival games. We dig in to stark and frozen landscape of The Long Dark, the dark whimsy of Don’t Starve, and Minecraft’s role in kickstarting the whole genre. Afterwards, we discuss Prison Architect, the hardest difficulty in The Last of Us, Goat Simulator, and podcast microphones.
Hunger in Minecraft
Hinterland Games’ The Long Dark
Klei’s Don’t Starve
The noble beefalo
Up Up Down Down 26, with Don’t Starve’s audio designer Matt Marteinsson
Don’t Starve Together
Don’t Starve’s Treeguards
Prison Architect and its ne...
2015-11-151h 08Up Up Down Down42. Flood Their Cities With Poop WaterKaroliina Korppoo, Lead Designer on Cities Skylines, joins us to discuss simulation games. We discuss the challenges of simulations, making traffic work, cruise ships on land, focusing on fun, and poop water. Afterwards, we discuss the new expansion After Dark, Diablo, and the glory of single-player games.
Cities: Skylines
The Cities Skylines Reddit
The Poop Powered City
The Paradox Forums for Cities
@Cities_PDX
Skylines After Dark
2015-10-291h 00Up Up Down Down41. Let Me Pick Three ColorsFirewatch’s 3D Artist Jane Ng joins us to disuss 3D art in indie games. We talk about some of the remarkable ways Campo Santo has made Firewatch look beautiful and distinctive. We discuss procedural sky generation, stylistic fog systems, and general challenges with making art for games with small teams. Afterwards, we talk Dragon Age Inquisition, Mario Maker, and avoiding playing Destiny.
Firewatch’s release date reveal: February 9, 2016
Jane’s GDC talk on the Art of Firewatch
Paolo’s blog post on Firewatch’s procedural sky system
The Firewatch Blog
The messy exit of Bungie audio director Marty O’Do
2015-10-121h 01Up Up Down Down40. The Les Miserables BarricadeWe’re back for Season 2!
Game designer Bobby Ross joins us to talk level design. We talk about the process of designing levels, lighting technology in 3D games, how to create balaced PvP, invisible walls, and other challenges of level design. Afterwards, we talk about what we liked at PAX.
Bobby Ross’ game design tutorials
Uncharted 4 trailer from E3 2015
Battleborn
Unreal Engine 4.9 release notes
Orcs Must Die
Darkest Dungeon
Kingdom, a pixel art adventure
Distance, the craziest indie megabooth exhibitor
Mini Metro
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Gang Beasts
2015-09-281h 34Up Up Down Down39. Strumming the Strum ButtonIsometric’s Steve Lubitz joins us to talk rhythm games. We start with the strange origins of rhythm games on the PlayStation in the 1990s and the craze of DDR. We dig in to the rise of plastic instruments, the joy of getting good at Rock Band, and the Great Plastic Crash of 2009. We touch on dance and karaoke games, and finish on what it takes for 3D to impress John Carmack.
The surreal experiences of Parappa the Rapper and Vib Ribbon
UpUp No. 2, “A Perfect Storm of Crummy Business Decisions” on sequels
Rock Band 4 is Coming on Polygo...
2015-03-271h 24Up Up Down Down38. The Bullet Spongiest Bullet SpongeMichael “Rands” Lopp joins us to talk Destiny. We briefly discuss its budget and profitability before digging in to the question of why, despite its problems, it’s a fun game. We dissect the Crucible PvP mode, matchmaking, the story or lack thereof, leveling, and bullet sponges. Afterwards, we fail at going off topic and talk about the expansion, raiding, voice acting, and the surprisingly clever UI.
Rands’ take on Destiny
Bungie on weapon tuning and TTK
Bungie on game modes over on Planet Destiny
The long, long, grind of Burning Crusade’s Netherdrake mount
Rands’, Nigel’s and Allen’s De...
2015-03-061h 19Up Up Down Down37. Early Access Without Any AccessJohn Walker, co-director and editor of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, joins us to discuss the state of PC gaming. We talk Early Access, Kickstarter, preorders, and the many pitfalls therein. We dig in to the profitability of PC ports, dismiss various kinds of football, dissect the longevity of old-school games, and try to guess the fate of Oculus. Afterward, we discuss terrible Early Access games, terrible hilarious games, and Allen’s latest terrible game idea.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Spacebase DF-9’s early access ending in a final 1.0
John’s Let’s Play: Salt
Flow Free
Stranded Deep
Time Ramesside’s bad Earl...
