Idle Thumbs

With the whole cast assembled, Goldie Bartlett introduces our first special guest, Teddy Dief, who helped develop Hyper Light Drifter, co-founded Glitch City, and hosts his own podcast on the Idle Thumbs Network, Playscape LA. Teddy joins the team at Nu Sentral to explore the cinematic worlds and role-playing systems of the escape rooms at Breakout Nu. Then Stephanie, Jey, Shang Lun, and Doug peel...

What inspires trailer editors? This time on the Cutdown we dive into the trailers for Bad Boys For Life and Joker, and talk about finding inspiration in unlikely places, and how to keep your work fresh. Trailers Discussed: Bad Boys For Life, Bad Boys II Teaser, Bad Boys II Trailer, Joker, Star Trek, Waves, Prometheus, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Blindspotting, Little Children, Madeline’s Madeline, H...

Nicole Clark joins Rowan and Rob to talk about Klei's Oxygen Not Included and its punishing model of offworld colonizaiton. Learn how everything that can go wrong does go wrong, and how well the game communicates excruciating detail about why your colony is dying.

Laura E. Hall hosts day three where we meet our final team member, Chad Toprak, and talk about global games from Melbourne to Malaysia. Afterwards Patrick joins Laura and Chad to chat about what happens when you lock ten people in “The Tomb of Life and Death,” an asymmetric, architectural escape room. Then the team gets physical with the cramped crawls in Mission-Q and creepy dolls at Lost in KL,...

Something True 2.8: Odyssée by Idle Thumbs

Motion graphics can give a trailer a unique look and feel which defines the marketing of a movie. We discuss everything from The Blob to The Da Vinci Code, what graphics add to the trailer process, and talk about a number of our favorite examples. We also speak to professional motion graphics artist Hal Forsstrom about where the industry is going and how to break in. Trailers Discussed: Morgan, Bo...

Rowan, Fraser, and Rob are joined by Kotaku's Gita Jackson to discuss their tenure as teachers at Garreg Mach Monastery. The gang talk about the really thougthful politics and characterizations that define Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Aside from that, is it a good tactics game? And finally, the gang gets into some serious spoilers about the game's shocking reveal midway through.

Something True 2.7: Christian & Christopher by Idle Thumbs

On our second day, Douglas Wilson introduces new team members Laura E. Hall and Jey Biddulph before comparing and contrasting their work at Meridian Adventure Co. in Portland with Alex and Shang Lun’s Earthrise One at PlayReactive in Melbourne. After that, things fall apart when we go to Ecurve, where Goldie, Stephanie, Shang Lun and Amani do a walkthrough of M&M'S® The Big Escape, a candy-coated...

Rob, Troy, and Bruce get together to discuss Mark Herman's epic wargame of the Peloponnesian Wars, Pericles. How does it capture the sweep of a vast historical subject that was only sometimes decided through military conquest?

Something True 2.6: L'Arme X by Idle Thumbs

Gemini Man's trailer and its international counterpart are subtilely different; we discuss why we think those distinctions were made along with the practical and very specific cultural considerations which need to be made when editing trailers for international markets. For more about international trailers watch Ric's LACPUG talk! Trailers Discussed: Gemini Man Trailer 1, Gemini Man Trailer 2, Ge...

Something True 2.5: The Trip to Telegraph Creek by Idle Thumbs

Let the games begin! Lee Shang Lun leads our first full episode where we meet the team, talk about the origins of the podcast, and tease out some possibilities for playing well. During a short interlude, Alexandra, Laura, and Doug introduce the ins and outs of escape rooms before the group debriefs about their first day playing together at the Escape Room franchise in Berjaya Times Square—a parlor...

Something True 2.4: Okaasan by Idle Thumbs

The Tehran Conference. The meeting at Appomattox. The Council of Elrond. All historical gatherings that pale in comparison to the summit that occurred in late July 2019 as the Three Moves Ahead team gathered in Oregon for several days of gaming. Hosted by Dr. Bruce Geryk, Gerykon 2019 was attended by Michael Hermes, Rob Zacny, and Troy "I hope they let me back into Canada" Goodfellow. Bruce played...

Every Game in This City is a podcast about ten game designers, researchers, and curators who met up in Malaysia to try and play every escape room in Kuala Lumpur. In this short introduction, Stephanie, Patrick, and Doug set the stage and describe the motivation and methods behind the project. They talk about what the podcast is, what it isn’t, and speculate on some of the challenges that await as...

In this episode, Soren interviews independent game developer Brendon Chung, best known for his work on Atom Zombie Smasher, Thirty Flights of Loving, and Quadrilateral Cowboy. They discuss why Xbox Live Indie Games didn’t take off, what exactly happens at the end of Atom Zombie Smasher, and how streaming game development made him work harder than ever before. Games discussed: Flotilla, Air Forte,...

CATS is destroying the internet with the release of its new trailer. We discuss it, as well as the trailer for Top Gun: Maverick. And we answer your questions about our favorite trailers, and the future of the movie and game trailer industry. Trailers Discussed: CATS, Sweeney Todd, Top Gun: Maverick, IT: Chapter Two, The Fountain, Fifty Shades of Grey, Across the Universe, Sin City, Quadrilateral...

Rob and the gang are deeply conflicted over Steel Division 2. A good multiplayer game with some genuinely impressive detail about the armored combat on the Eastern Front, it's also a game that has not grown to match its subject, and then there's the matter of that campaign...

Something True 2.3: Citizen Tim by Idle Thumbs

Something True 2.2: Baatar by Idle Thumbs

Filling a blank timeline is probably the hardest thing a trailer editor does in their job. In this episode we discuss the trailer for Knives Out, the latest whodunnit film by Rian Johnson, and our process for filling in an empty timeline after we've finished breaking down our dialogue and video footage. If you have trouble with editor's block, some of our tips should help you get going! Trailers D...

Something True is back, with the story of a celebrated opera singer who set fire to a convent and whipped the buttocks of Parisian lotharios. Luciano Pavarotti? No, Julie d'Aubigny, who in 17th century Paris delighted the upper classes from the stage and duelled them in the streets. Join us for the dramatic, passionate tale of a life lived fast and furious. Learn more at http://somethingtrue.net

Rob, Rowan, TJ, and Sean discuss how "historicaly" they like their games to play out and whether that wish is incompatibile with player freedom and varietty.