Public radio icon Ira Glass has a famous quote describing the gap between taste and talent in trying to hone your creative work. When you start out, your tastes are always bigger than your skill. It's a frustrating gap, and one that causes a lot of people to give up.

In this episode we talk about everything that plays a part in the taste-skill gap. From personal energy and health, to money, ability, mood, and your relationship to the project as a whole. We talk about how our changing tastes have made our recent work all the more challenging.

EPISODE MENTIONS:

Ira Glass on the taste-talent gap: https://youtu.be/91FQKciKfHI?si=2PxIFIGoOwWvM7ty

Chris Ware's Building Stories: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/books/review/building-stories-by-chris-ware.html

Design Doc episode 49, Imperfect Inspiration: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/imperfect-inspiration/id1298080097?i=1000570727332

LINKS/CREDIT

Website: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

GET IN TOUCH:

Designdocpod (at) gmail (dot) com

Join the Turtlebun Discord! https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Design Doc on Twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

Hannah and Evan talk about how to transform a beloved movie, book, or show into a game, using their latest project as an example: An adaptation of a 1779 book of cosmetic chemistry, The Toilet of Flora.

EPISODE LINKS/CREDITS:

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/

Toilet of Flora: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44276

OUR GAMES:

Website: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

GET IN TOUCH:

Designdocpod (at) gmail (dot) com

Join the Turtlebun Discord! https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Design Doc on Twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

In a perfect world, we'd make a living just making roleplaying games. But sometimes, duty calls, and you've got to work around another job. In this episode, we talk about rolling with the punches in a moment when the creative work is competing with a new and time-consuming reality—that of a day job.

FOLLOW/CREDITS:

Our games: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

Join the Turtlebun Discord! https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Get in touch! Designdocpod (at) gmail (dot) com

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Design Doc on Twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

What’s the difference between a “theme” and an “obsession?” Inspired by a classic writing book from the ‘80s, we share our respective obsessions and talk about how they show up in our work, intentionally or otherwise.

EPISODE MENTIONS:

Learn how to play Go: https://online-go.com/learn-to-play-go 

Learn how to smell things (Introduction to Perfumery Kit or Perfumery Notes Kit from Perfumer’s Apprentice): https://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/c-58-educational-kits.aspx

Writing Down the Bones (book by Natalie Goldberg)

Synecdoche, New York (film)

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (book by Graeber and Wengrow)

A Pattern Language (architecture and urban design book by Alexander, Ishikawa, Silverstein)

Eating Raoul (film)

The Clock Crew (Newgrounds wiki link)

FOLLOW/CREDITS:

Our games: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

Join the Turtlebun Discord! https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Get in touch! Designdocpod (at) gmail (dot) com

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Design Doc on Twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

Kickstarter stretch goals are notorious for getting project creators into trouble. Sometimes, they over promise content. Other times, they create financial strain. Often, it's all of the above. In this episode, we talk about Top Tracks, a stretch goal project we just completed that's so overdue... nobody even remembered it.

CW: This episode contains a discussion of sexual harassment.

EPISODE LINKS/CREDITS:

Top Tracks! https://turtlebun.itch.io/damntheman (under Download Demo)

Our games: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

Join the Turtlebun Discord! https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Get in touch! Designdocpod (at) gmail (dot) com

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Design Doc on Twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

In this episode, Hannah talks about the art of doing creative work alone. As part of a game design duo that normally does all creative work together, what does it look like to self-motivate on game design solo? From setting small, manageable goals and little rewards in advance to finding companionship in the work itself.

MENTIONED IN EPISODE:

Scavengers Reign (animated mini series) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21056886/

Health Minds App (available for free on the Apple app store and Google Play) - https://hminnovations.org/meditation-app

EPISODE LINKS/CREDITS:

Our games: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

Join the Turtlebun Discord! https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Get in touch! Designdocpod (at) gmail (dot) com

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Design Doc on Twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

We love making solo RPGs, but we don't always love playing them. In this episode we brainstorm ideas for a possible one-player version of Questlandia, and what would make us excited to play it.

EPISODE LINKS/CREDITS:

Our games: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

Join the Turtlebun Discord! https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Get in touch! Designdocpod (at) gmail (dot) com

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Design Doc on Twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

This month marks the sixth anniversary of Design Doc, a podcast that started as a "year-long" project documenting our progress redesigning our first roleplaying game. Six years later, we talk about the different directions we've taken, and what Questlandia 2 means to us today.

EPISODE LINKS/CREDITS:

Our games: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

Turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Discord: https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Design Doc on twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

Hannah and Evan talk about the strange designs and abandoned places of Six Flags New England, the latest of a series of research trips. Join them on a jeep ride in the Jurassic, through the ghost town of Crackaxle, and into secret corners filled with claw machines.

SUPPORT OUR VISIT BACK TO SIX FLAGS HERE:

https://ko-fi.com/designdoc

EPISODE LINKS/CREDITS:

Our games: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Discord: https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Design Doc on twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

Former historical interpreter Enzo joins us to talk about interpreting history! A few months ago we visited Old Sturbridge Village, an 1830s rural New England recreation village. We went as naive visitors, only able to guess at how it was run. Our guest today was kind enough to share his memories of working at the museum! We discuss what it was like interacting with pass-holder guests, being the groom in a historic wedding, and sneaking off to take smoke breaks away from the prying eyes of modernity.

Thanks again to Enzo for sharing his time and knowledge with us!

Episode links:

To learn more about Old Sturbridge Village, visit their website here: www.osv.org

Turtlebun links:

Our games: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Join our Discord! discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Design Doc on twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

In this episode Hannah and Evan describe their recent trip to Sturbridge Village, an 1800s recreation historical town. They talk about the value of on-the-ground research for creative projects, the peculiarity of animal habitats in fantasy places, and some dredged-up financial controversies paving the ye olde village streets.

Episode mentions:

• Sturbridge Village: https://www.osv.org/
• Jenny Nicholson video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9OhTB5eBqQ
• The Maze Runner (film): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maze_Runner_(film)

Turtlebun links:

• Our games: turtlebun.com
• Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun
• Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun
• Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun
• We have a Discord! https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Design Doc on twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod