The Examined Game

Send us Fan Mail Today I am talking with  Bruce Nesmith a Bethesda verteran who was a part of pretty much every major release from the studio right up until his retirement in 2022. I was so excited to speak with Bruce and hear how the company delivers a classic Bethesda game, what it's like to work alongside Todd Howard and I couldn't help but ask him what would be on his wish list for E...

Send us Fan Mail Today I'm reflecting on my love of Bethesda RPGs and why, no matter what, I'll probably never stop buying them! I also talk about some games I've been playing lately, including Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Sam & Max: Freelance Police. Plus, I share some genuinely wholesome stories from my recent interviews with Raphaël Colantonio (Dishonored, Prey) and Alex and...

Send us Fan Mail Today I'm talking with Sara Hebert, Marketing Lead at Human Computer, the creators of the upcoming game Ballgame. She is the former Studio Manager at Night School Studio, the team behind Oxenfree, Oxenfree II and Afterparty. Sara and I talk about one of the biggest challenges facing video game developers today: continuing to bring new players into the space and getting them t...

Send us Fan Mail Support me on Patreon for free: https://www.patreon.com/TheExaminedGame?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator Today I'm talking with Raphaël Colantonio, former president of Arkane Studios, responsible for bringing Dishonored, Prey, Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic into existence. This is a conversation about the dark art of making the perfect immersive sim, and the...

Send us Fan Mail Today I am talking with Alex and Kelsey Beachum, the creative director and writer behind Outer Wilds. I previously interviewed Alex and Kelsey separately, but I took a punt on asking if they'd have a chat with me about their childhood and the creative inspiration that eventually led to Outer Wilds. This is a much more personal deep dive than usual, digging into the joy of pla...

Send us Fan Mail Today I'm talking with Bennett Foddy, creator of QWOP, GIRP, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, and co-creator of Baby Steps. Bennett's games are known for torturing players, but today I get to deep dive into the philosophy behind his design choices, and they run a lot deeper than you might think. Bennett is incredibly thoughtful and considered when it comes to players,...

Send us Fan Mail Hi all, Steven Lake here from The Examined Game. So i've had a couple weeks where i've been short of a guest but I didn't want to leave you totally hanging so I thought i'd have a chat with you all about the new Resident Evil movie, how Star Wars Zero Company has saved me from a bad save scumming habit and to get really honest with you about my addiction to buy...

Send us Fan Mail Technoblade Never Dies Documentary Announcement: https://youtu.be/Lj0mDrEKSmA?si=N0pV54fYQg5HlnxF Variety Piece: https://variety.com/2026/film/news/technoblade-never-dies-documentary-minecraft-riot-games-1236850438/ Today my guest on The Examined Game Podcast is me... Steven Lake. Look life has been busy with a few projects and for the first time in 7 months I didn't line up...

Send us Fan Mail Today I am talking with Jon Ingold, co-founder of Inkle Studios. Inkle have brought us some incredible adventure games over the years, including 80 Days, TR-49, Heaven’s Vault, Expelled and Overboard. This discussion was part of Telltale Games’ Choices Matter Festival, which premiered on Steam back in August. They gave myself and Jon the opportunity to dive into all the potential...

Send us Fan Mail Today I am talking with Carrie Patel, director of Avowed, who worked on the Pillars of Eternity series as well as The Outer Worlds while working at Obsidian. I've long wanted to have a discussion around the direction that Obsidian decided to take with its RPGs by making games that actually get released! So we talk about the scope and ambition that went into making a game like...

Send us Fan Mail Today I’m talking with Sean Velasco, creator of Hollow Knight and Mina the Hollower. Mina was my first Soulslike. That might sound strange, given the genre’s reputation for brutal difficulty, but Mina came with a whole range of modifiers designed to make the game more accessible. The funny thing is, I never ended up using them. Instead, I persevered. So I wanted to talk to Sean ab...

Send us Fan Mail Today on The Examined Game, I'm talking with Mark Darrah, who spent over two decades at BioWare. Mark was part of the studio's early days as it took a huge risk on the original Baldur's Gate. He then helped shepherd the studio through a series of hits, including Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, and was an integral part of helping to launch the Mass Effect and Dr...

