Open Betas

Music games are all the rage these days! Also, I'm selling a bundle of 2 Rock Band drumkits (markedly used) and a crate of unopened DJ Hero turntables for $9.99 USD. Please like and comment if you're interested. Outro music by I Am Jemboy YouTube.com/@OpenBetas

Paul Sottosanti, game design veteran and certified cool guy joins Regal and Swimfan to talk about the role that randomness, variance, and luck affect games, mostly from a designer's perspective, in both general and case-specific terms. 0:00:00 Who is Paul Sottosanti? 0:29:18 Basic concepts and a tangent about the popularity of games 0:43:00 Drawing cards 1:20:00 Build complexity 1:42:27 Play-b...

1337 G@m3rz UNITE!! We broadly discuss the difference between people who consider themselves "gamers" and people who simply play games, the effect this has on the industry discourse, and the icky associations the label carries. 0:00:00 Intro and patch notes 0:17:19 The influence of the online discourse about games 0:40:45 Identity and gamerism 1:18:55 The use of games 1:47:25 Finding you...

Yip schools us on TCGs, CCGs, DCGs, and all other card-based games. 0:00:00 Introductions, who the heck is Andrew Yip, and the LoR experience 0:17:33 History with card games 0:49:01 Hanging out in settings and MMOs 1:05:51 Mana, variance, and all its implications 1:41:31 Different players, different skill expression 1:53:44 Back to mana (color pie, mana flood) 2:05:32 Making losing fun and making...

Do not trust Swimfan to inspect your door, physical or digital. 0:00:00 Intro and patch notes: nets 0:06:15 The joy of thievery 0:12:16 Why are steal games less popular and sometimes more frustrating than combat games? 0:39:39 How do the NPCs or the game itself handle ethics? 0:50:30 Singleplayer vs multiplayer 1:18:22 Society in the apocalypse 1:34:20 Ethics (in singleplayer games) 2:01:40 What m...

babby's second video. but babby's, like, 18th audio! 0:00:00 What is Against the Storm? 0:16:51 What sets ATS apart and its core mechanics 0:27:19 Some ideas for high level changes 0:54:14 Endless mode Against the Storm on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1336490/Against_the_Storm/ YouTube.com/@OpenBetas You can attempt to contact me at regal@openbetas.com. I will probably check i...

Even your parents want to play! 🙄 0:00:00 Intro and patch notes: death note 0:16:00 The universal nature of simple games 0:35:45 Solitaire and games as a way to fill time 0:59:24 Tetris, platforms, and popularity 1:07:00 Randomess & replayability 1:14:05 Wordle 1:30:00 Pokemon GO 1:54:04 What can we learn? Outro music by beat_shobon: https://soundcloud.com/beat_shobon/mario-paint-but-you-can-...

An episode about superpowers in which we learn that we should never under any circumstances tell Swimfan any of our secrets. 0:00:00 Intro and patch notes: positive religious relationships and experiences 0:10:10 The rules 0:17:30 Saving and loading as a superpower 0:59:10 What it's like to be older than one human lifetime 1:11:49 What would we do? 1:36:20 Superpower #2: mind reading 2:01:00 S...

Whether 'tis nobler to suffer or to just load and try again. 0:00:00 Intro 0:12:20 Saving basics 0:34:24 Checkpoint systems 0:55:45 Upsides and downsides 1:28:30 What happens if we switch the paradigms? 1:51:04 Is Skyrim the best game of all time? Outro music by otherlink YouTube.com/@OpenBetas

Swimfan confesses his sordid past and shares the secrets to retiring early as a billionaire. 0:00:00 Regal's...last intro ever? 0:14:52 Swimfan's early work, from getting in to Modern Warfare 20:37:55 Life after Call of Duty 1:02:40 Where did it all end up? 1:18:30 Where did it all come from? 1:50:30 Was it what you expected? 2:18:50 How do I become Swimfan? 2:45:00 Advice for advancing in...

A discussion about why it's important that games don't always tell you exactly how everything works, starting with Individual Values (IVs) in Pokémon, branching to other games from other times, and exploring how different hidden game mechanics are sneakily working behind the scenes. 0:00:00 Obfuscation in game systems 0:09:50 The very first Open Betas Patch Notes 0:26:05 Why do IVs exist?...

