Wardcast

This week, it’s all about stolen APCs, flixel-likes and flixel lites, making music with Beepbox, using our P-balls, and also: video games! We exchange gripes we have with some of our favorite game franchises — from Monster Hunter to Fallout — and go in deep into some new games we’ve been trying out. But the biggest topic of discussion is of course the firing of ArenaNet employees Jessica Price and...

This week, we’re joined by Amanda Hudgins, creator of the 1000 Button Project and managing editor at Unwinnable. Dylan and Amanda discuss game dev in the South — the stigma that comes with it as well as only being associated with the nearest AAA publisher, even if it’s in another state. Amanda also chats about the indie dev scene in Lexington, Kentucky, supported by RunJumpDev; game tastes influen...

The hot summer doldrums roll on as we ponder games both video and tabletop. This week, we’re joined by local character artist and SCAD alum Val Hawes, here to educate us on roguelikes and more. We gather around the smoldering embers of the once mighty E3 fire to see if there were any announcements we missed, and speak our piece on seasonal game sales, aggressive fandom wikis, and multiple gaming l...

Joining Dylan this week is Andrew “Dicey” Shouldice, creator of tiny fox adventure Tunic! Together, we talk hats: with Andrew working on many different aspects of Tunic’s development — from modeling to animation to level and game design — we discuss what it’s like to wear so many hats, how to decide which hats are best worn by other people, and how to transition from one hat to another without los...

Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 has come and gone, so Dylan brings along Nick Nundahl, Joe Wetmore, and Kenny Kim to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of this year’s show. We’re excited about: Postmodern Warfare Unleashing the force with Jedi: Fallen Order Buying all our Xbox games on PC Air Force None Big Rod Todd’s Fallout 76 Cornelius Boots’ master flute work The last game standing...

Welcome to Wardcast! Your new home for Price is Right strats and joots outfitting. This week, we’re joined by Harris Foster, community manager at Finji. Harris talks about his roles at the indie studio, including communicating current and future projects with their fans, helping run their booth at shows, and operating their Discord server. We’re also a day out from the E3 press conferences, so we...

We’re cracking open old shooters with one hand and pouring one out for Boss Key with the other. Alex hits us with his belated PAX East impressions, Will played not just one but several games this week, we have a short chat about Speed Racer, and we round out the show with our E3 predictions. Games include Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Fortnite: Battle Royale, Unreal Gold, Overland, Beasts of...

This week, Dylan is joined by Kristina Ness, concept artist at Valve. Kristina talks about her experiences as an artist at an incredible range of companies, from Runic to Riot to NASA. Having studied sequential art at SCAD, Kristina explains how practices taught in comics and sequential can be used towards any visual storytelling medium. We also chat about what happens when your new job becomes pa...

Spoiler alert: we welcome Alex Damrath back into the fold, who was away to find his place in the world, and the Brothers IRL stop by to talk about all the games they hate. We share our sad horse stories and our feelings on a Power Rangers union. Alex’s MAG needs to be fed thoughts and prayers to stay satiated, and we discuss all the game projects we’re hard at work on: from Joe’s game Time Christ...

This week, Dylan is joined by Mike Rose, founder of indie publisher No More Robots, returning home after running back-to-back booths at both PAX East and EGX Rezzed. Mike discusses the unique marketing and release plan decisions he makes based on the needs of each game, from releasing Descenders on Early Access to creating gamified Discord servers for each of his titles. And with No More Robots’ G...

This episode, Dylan is joined by Mike Bithell, creator of such games as Thomas Was Alone, Volume, and Subsurface Circular. They discuss narrative design within Mike’s games, the need to be prolific, and the difficulty in finding time to play your colleagues’ works. Also on the docket: how to give advice to aspiring indies while also being aware of survivorship bias, getting pitched on blockchain a...

Dylan, Ruthie Edwards, and Momin Khan conspire together about how to take out Will and steal his game jam powers. We check in with Salty Bet to see how the free-wheeling, copyright-infringing fighting game world is doing while also doing a post-Ludum Dare 41 run down. LD 41’s theme was “Two Incompatible Genres,” and Ruthie and Momin talk about their games Calculator Sweat! VR and Zap Herder. We ta...

This week, Dylan is joined by Alex Berry, animator on The Swords of Ditto. Coming from TV animation, Alex discusses adapting his skills to working in games as well as working remotely with the team at onebitbeyond. With Devolver taking on the role of publisher for the game, we talk about what it’s like working with them and how The Swords of Ditto stands out from the rest of Devolver’s catalog. We...

