Wardcast

Jay Tholen, designer and developer on Dropsy, joins Dylan to talk about his experiences in indie game development. He speaks to us about Dropsy’s evolution from a boss in an action platformer to a choose-your-own adventure on the Something Awful forums to eventually becoming the adventure game it is today, with the Kickstarter successes and failures he had along the way. We also talk about working...

Dylan is joined by Justin Mitchell and Alex Damrath to talk Switch ownership, egg cup debates, and a multitude of minutes of the food, superhero, and tech variety. Justin walks Dylan through all the Final Fantasies, we make a quick mention of Doomfist, but most importantly, we talk about Dunkey’s dunking on game critics and its effect on the discussion of game reviews and criticism. Games include...

Welcomed back into the fold is our friend Dan Cotting, here to talk about game celebrity freak outs, VR projects, and the triumphant return of the Super Nintendo. We’re strapping Game Boy Cameras to telescopes; we’re baking magnetic tapes in the oven; things are getting real crazy on this week’s episode of the Wardcast. Games include The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Accounting, Dark Souls, Rocksmith 2014...

Special guest Mike Odum of Root 76 drops by to talk about a litany of topics with Dylan, Sam, and Will. We discuss the Arcane Kids’ breadth of work, Summer Games Done Quick and the world of speedrunning, the SNES Classic announcement and the state of emulation, designing a PS Vita 2, and the mystery surrounding the new Braindeer Games Twitter account. But a big topic for this week revolves around...

This week, Dylan is rejoined by Will Blanton, Wendy Rivera, and our fourth member: the 19th century nautical map that adorns our apartment wall. From Fez to Sunken Rock, we talk about all the summer game sales going on — including 90% off Will’s game Redshift Blueshift. RVA Game Jams has a new website and a Patreon up, we give our protips on bathroom etiquette, share pinball opinions, discuss illi...

This week, Dylan is joined by RVA Game Jams co-conspirator Alex Damrath and friend of the show Kenny Kim to talk about everything that happened at E3. We’re excited about: Filling out our 1099s in Anthem Minecraft in 4K Drinking the water from our Xbox One X’s vapor chamber Trying to pronounce Strange Brigade Super “Lucky” Palmer’s Tale Terry Crews’ Crackdown 3 The Legend of Zelda: Death of the Wi...

This week, Dylan and Mason are joined by Josiah Renaudin, former freelance games writer for outlets such as GameSpot, IGN, VideoGamer, and Paste and current member of game studio Tangentlemen; host of The 1099 Podcast; and son of Townville, Pennsylvania. The gents talk a little about the lead up to E3, Josiah’s long list of revered guests he’s had on his podcast, destroying PS4 controllers, and th...

Through the course of time, episode numbers fade in and out of memory. 67, 86, 87, 398. Continuity is meaningless. There is only the now. Sam and Will introduce Dylan to the colliding worlds of cars and anime, and we discuss Ian Bogost’s article, “Video Games Are Better Without Stories.” The guys also develop their own open source résumé file format, and we have a big discussion about the announce...

Alex Damrath, founder of Braindeer Games, joins us once again to talk about a proverbial bounty of topics, including being an Interactive Design and Game Development student at the Savannah College of Art and Design as well as the response to his Ludum Dare 38 game, Miskro. With the announcement of Far Cry 5, we discuss the differences in design philosophies between across the storied franchise, a...

Dylan is accompanied by Wardcast stalwarts Dan Cotting and Mason Brown for a very special episode. Shawn Patton, Senior Designer at Schell Games, stops by to talk about their currently in-development VR game I Expect You to Die. Shawn comes from more than 13 years of experience in game development at Schell Games, so he talks to us about a myriad of topics: working at Schell, the new frontier of V...

Dylan and Will come together to talk about Will’s game from Ludum Dare 38, Paisley Princess, which received write-ups on Waypoint and Kotaku. Will also brings to bear board game preferences, Galan Montgomery and Isoteric Games’ recently released Timebomb, whether or not he should play a Telltale game, and the subtle differences between Zone of the Enders and Rise of the Triad. Meanwhile, Dylan tak...

We’re back with more RVA Game Jammers! Dylan and Sam are joined by members Tyler Rhodes and Kirk Musngi. The four all talk about the games they made for Ludum Dare 38’s theme of “Small Worlds.” Sam’s rail shooter Monolith, Tyler’s simulation game Intertidal Snail Breeder Deluxe, Dylan’s shoot ‘em up Bantam!, and Kirk’s web game prototype about traversing the continental United States using craigsl...

