Wardcast

We return for the second half of our honorable mentions bracket, here to decide our top ten honorable mentions this year. Join us as we duke it out over our favorite niche, obscure, and underrepresented games from 2018! Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

New in 2018, it’s our latest and greatest end of the year show: The Honorables! It’s here where we discuss all the overlooked and underappreciated games that we played this past year and find our favorites in a double elimination bracket. Each host submits a list of ten games comprised of up to fifty percent games that didn’t make it into our Best Games Played list and the rest chosen from any oth...

We’re back with the Wardcast Best Games Played for the third year running, here to discuss and debate the ten best games played for 2018. The rules are simple: each host brings their personal ten favorite games from this past year. Any game played during 2018 is eligible regardless of release date. We’ll eliminate games one by one in a fight to the death, until we uncover the true winners. Join us...

For our final regular roundtable of the year, we decide to do some mop-up on any and all games we missed out on talking about this year. Alex glows about the sunlight in his hands, Will takes us down to Fartburg, Dylan chats about the GameCube Plug ‘n Play, and we end with a bombshell of an announcement. Games include Star Wars, Satan’s Hollow, Golly! Ghosts!, Total Nuclear Annihilation, Bubble Bo...

Dylan is joined by Patrick Klepek — senior reporter at Waypoint and champion of The Quiet Man. Patrick discusses his thoughts on a previous article he wrote about being both an Internet personality and a reporter, his relationship with his fans, and the eternal search for authenticity, as seen in things like the Thrillist article about trying to find the best burger in America. (We’d also be remis...

This week, Dylan is joined by the team at Space Mace Games — Zachary Johnson, Robert Frost, and Tommy Sunders — developers of Joggernauts! The guys chat about the game dev scene in Minneapolis, what it was like developing for the Switch and creating a relationship with Nintendo, their art pipeline for the game, the importance of doing the convention circuit, and working with their publisher, Graff...

On a reflective episode, Dylan is joined by Kahlief Adams — host of Spawn On Me! We discuss some podcast inside baseball — including how to run shows that include social and political topics, our goals for 2019, and awesome opportunities we’ve had from being podcasters, which wouldn’t be possible without the many mentors and friends Dylan and Kahlief wish to thank for helping them along the way. G...

Kevin Regamey — co-founder and creative director at Power Up Audio — swings in to talk all things audio design. Kevin discusses audio solutions they’ve provided to games in the past and present, including Towerfall Ascension, Crypt of the NecroDancer, Tooth and Tail, Celeste, Descenders, Super Meat Boy Forever, and Tunic. We also converse about other great examples of modern audio design, such as...

This week, Dylan is aided by the impeccable talents of experience designer Nelson Johnson and video game attorney Noah Downs. Together, they tackle a big topic: the conversation revolving around Rockstar’s labor practices on the heels of Dan Houser stating that the team worked 100 hour weeks during the development of Red Dead Redemption II. We discuss top level management’s role in building a cult...

In the lead up to Best Games Played, we decided to dedicate most of an episode to talk about God of War, a game that recontextualizes a historically gratuitous and overwrought franchise, revealing greater depth that was first hinted at with its predecessor, God of War III. It contains a suite of skill sets that combine for some interesting combat experiences, all wrapped within one of the best nar...

Frank DiCola — artist on puzzle game Where Shadows Slumber and founder of Game Revenant — returns to the podcast after the release of their game on iOS. Frank lets us how the game’s been doing since he last joined us at MAGFest. He also chats about strategies to promote a mobile game on the Apple App Store, how and when to respond to negative reviewers, and the New York City indie and game convent...

In an emergency roundtable, we’re joined by Justin Mitchell and Robby Ciszek to talk Metroidvanias in eternal development, stories of childhood friends stealing our games, and the future of consoles. The indiepocalypse strikes back — with an article by Polygon realizing that (gasp!) there are too many games, GameIndustry.biz providing a poor solution to the problem, followed up by Zach Gage and Br...

Joining us this week is Kevin Snow — narrative designer and creator of Southern Monsters. With Hurricane Florence still a fresh memory, we talk about the threat of natural disasters making you feel financially exposed — especially when you work freelance. Kevin further talks about their work on Where the Water Tastes Like Wine; the spectrum of narrative design in games, from holistic design to sce...

This week, Matt “2Mello” Hopkins — composer, sound designer, and artist — joins us to discuss the ins and outs of audio. From working on soundtracks and compilations to differentiating composition work from sound design, we run through the gamut of audio work in games, including Mello’s conscious effort to take a step away from the industry due to its pervasive labor issues. Mello also discusses h...

In a busy week in the games industry, we start off discussing the unfortunate closures of Capcom Vancouver and Telltale Games. We discuss the legacy these studios left behind, the mismanagement at Telltale that led to its fate, and the ever increasing need for labor representation in games. In other news, another Nintendo Direct passed us by, bringing with it new announcements and new questions. W...

Adriel Wallick — organizer of Train Jam — joins the cast to talk anything and everything about trains, from running Train Jam to working with Amtrak, as well as all the traveling she does nationally and internationally via trains and not trains. We also discuss a fear of heights and a hatred of clowns, associating music albums with particular games, young millennials and old millennials killing in...

We wish Alex a happy birthday this week with a celebratory car towing and a PAX story time, including plane movies, convention security measures, Metal Wolf’s chaos, the tale of The Quiet Man, and Riot’s culture of sexism. We express disappointment in We Happy Few, excitement for Untitled Goose Game, and Switch it up with added talk about some good ol’ ROMs before Nintendo pulls them all from the...

On a very special episode, Dylan reconvenes his Train Jam team from this past spring. Joining him are Keaton White, managing director for Abyssal Arts; Matt Gambell, founder of Skatanic Studios; and Craig Barnes, freelance composer. We start the episode as we always do, with a transatlantic weather check. We then move on to to discuss everyone’s current projects: Keaton’s team is currently releasi...

At the Cat Theatre, Dylan Ilvento, Kahlief Adams, Austin Walker, and Felix Kramer convene the first ever Hidden Gems of PAX West. We talk about pizza mechs, dancing reapers, and a whole lotta golf — follow along with the panel slides here. From the panel description: “Whether it’s your first PAX or your fifteenth PAX, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by just how much the show has to offer. Let us help...

Join us as we welcome to the show experience designers Ruthie Edwards and — for the first time ever — Nelson Johnson! We discuss the ageless Ash Ketchum, Ruthie’s New York City summer full of game fests — from Practice to PlayNYC, and what a Waluigi game could look like. Next episode: Hidden Gems returns for PAX West! Join Dylan Ilvento, Kahlief Adams, Felix Kramer, and Austin Walker as they showc...

Johnnemann Nordhagen, founder of Dim Bulb Games and creator of Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, joins the show. Having recently displayed his game at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Arcade, we discuss the honor of being showcased as a piece of American art and the uniqueness of Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, including its vignette storytelling style. We also talk about Jonnemann’s popular...

This week, the gang is joined by local comics creator Brian Clevinger — of 8-Bit Theater and Atomic Robo fame! He joins us to talk Epic’s backpay, making ghosts, and the NEXT No Man’s Sky. Ludum Dare 42 is also upon us, so we discuss our plans for the upcoming game jam as well as our favorite past themes. We also chat about what independent game devs and independent comics creators can learn from...

Joining Dylan is Anya Combs, senior outreach for games at Kickstarter, as we live commentate the World Cup finals. Anya dispels Kickstarter myths and shares how to build a community when running a Kickstarter, even when you’re unfunded. We also share con experiences, food spots in the Bay Area, Anya’s sax side hustle, and more. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/disc...

Riding our segues into oblivion, we switch between talking about BTUs, people hogging DDR machines, advanced gungeoneering, and light gun games of all shapes and sizes. Ancient food mascots are coming back in force, and we find out what games everyone feels the strongest about so far this year. Games include The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, Yo! Noid II: Enter the Void, Trials Fusion, Ente...

This week, Dylan is joined by Phil Tibitoski, CEO of Young Horses, developers of Octodad: Dadliest Catch. Phil joins us a week before giving a talk at the game dev program at his alma mater, DePaul University, about his experiences in helping build Young Horses. We talk about the proper advice to give to aspiring developers for their post-graduation life and providing context for how Young Horses...