Swimfan has sobered up and joins Regal to talk religion in games: depictions of real world faiths, completely made-up fantasy doctrines, and the role of god(s). Let us play... 0:00:00 Why religion, and where do we stand? 0:31:00 What is religion? 0:57:50 Religion as a plot device 1:24:40 Back to games 1:53:20 Swimfan's insatiable desire for sexy games 2:03:00 Gods in games 2:31:06 Games as rel...

Regal experiments with solo content, which turns out to be harder than expected. A complaint pod about the EO Soulfist rework in Lost Ark. 00:02:06 What is Soulfist's identity? 00:09:10 How do Soulfist's skills make it unique? 00:21:59 What is changing? 00:33:18 Niche classes 00:37:40 What were the "real" problems with Soulfist? 00:50:06 Cost of reworks for players YouTube.com/@o...

We finish our talk about player feedback, and go down the rabbit hole on hate, internet and otherwise. 0:01:15 Feedback's necessity in the workplace 0:09:00 Social media feedback 0:32:30 Hate 0:40:28 Is dehumanization ever justified? 0:56:50 Managing your own hate 1:04:20 What do you do with hate? 1:18:19 The importance of knowing the person 1:43:00 Objective and subjective feedback 1:55:55 Wh...

Regal n' Swimfan talk about how game developers collect feedback from players. What's useful and what isn't? Why put yourself through that? 0:01:25 Why talk about feedback? 0:05:22 The "creative visionary" 0:12:10 Random movies tangent 0:26:30 The difference in interactions between online and real life 0:37:35 It's actually pretty hard to get feedback 0:56:30 Feedback and...

Good news: today (some of) you will become legendary! Don't worry too much about percentages; as long as you keep a positive attitude, you'll be fine (ya frickin' loser)! 0:02:40 What is Legion, what is a legendary, and why did it matter? 0:16:40 How did you get them and why was that problematic? 0:24:50 Why does a 5% damage increase matter? 0:38:00 Blizzard's official statement 0:...

Can ChatGPT learn to press X on Nintendo controllers but Y on Xbox controllers? How is grandma going to learn to score headshots? 0:00:00 Intro 0:04:10 Playing games for a non-gamer 0:17:54 Being a new player as a kid vs as an adult 0:38:11 Games targeted toward various skill levels 1:04:20 Learning on different control schemes 1:17:50 Learning from other people 1:27:00 Realism 1:48:15 The value o...

Fighting games, round 2! Regal and Swimfan become armchair designers, and they fix all the problems of fighting games so more people will play them. Directional inputs got you down? Fixed. Single player sucks? Not anymore! 0:00:00 Intro 0:03:30 Did fighting games come from beat-em-ups? 0:10:55 Arcade and grassroots culture 0:37:58 Single player content in fighting games 0:59:20 What kind of single...

Hadouken!! Don't panic; Ryu's not in your house...the Open Betas are talking about fighting games! Yes, we're gonna take you for a ride through the history, the ups, the downs, and the QCFs of the genre. What an incredible cast of warriors has gathered here! Hopefully the soul still burns, or else you might as well go home and be a family man. Show me your moves, etc. 0:00:00 Pillars o...

Regla & Fwimsan have an award-winning conversation about Nintendo PR & Pokémon, devs talking about games early in development, and live service games. As if that weren't exciting enough, the 2nd half of this episode discussing randomizers and procedurally-generated content is included FREE for all listeners!  0:04:40 Speedrunning revisited 0:10:54 Nintendo & Pokémon Scarlet & V...

Regal and Swimfan talk about mean old Nintendo and the Smash tournament thing, game executives making wild decisions, and more(?)! 0:00:00 Nintendo shutting down Smash World Tour 0:39:18 Player feedback, research 0:52:11 Game company organization & decision making 1:23:45 Dev relationship to player community 1:27:30 Nintendo shutting down fanmade stuff, company values Video where former Ninten...

Regal and Swimfan discuss the less-than-pristine release of Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, why it may have happened from business, engineering, and company structure perspectives, and what could maybe be done to improve the outcome. Then, they discuss speedrunning as a whole, Swimfan's speedrunning psychosis, the appeal of the activity, and how it illustrates the intersection between competition and...

Regal and Swimfan discuss nothing at all. We spend the whole time talking about games that we like and/or influenced us instead. It's our first episode and we're already great at this! 0:00:00 Intro / who are we / favorite games 1:01:16 Goals and potential topics of the podcast 1:17:18 Regal's influences 1:18:04 Meow YouTube.com/@OpenBetas