Everybody's Talking At Once

Anita Tung wends her way to us to talk about The Last Clockwinder , one of those VR games that really and truly could only be done in VR. (For another example, see our recent episode with Chris Hanney) . On this week's show, we discuss the interdisciplinary joys of small teams, the aesthetics (and technical challenges) of clutter, and the persistent magics of VR. CONTENT WARNING for discussions of...

Chris Hanney is probably best known for his work on Space Pirate Trainer —and particularly on its multiplayer modes, from the Tetris-Galaga - Max Payne melange of VERSUS to the ambitious, tennis-court-scale hide-and-seek-'em-up of ARENA . Here's a project that walks right up to the edges of what has so far been possible in VR, and then finds ways to walk right past them. In this interview, Chris t...

Paul Chamberlain originally wanted to be a hacker—which led him to work as a "technologist" (ooh) at the Signals Intelligence Agency and the Australian Federal Police, which led him to work in computer security and "information warfare" (ooh again) at Google, which led him to work on anti-cheat software for League of Legends and Valorant at Riot Games. That experience, in turn—the experience of ge...

Anya Combs joins our crowd (of guests) to talk about her work at Backerkit (and previously at Kickstarter and Nickelodeon), her saxophoning for the Funkrust Brass Band (among a fair many other bands), her love of tabletop, and her blood-feud with meeting culture. Backerkit's new crowdfunding section is live , as so often is the music of Funkrust . You can also find Anya's socials on her Linktree ....

A fair few of the kids who played Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s are now parents with kids old enough to play Dungeons & Dragons . At the same time, and beyond that: Tabletop Role Playing Games, which were once firmly esoteric and counter-cultural pursuits (not to mention the target of frothy moral panic) are increasingly a visible, present part of pop culture. Which means that the time i...

Esther Alter started out making games like Neocolonialism and No Pineapple Left Behind , which she now describes as "anti-fun." But her newest game PRO Ć EMON is unashemedly fun, in addition to being a thoughtful experiment in how far we can push procedural generation, and in what human-machine collaborations can looks like. Here Esther talks about PRO Ć EMON in terms of its inspirations, its tech...

Trevor Gureckis is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and an increasingly prominent voice in horror scoring?most recently, in the remake of DEAD SPACE , a project that aims to flesh out an already quite fleshy (in more ways than one) sort of narrative. Here Trevor talks about the intriguing weirdness of remakes, the joys of making plot and backstory elements visceral, and how he makes music sound...

Garry Schyman isekais his way back to the show to forspeak about his work on FORSPOKEN —which is out today—as well as his other recent scores for Torn and Metamorphosis . (If you want to hear about his work on the BioShock trilogy and the Middle-earth duology, we'd direct you to Garry's previous appearance ). Here we talk about the utility of tropes, the evocative power of tonality, and the unique...

Before we dive into this year's interviews, we thought we'd take stock of last year's, as has become tradition here on the 'cast?connect a few dots, and provide a sort of a digest for anyone who's missed some (or all!) of our 2022 episodes, and for first-time listeners. So join us once again as Drew plays some clips from the shows we've done this year, some lovely bits of music from the games we'v...

Another year, and another 'cast in which to review said year. For (somehow!) the first time ever, Drew, Lucio, Franny, and L are all together to talk about what they've played, what they haven't, and what they're planning on playing?that last category covering both stuff that's currently in their to-read piles, and stuff that'll be out next year and beyond. (Soon, Tears of the Kingdom ). SPOILERS...

Drew here, with an update. At the time I recorded this episode, I was not aware of A.M. Darke's accusations against Zack Johnson . Among the numerous reasons this sucks (though by no means the most important one) is that it's embarrassing . Research is something I'm generally pretty good at, so missing a serious matter mentioned on the first page of Google results about the person I was interviewi...

It would be quite the understatement to say that things have changed in VR in the six years Anton Hand has been working on Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades. Companies have entered and exited. Platforms have risen and fallen. Things have gotten vastly stupider in various ways—but all while VR enthusiasts have carved out fascinating niches. VRChat is one . PC VR gaming is another, replete wi...

Robert Boyd takes our stage to talk about This Way Madness Lies, his studio's new "Shakespeare-themed magical girl JRPG" (a thing that there ought to be more of). The game isn't exactly faithful to its source material—but then, Shakespeare was never all that faithful to his, either. Frankly, we'll take enthusiasm and curiosity over reverence any old day. Here Robert talks about his long history in...