This week, Dylan is joined by Ruthie Edwards. Together, they talk about grad school, Ruthie’s experience with Breath of the Wild, and a Ward Games’ traffic ticket issued by the United Kingdom. We also discuss what Call of Duty: WWII is and what we’d like it to be, the discontinuation of the NES Classic Edition and other Nintendo hardware plans, inaccurate Polygon articles, and another chapter in t...

We’ve rebranded! The Ward Podcast will henceforth be known as the Wardcast. Be sure to tune your Internet dials to Wardcast from your preferred podcast app of choice. We discover the five states of matter in the Metal Gear universe: solid, liquid, solidus, acid, and rising. Sam explores philosophy in Everything while we talk about comparing games to one another as well as the guilt of not finishin...

We bring aboard a proverbial roundtable of guests this week. We’re joined by Justin Mitchell from Loreweaver Creativeworks, on the eve of launching the Kickstarter for his 16-bit tactical RPG, War of Velana; Alex Damrath of Braindeer Games, working on his multiplayer FPS, Playground; and, returning to the Ward Podcast, Momin Khan, co-founder of Root 76 and co-creator of Clash Cup Turbo. All three...

Make sure no cops listen to this episode, cause we talk about some illicit game emulation. We also perform some Fresh Prince jiu jitsu and ponder on which Sega game best encapsulates the culture of this decade. In other news: news! We discuss the departure of “Lucky” Palmer Luckey from Facebook; the announcement of Destiny 2; the not so great Inc. article, “It’s Official: Too Many Video Games Real...

We’re back from PAX East, having escaped the cold weather and flight delays, and we make sure to cover any missed games from PAX East’s final day. From bugs in MLB to Mass Effect: Andromeda, we discuss how newsworthy topics are more about showing your allegiances nowadays than engaging in discourse. Will digs into some delicious RetroPie, and he and Dylan both contend with The Legend of Zelda: Bre...

Taking their nightly break from the festivities at PAX East, Dylan is joined in their PAX HQ by Nick Nundahl and Joe Wetmore of Instant Replay Live along with their colleague and fellow YouTuber Luke Porr. The gents talk about the amazing response to the Hidden Gems PAX panel, the hidden gems of Seeso, and driving in the greater Boston area. We also discuss the Penny Arcade Mega Corp and the quest...

From their panel at PAX East, Dan, Alex, Mason, and Dylan return to talk about all of the latest, greatest undiscovered games and experiences they found on the show floor. From the panel description: PAX East is filled with games from wall to wall, and it’s nigh impossible to see everything. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to find the unique, the eclectic, and the unknown. Each of our panelists will...

Dylan is joined by his Playthrough roadie Wendy Rivera, where they talk about their time at Playthrough as well as what games they’ve been playing. Wendy has been steadfast in her dedication to her farm in Stardew Valley, and Dylan has dabbled with VVVVVV and Night in the Woods. He’s also finished Telltale’s Batman and discusses some spoilers. They also unbox the latest Zelda live on the air while...

In our second panel from the Playthrough Game Convention, Dylan is joined on the stage by a multitude of indie devs to talk about their projects and the process of development. This panel’s guests include Nathan Shumaker from Analog Data, Adam Agro from Solanimus, Sam Kushner from Perfect Square Studios, Dorothy Phoenix from Cloudy Heaven Games, Victor Slaughter from Vandal Entertainment Studios,...

Dylan ascends the main stage of the Playthrough Game Convention for a panel with its creators — Tim Howell, Chris Howell, and John “Duffy” Duthie — to discuss the show. From the panel description: Come join the organizers of Playthrough as they discuss what goes into making the show and where they want to take it in the future. Ask them questions and watch them be amazed that anyone cares about th...

This ain’t New Donk City; this is Gothtown, USA, baby! Down here, we’re only talking about the hottest Halo 2 maps, the most embarrassing Internet usernames, and the most mythical video game easter eggs shared in hushed tones over elementary school lunches. There’s more talk to be had about Fire Emblem Heroes and smartphone games in general, leading Will to tell us how he once racked up a five-fig...

It’s a musical episode this week, as Dylan and Will talk music in game dev and sample some memorable tracks from games past, from The Sims to Dear Esther to Super Mario Land. We also forget how to pronounce Bosca Ceoil. Will tries out Pico 8 for himself after Sam’s recommendation last episode, so he talks about making games and playing games on the fantasy console. We also discuss what an Apocalyp...

It’s getting hot and heavy on the show, just in time for episode sixty nine. Mason, Alex, and Dan will be taking a break in order to tackle their final semester at the Brandcenter. In their stead, Dylan is joined by the awesome duo of Sam Loeschen and Will Blanton. The guys talk about the ridiculousness of startup and tech culture, the games they made at Global Game Jam 2017, Kingdom Hearts 8 ½ ×...