2015-02-061h 24Up Up Down Down36. Scintillating Amazon Javelins of the WhaleNoel Berry, developer of the upcoming procedural platformer Skytorn, joins us to discuss procedural content in games. We talk about Skytorn and how its levels are built, and discuss many other indie games with procedural levels, from Minecraft to Don’t Starve. We dig in to what kinds of games generated content works for and what kinds it doesn’t, and how to model Paris with only a few hundred artists.
Noel’s upcoming game Skytorn
The edge of the world in Minecraft
Spry Fox’s Road Not Taken
Klei’s Don’t Starve
Crossy Road, the “endless arcade hopper”...
2015-01-221h 02Up Up Down Down35. We're Made of Bells and WhistlesMaya Kramer, indie game marketing extraordinaire, joins us to talk PR and marketing. We discuss conferences and expos, getting the word out about indie games, the story of Towerfall, and how games filter up from the noise to journalists and platforms. Afterwards, we talk PSN outages, getting killed by dragons, and dystopian nudity.
GDC, PAX, and the many conferences for game developers
Rami Ismail, Vlambeer’s developer and prolific business guy
The Frankfurt Book Fair
Devolver Digital
The wonderful Towerfall
Indie House Vancouver
Maya’s Patreon and Twitter
PSN’s extensive downtime this Christmas
Spider 2 - Rite of the Sh...
2015-01-061h 08Up Up Down Down34. Watching someone else play MinecraftJohn Moltz, co-author of The Visual Guide to Minecraft, joins us to discuss the weird and wonderful world of Minecraft. We discuss why kids are obsessed it, managing servers, mods, Java, and trolling. Bonus: Nigel does a special interview with three further subject experts - his kids.
Moltz’ book on Minecraft, Visual Guide to Minecraft
The bizarre world of Minecraft mods
The Bukkit Minecraft server
The Rasberry Pi Mineblock server Indiegogo
Attention Mining, John’s article for The Magazine on Minecraft streamers
ROBLOX
Dave Wiskus’ Podcast Intervention
John’s podcasts, Turning This Car Around, The Rebound, and frequently The Talk...
2014-12-121h 22Up Up Down Down33. Being a Good Citizen on the PlatformMatt Comi of Big Bucket joins us to discuss developing games on Apple platforms. We talk about Matt and Neven Mrgan’s new game Space Age, porting games written for iOS and the Mac, Swift and Objective-C as languages for game development, and building the game engine and level editor for Space Age. Afterwards, we talk about a couple of the recent game industry travesties.
Big Bucket’s new iPad game, Space Age
UpUp #12, where we talked to Neven Mrgan about Space Age and retro games
Mike Bithell on porting Thomas Was Alone
Letterpress
Big Bucket Software
The dumb...
2014-11-281h 07Up Up Down Down32. Perfect Combination of Quality and QuantityThis week Federico Viticci joins us to talk digital distribution. We discuss about Nintendo’s attempts to court indie developers compared to Sony and Microsoft’s, the programs that make cross-plaftorm development plausible for indies, the various digital download platforms both on the consoles and the App Store, curation on the App Store and Steam, the effects of discounting on games.
Federico’s shows Connected and Virtual on Relay FM
Gamasutra’s interview with Nintendo on indie games
Shovel Knight on Gamasutra
Unity on 3DS and PlayStation
Directional’s interview with Shahid Ahmad of PlayStation
The Nintendo Seal of Quality...
2014-11-241h 21Up Up Down Down31. I Want to Kinda Annoy PeopleDesert Golfing’s Justin Smith joins us from an alien spaceship to discuss reward in games, or a lack thereof. We talk about the world’s reception to his game Desert Golfing, and game design tools like high scores, story progression, leveling up, and sparkles. We also touch on Justin’s games No Brakes Valet and Enviro-Bear 2000, and the inherent reward you get from watching an indie developer you love succeed.
Desert Golfing on the App Store
Desert Golfing is Life on Medium
The history and rebirth of pinball on NPR
Desert Bus
Enviro-Bear 2000
“F**k You Desert Golfing”...
2014-11-1553 minUp Up Down Down30. Talking About CaragorsIsometric’s Georgia Dow joins us to discuss good and bad enemy AI. After an important word on Gamergate, we dig in to the sophisticated AI of Pac-Man. We go in depth on Shadows of Mordor and its Nemesis System, and the AI in various other games, stealth and otherwise. Allen complains about bad RPG AI, Nigel tells us of bad car AI, and Georgia gives us some very crucial information about pandas.