Johnny Liu schools us on the history of Chinese RPGs in general, and the long-running, massively impactful 仙劍奇俠傳 series in particular. It's been called Sword & Fairy in the West (when it isn't being called Chinese Paladin ), but that title doesn't fully capture what these games have to offer?and that simple fact serves as a great jumping-off point to talk about translation, cultural speci...

Drew, Lucio, and L check in on what they've been playing these past few months. Splatoon 3 naturally comes up, as does Drew's continuing project to catch up on Final Fantasy XIV . Meanwhile, L has been messing around with her new Steam Deck, so prepare to hear about Rune Factory , about Capybara Spa , and (whisper it) about exploring older games via emulation. (The Steam Deck is excellent for that...

Aidan Moher is probably best known for his long-running, Hugo-winning blog A Dribble of Ink and its spiritual successor Astrolabe , or else for his short-form fiction, which prods at the boundaries of various sci-fi and fantasy subgenres. Today, he releases his first non-fiction book, FIGHT, MAGIC, ITEMS: The History of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and the Rise of Japanese RPGs in the West ?and he...

Jessica Rizzo stops by to talk about the labor of making games—and specifically, the vitally important, structurally maligned discipline of Quality Assurance—in the context of her work with ABetterABK, Game Workers Unite, and CODE-CWA. Building on our previous conversation with Emma Kinema here on the show, we discuss where game development fits into broader conversations about making work (and ev...

Aaron Nemoyten stops by to talk about his work on Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and Heroes of Dragon Age , which gives us a chance to talk about live ops and monetization—two topics that are core to how players experience games, but that only semi-seldomly get talked about as game design. We then dive into his newer, smaller, more experimental games. Also Brazil , MDK, and naturally, DOOM. You can s...

Last time Anisa Sanusi was on the show, she talked about the Limit Break mentorship program , and her thoughtful, wide-ranging UI/UX work on Planet Coaster and Elite Dangerous . Now she's back to talk about her work on Rollerdrome , how it dovetails with her own newfound love of skating, and how she collaborated with the rest of the team to convey loads of timely information to the player without...

Chandana Ekanayake has more than two decades' experience in the game industry, stretching from work on The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard and Enter the Matrix to his projects at Outerloop Games, the studio he co-founded. Here he talks about the studio's anti-colonialist sci-fi falconry adventure Falcon Age , as well as their upcoming game Thirsty Suitors , an RPG about romance, family, cooking...

Franny, Lucio, and Drew check in on what they've been playing, including but by no means limited to Elden Ring . We talk Neon Whit e, Tunic, Horizon: Forbidden West , and Stray, as well as some of the games we're looking forward to later this year, from God of War Ragnarök and Splatoon 3 to Venba and We Are OFK. Also: What have Lucio's kids been playing? What are the kids into these days, we ask,...

Zach Barth is back to talk about Last Call BBS , which is the last Zachtronics game, and also a collection of eight smaller—though not all especially small!—Zachtronics games, unified by the fictional hardware spec for which they were built and the fictional software pirate who distributed them. It's a celebration of pursuing weird ideas, messing with old computers, and various kinds of inevitable...

Wyatt Bushnell and Mike Salyh both have a background in physically extant escape rooms—not to mention arcade games, and other "out-of-home entertainment" experiences . (Gallery nerds would call them site-specific). As the co-founders of Coin Crew Games, they're now bringing that experience to a videogame for PC and consoles, in the form of Escape Academy . Here they talk about making the switch to...

Heather Flowers has expanded the world of EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER into a TTRPG, in collaboration with Aura Belle. Here both of the authors talk about the rough-and-ready nature of the Powered by the Apocalypse system on which MEATPUNKS is based, and the thoroughly American nightmare that is Meatworld—plus, how to invite true improvisation for GMs and players alike, and "how to depict harm withou...

Damien Crawford makes games that revel in experimentation, and in taking an idea arguably too far. Faer latest game Purgatory Dungeoneer isn't not that, but it's definitely something else, too: It's a reflection on trauma, and on being a hero well past when you're young and heedless. It's a strategic RPG, a roguelike-like, and a townbuilder. It sees Damien staking out some new territory, both mech...