Left to oyr own devices without a guest, we get a little goofy - thankfully our listener letters overfloweth, so we dive into a few of them. Thanks, listeners!

Show Notes:

Jupiter Sunrise

Dinner with the Band

GeoGuesser World Cup 2023

Knytt

Seiklus

Daniels: Why We Tell The Stories We Tell

Pale Fire

Four of ours hosts went to the 2024 Game Developers Conference, and we lived to share anecdotes, interesting games we saw, and the highlights (and injuries) of our week! Also, Rob chases down a handful of other lovely devs to tell us the best/hardest things about making games right now.

Show Notes:

Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure

Experimental Game Workshop

Museum of Mechanics: Lockpicking

Once Upon a Jester

Misshapen

Mediterranea Inferno

Kill Lincoln

The Crush House

We're joined by LocalThunk, solo creator of the hypnotic deckbuilder Balatro. We discuss flauting the fashion of a genre and going into development blind, the benefits of balacing by feel, and why Balatro shouldn't exist.

Show Notes:

Balatro

LocalThunk

Big two

Luck Be a Landlord

Slice & Dice

Slay the Spire

Risk of Rain 2

We're joined by renowned designer Eric Chahi (Another World, From Dust) to discuss his singularly surreal VR adventure Paper Beast. We discuss building a living ecosystem born from constraints, how the craft has changed over the decades, and the indecency of technology.

Show Notes:

Eric Chahi

Paper Beast

Another World

From Dust

Heart of Darkness

Strandbeest

TsuShiMaMiRe

Paprika

Pale Blue Dot

We're joined by Jon Ingold, co-founder of Inkle Studios (80 Days, Heaven's Vault) to discuss A Highland Song - a wild adventure through the Scottish Highlands. We chat about creating narrative-driven games without a critical path, allowing players to fail forward, and the origins of Inkle's beloved narrative scripting language, ink.

Show Notes:

Jon Ingold

A Highland Song

Inkle Studios

ink

The Forever Labyrinth

Rick Dangerous

TV Superstars

Inform

MUDs

Uncharted 3's horse-riding section

We (belatedly) celebrate the 5th anniversary of our show with a sprawling, silly, reflective episode with a full house of hosts! Thanks for listening to us for all this time. <3

Show Notes:

Bob Mould

Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Everest Pipkin's The Poppy Grower

Learning Moonring with Zach

A Link to the Past Redux

Paper Beast

Late Show 3-Legged Race: Video Game Speedrunner Edition

Tharsis

Blue Thunder

Everyday Shooter

PixelJunk Monsters

Puzzled Pint

Sleep No More

Teeny Little Super Guy

LearnedLeague

We welcome Rob Dubbin (he/they) as a permanent member of the host pool! We discuss his journey from Late Night into making games, applicable lessons learned in the writers' room, and the importance of making your own shot.

Show Notes:

Rob Dubbin

NYU Game Center

Babycastles

Wonderville

Game Studies Study Buddies

I Am America (And So Can You!)

Earl Grey

ZZT by Anna Anthropy

London Jerry: Freelance Mailman

Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondants' Dinner

Samurai Gunn

Sportsfriends

Scripto

Scripto + Global Game Jam 2024

We're joined by Kevin Poupard, co-creative director of the beautiful, meditative climbing game Jusant. We discuss the pains and gains of physics, trying something new as a studio, and anthropomorphizing mountains. Plus special guest co-host Mark Brown of Game Maker's Toolkit! Thanks Mark!

Show Notes:

Jusant

GMTK - How Jusant Makes Rock-Climbing More Immersive

Mind Over Magnet

Grow Home

Shadow of the Colossus

We sit down with our newest co-host, writer/developer Rob Dubbin, to each count down our Top 5 games of 2023, alongside picks from previous show guests and our listeners. Happy New Year!

Our GOTY picks (SPOILERS):

Zach: Super Locomotive Kirby's Dream Land 2 The F Train Simulator Playing Wii-U with a kid Yamaha TENORI-ON Sarah: Betrayal at Club Low Puzzmo Crosswords The Emerald Flame Case of the Golden Idol Organized Labor Andy: System Shock (remake) Pikmin 1+2 (remakes) Horseless Carriage Betrayal at Club Low Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition

Rob: Puzzmo Crosswords Overflow Lasers & Feelings Mr. Sun's Hatbox Rude Tales of Magic Laura: Dredge Return of the Obra Dinn-likes VIDEOVERSE Girls' High School Mystery Class The Exit 8 Doug: The Password Game Human Chess 5th Season of Survivor Maryland Slice & Dice Blood on the Clocktower Nick: Rez Infinite PSVR2 w/ eye tracking Hi-Fi RUSH So Clover! Tux and Fanny EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 6

Other picks from guests and listeners: Suika Game Baldur's Gate 3 Puyo Puyo Tetris Picross S9 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Disc golf Void Stranger El Paso, Elsewhere Basilisk 2000 Whist 22 Xenonauts 2 myhouse.wad Pikayune Dreams Magic Spellslingers

Other things mentioned: Rob Dubbin Laura's 31 Days of Halloween newsletter Berghain Trainer Glitch City bathroom game

Daria Radu, Ben Wilson, and our very own Douglas Wilson join us to discuss their trick-taking card game Spoils, featured as an optional game within story-driven adventure game Saltsea Chronicles. We discuss the genesis of the game, drawing inspiration from worldbuilding, trick-taking as a mechanic, the programming of the AI systems, and more.

Show Notes:

Episode 69: Building a Better Bridge with Ben Wilson

Spoils - A Development Retrospective

Briscola Chiamata 

Bridge

Skat

The Fox in the Forest

The creators of Tux and Fanny - Albery Birney and Gabriel Koenig - stop by to discuss their existential and hilarious adventure game Tux and Fanny. We discuss collaboration as improv comedy, the benefit of working with people from outside of games, and creating a Saturday morning cartoon from another world.

Show Notes:

Tux and Fanny (game)

Tux and Fanny (film)

Albert Birney

Gabriel Koenig

Dr. Mario or: House I Learned to Love Video Games Again and Accidentally Made One

Pixilart

Stalker

Birth - Eggplant Episode

Turn Towards Instead of Away

Russian Winnie-the-Pooh

McPixel

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Katamari Damacy by L. E. Hall

Humanity

Stray

Super Mario Bros. 35

The Books - The Lemon of Pink (bonus from post-show discussion)