Isometric 24 where Brianna Wu discusses the awful harassment and threats she’s received
Gamergate coverage on Deadspin, Wikipedia, and NYMag
ATP episodes 81 and 88 where they disc...
2014-10-301h 06Up Up Down Down29. Shakespeares Were Five ActsRyan Payton, in the midst of shipping Episode 3 of the critically acclaimed République, joins us to discuss episodic games. We start with a diversion into the challenge of supporting slower and older devices, then talk Season’s Passes, approaches to releasing game episodes, Telltale Games, and then go more in depth on République. Afterward, we talk about Destiny, Shadows of Mordor, console sales numbers, and buy some games on PSN.
Camoflaj’s République
The iPad zombie, Allen’s article about old iPads
Ryan’s PAX panel, Episodic Games: Divine Dream or Neverending Nightmare
Firewatch, the next game f...
2014-10-231h 22Up Up Down Down28. 400,000 Boar-killing BotsKristen Bornemann, Development Director of the critically acclaimed MMO Guild Wars 2, joins us to talk scaling MMOs and other games. We talk about smooth and rocky launches, the death of “realms”, and Guild Wars 2’s novel business model. We also discuss hackers, shipping bi-weekly updates, and Blizzard’s Titan. We finish on a dark and stormy note.
Massively’s Archeage interview
Patrick Wyatt on Scaling Guild Wars for massive concurrency
Kristen’s GDC Talk, “Every Two Weeks: Accelerating Guild Wars 2”
Blizzard killing their seven-year MMO project, Titan
Up Up Down Down’s new Steam Curator Recommendations
The Rektreational Dota 2 tournament
...
2014-10-181h 18Up Up Down Down27. A Tiny Game That You Can Play ForeverAsher Vollmer, creator of Threes and Close Castles, joins us to talk puzzle games. We discuss the process of designing developing Threes, and what goes in to making a great little puzzle game. We then talk about the whimsical minimalism that works so well in indie games, and how to bring them to life. We talk about difficulty, complexity, and how to tune games. We touch on the effects of free to play on puzzle games, and how it makes us feel weird. Afterwards, we talk Wii U games, Divinity: Original Sin, trying to get our RPG fix, and...
2014-10-031h 14Up Up Down Down26. Final_Final_REAL_FINAL_v5.wavMatthew Marteinsson, audio designer at Klei Entertainment, joins us to discuss sound design in games. We talk about the various techniques Matt used in Klei’s recent game Don’t Stave, from bees to gobblers. We discuss recording sound effects, what makes great sound design, what makes bad sound design, and some of what makes voice acting a pain. We also touch on Destiny, and get a little epic.
Don’t Starve
FMOD
The existence of Electronic Wind Instruments
The Bastion Narration that was recorded in a closet
The Incomparable
RX Audio Repair
Hollywood Edge sound libraries
Matt’s podcas...
2014-09-231h 11Up Up Down Down25. So Unreal is Just AmazingMartiancraft’s Jeff LaMarche joins us to discuss 3D game engines. We discuss the core features of a game engine, what Unity brings to the table, and why it has become so popular for indie games like Martiancraft’s Republic Sniper. Then we dig in to Unreal, Jeff’s team’s switch to it from Unity, and what makes it so wonderfully fantastic.
Jeff’s blog post An Unreal Decision on switching away from Unity
Unity Licensing
Republic Sniper
List of Unreal Engine games
Blueprints in Unreal Engine
BRDF library
Metro Redux
2014-09-051h 32Up Up Down Down24. Walking with a VoiceoverDaniel Cook of Spry Fox joins us to discuss content-focused and system-focused game design. We talk about the rise of narrative games like Gone Home and Journey, and contrast them to system-centric games that offer deeper gameplay, at the expense of greater risk to game developers. We talk about how these forces have affected Spry Fox’s games, and dig in to their latest, Road Not Taken.
Dan’s Lost Garden article, How game forms are shaped by their environment
Full Indie Summit
Machinations
Dan’s previous game, Triple Town
Great games that seems obvious in retrospect, like Letter...
2014-08-151h 14Up Up Down Down23. How Not to Doom YourselfCurtis Lassam joins us to discuss the great failures in video games. We kick things off with Jurassic Park: Trespasser, then learn about Curtis’ Three Rules to Not Doom Yourself. We follow the rocky career of Tim Schafer, then Nigel tells us all about Daikatana. Afterwards, we bat around a bad idea for a video game, and talk couch co-op games.