Send us Fan Mail Today on The Examined Game, I’m talking with Cole Medeiros, who was tasked with working alongside ConcernedApe (Eric Barone), the creator of Stardew Valley, to turn one of the most beloved video games of all time into a board game. We talk about the ups and downs, challenges and pressure of not only making a great board game, but doing it with the IP of one of the greatest video g...

Send us Fan Mail Doug Cockle, the voice of Geralt from The Witcher video games, believes that underneath Geralt’s cold exterior is a man who feels things deeply. So today I’m talking to Doug to discuss the beating heart beneath one of video games’ greatest protagonists: how Doug came to find Geralt’s voice, what he sees in the character, and what we can learn from Geralt, someone who is always wil...

Send us Fan Mail Today on The Examined Game I am speaking with Stephen Kick, Studio Head at Nightdive Studios. Stephen is responsible for some of the greatest video game remasters, remakes and re-releases of the last decade, including System Shock, System Shock 2, The Thing: Remastered, Turok, Quake, DOOM + DOOM II, STAR WARS: Dark Forces Remaster, Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition, I Have No Mouth,...

Send us Fan Mail Today I'm speaking with actor Doug Cockle. Doug is best known as the voice of Geralt in The Witcher series, but has also voiced Bhaal in Baldur's Gate 3, Victor Vran in Victor Vran, and the Narrator in Tails of Iron. This is Part One of a two-part interview. This is probably the most open and honest conversation i've had to date on the podcast. When I sat down with...

Send us Fan Mail Today I'm talking with indie game designer Edmund McMillen (The Binding of Isaac, Mewgenics, Super Meat Boy) about the way he approaches making games. Edmund has a pretty simple philosophy when it comes to game design, even if the games themselves are extremely complex and multilayered. He designs games to please himself, and so far that's worked remarkably well as a bus...

Send us Fan Mail This is Part 2 of my two part interview with Obsidian's Josh Sawyer. The first episode can be found here:  WATCH HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HDXqBgMxy0&t=1448s LISTEN HERE: https://www.theexaminedgame.com/from-icewind-dale-to-fallout-new-vegas-josh-sawyer-obsidian-part-1/ In today's episode we dive into Pillars of Eternity, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire...

Send us Fan Mail Today on The Examined Game I am talking with the writer, developer and designer of The Drifter, one of my absolute favourite point and click adventure games of the last few years. I am in a constant pursuit of a great point and click adventure to scratch an itch that's been bothering me since childhood, after being exposed to the classic LucasArts (Sam & Max, Day of the T...

Send us Fan Mail Today on The Examined Game, I’m joined by Josh Sawyer (Joshua Sawyer) Studio Design Director at Obsidian Entertainment. Josh is an industry veteran whose credits include Icewind Dale, Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, The Outer Worlds, Pentiment, and many more. So what do you talk about with someone who has worked on so many beloved RPGs? We discuss how games c...

Send us Fan Mail write me at steven@theexaminedgame.com and let me know what you think! What does it feel like to land your dream job working on the follow-up to a game that blew your mind? This is exactly what happened to Jonathan Zimmerman when he landed a writing gig on Life Is Strange: Before The Storm . What followed was a near-decade-long relationship with this beloved franchise, alongside h...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode of The Examined Game I talk with co-founder of Inkle Studios (80 Days, TR-49, Heaven’s Vault, Overboard, A Highland Song, Expelled, Sorcery) Joseph Humfrey. This interview is a counterpart to my chat with Jon Ingold, the other co-founder of Inkle. I talked with Joseph about what it takes to make a video game company sustainable in this day and age, and their app...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode of The Examined Game, I am talking with the creator of Outer Wilds, Alex Beachum. We get into the weeds of how the original prototype of the game came about back when Alex was studying game design, his approach to development, including the idea of "emotional prototyping", which helped build the bedrock that would become one of the most loved game...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking with Francisco Gonzalez as we go in depth on the genre of video game that I have been playing longer than any other in my life: point and click adventure games. I have been a fan of Francisco's games ever since I stumbled upon Lamplight City. I then had the pleasure of playing back retrospectively through his earlier work, which includes A Golden Wake and...

Send us Fan Mail Today I get to talk with Amandine MarestHair & Technical Character artist Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. We cover all things hair related in video games. Amandine's work in Clair Obscure is incredible and it was such a pleasure to deep dive into just how much she and the team thought about the hair in this game and how it represented the personalities of its characters. We...