Back Seat Designers

This week, we talk about games that depict real life events and that are based on true stories, and find it's harder to come up with examples than we had thought! Why is that?

The back seat designers are about to start throwing stones up in this bitch. We love adventure games, and the beautiful people that make them. But sometimes they have some really annoying habits. Yeah, we know. There are all sorts of constraints that designers and engineers have to labour under. Limited funds. Limited time. TheContinue reading S3E9 – What Adventure Games Need to Stop Doing

It’s Sunday, and while most major religions has that day down as a “sit around and twiddle your thumbs”-sort of affair, that means that we are hocking another golden loogie of bullshit wisdom into the ether for you to gag on. This week’s subject is unlikeable protagonists in adventure games. Many of us are familiar with the antics ofContinue reading S3E8 – Unlikeable Protagonists

Imagine if half way through The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo shot a storm trooper, turned to the camera and said: Right. Wanna see if we get off this cloud base? Here. Complete this sudoku. It would sort of break the flow, right? Even if the sudoku were Star Wars themed… Christ, those things actuallyContinue reading S3E7 – Bad puzzles in otherwise good games

Well, we all know what they say: But, actually, you can do good things with an adaptation. Or “adaption,” which Fred insists on calling it, because he speaks much better English than the rest of us. So we take the rounds and talk about some of our favorite movie/tv show/novel/comic book-to-game adaptations, and vice versa.Continue reading S3E6 – Adaptations

Breaking the fourth wall is usually described as making the player/reader/watcher/porn aficionado aware that the work of fiction they are enjoying is aware that it IS a work of fiction. This type of snarky commentary is certainly one way to break the fourth wall, but is it really the only way to effectively do so in an adventure games? Are there any other ways, and what bearing do they have on the experience? Those questions, in part, are what we set out to answer.

No episode this week. Consider this a teaser for next week. Includes Pete Toleman -- @petetole on " the twitters".

If you have any voicemails (thanks Francisco!), do send them to [email protected].

A new generation of adventure gamers are being brought up with one ubiquitous phrase: “So-and-so will remember that.” So we thought we’d take a stab at discussing the implications and ramifications of this game mechanic. What’s it good for? How is it implemented well? And what are some examples, good or bad, of this mechanic in use — beyond all the Telltale games, that is?

Technology can be a two-headed beast. On one hand, it allows us to embark on magical adventures, the likes of which could never exist in ye olde borefest that we call "real life". On the other hand, technology can also make an otherwise dapper skeleton wear a wheelbarrow as a skirt.

Therefore, it was quite natural for us to tackle this as a subject on the show. Specifically whether we could come up with any adventure games that hold great potential, but are simultaneously being dragged down by faulty and/or misapplied technology.

The season continues apace, despite a near-career-ending injury to Troels's face. We discuss horror, gore, homicide, guns, sexual molestation and all that good stuff. Or bad stuff. As you'll hear, it's all about context...