Blessed with the news that You Don’t Know Jack will be returning for Jackbox Party Pack 5, Dylan, Will, and Ruthie Edwards convene to discuss this new golden age. Will keeps trying to bring the podcast down with Gundam talk, but we reign him in with a walk down memory lane with games of the Sim variety. Ruthie talks about her trip to Japan, Dylan talks about all the games he’s played the past coup...

Mason, Dylan, Felix Kramer, and Mike Futter ascend the stage at the Bumblebee Theatre to talk about all the hidden gems at PAX East 2018. Follow along with the panel slides here. From the panel description: PAX East is filled with a plethora of things to do, see, and play. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed, but don’t worry! We’re here to help point you in the direction of everything cool, new, an...

Will, Dylan, and Mike Odum convene for a post-GDC discussion. Dylan regails us with stories of adventures faraway, from Bit Bash to Train Jam to GDC. His Train Jam game, Track Trek, was made in collaboration with Matt Gambell, Keaton White, and Craig Barnes and is available for all to play (as long as you have two Xbox controllers). We also discuss GDC experiences, unsuccessful game pitches, and d...

Will and Dylan are joined by RVA Game Jams member, artist, and animator extraordinaire Emily Kundrot. We discuss Will’s ongoing game development, some code refactoring, and the economic principles behind Late Stage Nugget Math. A new Nintendo Direct happened, where we learned that everyone is just trying to Smash, sun bros are turning into amiibros, and the dreaded Bean Fever is spreading. Emily r...

This week, Dylan is joined by Jonathan Lehr, managing public relations at retro game-focused indie developer Mega Cat Studios, about to release their latest games Coffee Crisis and Log Jammers. Jonathan discusses the wild world of retro cart development and how to best work with talent — especially when they need to be familiar with older technologies. We also chat about how supportive the game de...

Dylan, Will, and Alex convene to discuss experiences at the Playthrough Game Convention, getting stuck in North Carolina, and weird Galaga ROMs. Graphics card prices surge due to cryptocurrencies, we sit in awe in the Shadow of the Colossus, and our childhood cartoons are fighting in Gundam versus Transformers Will traveled to faraway lands — from Hyrule to Cancún — but returns to us to contest Je...

This episode, Dylan is joined by Felix Kramer, producer at Polytron and helping out with biz dev, PR, and a whole mess of other stuff for indie games Tunic and Genesis Noir. We cover a swath of different topics, from the perennial discussion of price versus value in games to Felix’s attendance at the JoCo Cruise to letting the Twitter horde choose your username. We also thirst for some haunted dom...

We’re here with Punxsupolyfill to talk about new console ownership and the terrible user experiences they bring. In an unfortunate series of events, Will gets real deep into Dwarf Fortress, the Overwatch League suffers from a lack of diversity, and Miitomo meets its untimely end in May. We also go over some housekeeping with RVA Game Jams’ Global Game Jam games, our upcoming attendance at Playthro...

After numerous whirlwind adventures from the past couple of weeks, we return home to rest and recuperate. Back at home base, Dylan is rejoined by Alex Damrath, Justin Mitchell, and Momin Khan. We discuss the numerous strains of convention pathogens, from MAGFlu to PAX Pox, as well as a return to Breath of the Wild, the nightmarish hellscapes in Martio Rabius Kingdom Journey, Dragon Ball FighterZzz...

We’re weary, but we’re here for our wrap-up episode for PAX South 2018. Dylan is joined by Nick Nundahl of Instant Replay Live — and Hidden Gems — fame along with fellow YouTuber Karinabob. We talk Airbnb furnishings, the Instant Friends Discord, and some last-minute sights from the show floor, including the Jamroom and Multibowl. As we drift off into a dreamless slumber to recover from the MAGFes...

Making its triumphant return, the Hidden Gems panel is back to showcase more awesome games and experiences from the PAX show floor. This time, Dylan took the panel to PAX South with our friends Nick Nundahl and Joe Wetmore of Instant Replay Live. We talk about all the cool stuff that we saw and played. If you’re interested in following along with the panel slides, we’ve uploaded them for your view...

It’s our first episode from PAX South in sunny San Antonio — Military City, USA. Dylan sits down with Bekah Saltsman, CEO of indie developer and publisher Finji, showing off their games Overland, Tunic, and Night in the Woods. We talk about booth logistics for larger shows, being thrifty as an indie dev, and the infamous Costco rental. Bekah also goes more in depth about topics within and beyond t...