Research Indicates Let’s Play Trespasser
Physics Bugs in Trespasser
Gamasutra’s post-mortem of Trespasser
Poor Tim Schafer
Grim Fandango and Old Man Murray’s Death of Adventure Games
Psyhonauts and Brütal Legend
Big Rigs Over the Road...
2014-08-081h 06Up Up Down Down22. Games Are Things Made By PeopleAdam “Atomic” Saltsman joins us to discuss collaboration and sustanability in the world of indie games.
We talk about Adam’s new venture Finji Games, and collaborating with fans, from early access to Earliest Access. We fondly remember Canabalt, remember that critical hits aren’t always commercial hits, and discuss how contracting fills the gaps between projects. We finish by discussing the intense competitive pressure in the indie market, and the daunting task of building a 3D game.
Finji Games
Clockwork Empires’ Earliest Access program
Offworld Trading Company
Adam’s classic iPhone game Canabalt (on sale for $0.99)
...
2014-07-181h 09Up Up Down Down21. A Complete Tub of CrapGuy English returns this week to discuss 3D graphics APIs, so hold on to your butts.
We start with the origins of the GPU, and recount the evolution of graphics APIs. We dig in to what a modern GPU actually does, and then discuss Apple’s new graphics API, Metal. Guy and Nigel reminisce about just how horrible programming for the PlayStation 2 was, we talk latency, and finally Guy explores his relationship with Riddler trophies.
OpenGL
The good but weird Voodoo GPUs
3dfx’ Glide API
Microsoft Direct3D’s long winding path
GLQuake
Retained Mode, an evolut...
2014-07-181h 38Up Up Down Down20. That's Not My ShepardBrianna Wu and Amanda Warner of Giant Spacekat Games join us to talk about narrative in games. We talk about our favourite storylines, the development of Giant Spacekat’s imminent game Revolution 60, Unreal Engine, hand-crafted animations, and some initial thoughts on the final build of Revolution 60.
Giant Spacekat’s Revolution 60 for iPad
The Isometric Podcast
Journey driving Thatgamecompany to bankruptcy
Unreal Engine’s Matinee system
Parasite Eve
Final Fantasy X
Railroading in RPGs
The Last of Us motion capture outtake
Pete Paquette on using motion capture as a reference for hand-tuned animation
Disney’s use of live reference footage...
2014-07-121h 30Up Up Down Down19. They Shipped It AnywayPhilippe Casgrain of NSNorth and formerly of Transgaming joins us to discuss porting games. We discuss the technologies behind virtualizing games on the Mac, ports gone bad, and the effects of consoles on the PC versions of games. Then, we talk a bit about Wii U games and Hearthstone.
Transgaming
WINE
Cedega
MiniGL, the subset of OpenGL that 3dfx shipped to get Quake ported to their cards
Cider
Steamclock Software
Mario Kart: Double Dash
New Super Luigi Bros. U 3D Bros.
Hearthstone
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
2014-07-041h 05Up Up Down Down18. There Are No RulesToca Boca’s Amanda Rösler joins us to discuss making great games for kids. We talk about why Toca Boca’s apps are more like toys than they are games, games for kids on the App Store, the pitfalls of making games for kids, and tea parties. Later, we talk about co-op games we’re looking forward to playing.
Toca Boca
Toca Town
The Kids section of the App Store
The Úll Conference
Oregon Trail
Dead Space 3
The Luigi Death Stare
Splatoon
Super Hot
2014-06-2759 minUp Up Down Down17. The Main Character is a Serial Killer!iMore’s Peter Cohen joins us to discuss morality in video games, and what it means to play dictators, serial killers, and just plain jerks. We determine whether or not this makes us bad people, and whether or not it’s going to traumatize our kids. Finally, we discuss the futility of going to E3.
BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic
The Modern Warfare 2 Fastest Speed Run Ever
Skyrim’s evil missions
Being a demon in The Darkness
Trying to be good in Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Tropico, everybody’s favourite dictator game
Black & White
The Torture Mission in...
2014-06-201h 06Up Up Down Down16. The Looney Tunes School of StealthJustin Voss of Low Earth Orbit joins us to talk stealth games. We discuss the origin of stealth games, instant failure, and the joy of finding alternative ways to complete a mission. Then, we rag on Metal Gear Solid and salivate over E3 announcements.
The original Thief
Eavesdropping in Assassin’s Creed
Splinter Cell
Outposts in Far Cry 3
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Metal Gear Solid 3’s River of Sorrow and The End
Polygon’s Best of E3
Alien: Isolation Preview
Bungie’s Destiny on previous-gen and current-gen consoles
Greatest box office bombs of all time
2014-06-131h 12Up Up Down Down15. Being a Bad Spider-ManScott Stevenson of Low Earth Orbit joins us to talk open world games. We discuss side quests, railroading, and trying to tell a story when the player can ruin everything. As usual, we end with a diversion into games we’re excited about, and some peculiar Kickstarters.
Thief
Hey cousin! Let’s go bowling!
Thank goodness everything is back to normal!
Infamous Second Son
Polygon’s Spider-Man 2 Review
Red Dead Redemption
Nathan Drake
Radical’s Prototype
Fez’ $40,000 bug fix
Fuel
ReRoll, the Kickstarter for a game world that was literally the entire earth
Danielle Riendeau’s Transistor review
Shaq-Fu: A L...
2014-05-301h 18Up Up Down Down14. The Red LEDs Were CheaperArs Technica’s Kyle Orland joins us to discuss the great failures in game consoles. We talk about our favourite doomed consoles, the story of Sega’s downfall, and Nintendo’s journey through the desert with the Wii U.
The Apple Pippin
TurboGrafx-16
Console prices adjusted for inflation
The heinously bad Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties
Steven Frank’s Dragon’s Lair story
Virtual Boy
The Sega Saturn
The Sega Dreamcast
Nintendo lowering the bar for the Wii U and missing anyway
Paying to Win Soul Calibur
Shadow of Mordor preview
The Atari Landfill
2014-05-231h 17Up Up Down Down13. A QWOP Sort of HumourDeveloper and humourist Curtis Lassam joins us to discuss humour in games. We discuss comically hard games, sandboxes as a vehicle for comedy, what makes it hard to write a funny game, and a goat.
Octodad
QWOP
Enviro-Bear 2000
The Worms series
Dwarf Fortress Boatmurdered
Team Fortress’ “Meet The Team” shorts
Steamclock Software
Cave Johnson’s dialogue from Portal 2
The dialogue in Duke Nukem Forever
Goat Simulator Trailer
“Xbox Sign Out” trolling
Spelunky
Super Time Force review on Polygon
2014-05-161h 05Up Up Down Down12. First Person Shooter Monkey IslandNeven Mrgan, designer of wonderful apps and games, joins us to discuss retro games. We discuss his upcoming game Space Age, the challenges of pixel art, and Neven’s previous games The Incident and Blackbar.
Space Age
The Incident
Scaling Pixel Art from Microsoft Research
Gus Mueller’s excellent Acorn
Shaun Inman’s letter M
Sword and Sworcery
Retro Game Crunch
Monkey Island in CryEngine
The rights to No One Lives Forever
Firewatch
Paradox Factor
Blackbar
Hitman GO
2014-05-091h 04Up Up Down Down11. Secret Alien TechnologyMyke Hurley, world-renowned podcaster, joins us to discuss portable consoles, the future of the PS Vita, and the iPhone as a portable game console.
Directional, Myke’s gaming podcast with Federico Viticci
OlliOlli for PS Vita
Indie games on the PS Vita
MOGA Power Ace Game Controller for iOS
VGChartz, purveyor of worldwide console sales numbers
One Song, 7.5 Writers by I Fight Dragons
Eirik Suhrke’s wonderful video game music
Hitman GO
David Smith on how to improve the App Store
2014-05-021h 11Up Up Down Down10. Nobody Has Gold StarsGrace “GTZ” of Fat, Ugly, or Slutty joins us to discuss jerks on Xbox Live, getting people to play nice together, and hellbanning.
Fat, Ugly, or Slutty
League of Legends and the fine art of Jungling
Grace’s panels at PAX 2013 and earlier about positively shaping player behaviour
Riot Games’ experiments with Restricted Chat Mode and toxic behaviour
The lessons Journey teaches us
Guild Wars 2 staff respond to Redditors as to why their account was banned
Castro, the nicest podcast app
Smart Match, Xbox Live’s version of hellbanning
Everybody is a Trevor in GTA V Online
Multiplayer piano
2014-04-251h 08Up Up Down Down9. Getting Bored of Clicking On CowsAngelina Fabbro of Mozilla joins us to discuss games on the web, why the hell people are still using C++, and business models for web-based games. After that, we jump in to games we’re playing on the iPad, what’s wrong with MMOs, and how Pokémon will never die.
Mozilla’s GDC 2014 announcements
Unreal 4’s pricing drop to $19 per month
The Unity 3d Engine
The Mozilla Manifesto
asm.js, the low-level subset of JavaScript
LLJS
Cookie Clicker
Monster Madness in WebGL
WebGL on iOS devices
The death of UnrealScript in favour of… C++.
FTL for iPad
Republique
...
2014-04-181h 27Up Up Down Down8. Architecture and ForgivenessMonument Valley’s Ken Wong joins us to discuss games as art, Monument Valley, and the business of crafting meaningful games.
Monument Valley
Video games can never be art by Roger Ebert
Journey
Gone Home and why you should play it instead of Dear Esther
Threes, the tiny puzzle that grows on you
Numberwang
2048 Numberwang
Passage
Sword and Sworcery
Ken’s last game, HackyCat
Windosill
The arduous process of making Threes
The design of Zendo
Antichamber
2014-04-111h 26Up Up Down Down7. Criticizing Water For Being WetScott Stevenson of Low Earth Orbit joins us to discuss game reviews, game-breaking bugs, and what’s wrong with Lara Croft getting impaled.
IGN’s Assassin’s Creed 3 Review
A few hundred of Skyrim’s bugs
Double Fine’s Hack and Slash
The VanCocoa meetup
Polygon’s Dragon’s Crown review
Polygon’s review policy
Tomb Raider, Torture Porn, and Looking For an Audience That Exists by Jeff Vogel
Fat Princess
inFamous for PS4
Old Man Murray’s Time to Crate Review System
Send us feedback on the show
2014-04-041h 28Up Up Down Down6. My Whole Colony Filled Up With CabbageGaslamp Games’ David Baumgart joins us to discuss Clockwork Empires, simulations, and pickled fungi.
Rock Paper Shotgun’s wonderful preview of Clockwork Empires
Dwarf Fortress Stories
Creature training in Black & White
Engineering Faith, the ill-fated religion simulator
Cube Drone
Low Earth Orbit episode 34 on Spacebase DF-9
PC Gamer’s gameplay footage of Clockwork Empires
Duke Nukem lawsuit
Michael Abrash’s talk on what’s next in VR
An excruciatingly detailed fungus pickling simulator
2014-03-281h 14Up Up Down Down5. You Die InstantlyTyson Kallberg joins us to discuss why games are getting easier, what makes us want to ragequit, and death by checkpoint.
Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels
Deus Ex: Human Revolutions’s outsourced boss battles
The Team Fortress 2 Deathcam
You Will Die Instantly!, the episode of Hypercritical that we accidentally nearly quote, then later refer to
Ikaruga Rage Quit
Eve Online: The Most Thrilling Boring Game
Please take a minute and rate the show on iTunes
2014-03-211h 14Up Up Down Down4. It Shipped And It Was FastGuy English and Nigel tell tales of the hacks that make games work, from fast inverse square root to assembly shenanigans. Allen tries to keep things understandable for non-programmers, and fails spectacularly.
Pac-Man for the Atari 2600
Fast Inverse Square Root
The End of the World of Minecraft
The VanCocoa meetup
2014-03-141h 33Up Up Down Down3. Three Quarters of Half-Life OnePatrick Gibson joins us to discuss games that are too long, side quests, tearing up, and flapping.
Tomb Raider 2013
Ben Franklin’s Almanac Pages
The Top Free to Play Monetization Tricks
Maverick Bird
Patrick’s Flappy Bird high score
Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website.
2014-03-071h 10Up Up Down Down2. A Perfect Storm of Crummy Business DecisionsParveen Kaler joins us to discuss sequels, plastic guitars, and the unfair advantage of being Batman.
Guitar Hero’s 20 games in 5 years
Top Rated Games of 2013
Top Rated Films of 2013
Steamclock Software
2014-02-281h 09Up Up Down Down1. Container of Monetary UnitsMatt Kump joins us to discuss In App Purchase, what horrible things it’s done to the games we love, and what we can learn from Party Poker.
Glitch
Clash of Clans in the shower
Matt’s upcoming iOS game
Party Monster
2014-02-211h 11