Carl and Jenni try their best to play another TMBG game that Ryan wrote, but Fate has other plans in hand. The upshot is that this episode is shorter than most other episodes. Because of a problem.

Carl Muckenhoupt's game about a They Might Be Giants song provides opportunities for everyone to thank everyone else, and then apologize to everyone else, and then Jenni almost gaslights Ryan into thinking he gaslighted her into thinking she had a catchphrase. Then everyone thanks everyone else again.

Dan and Jenni navigate dank steam tunnels and windy towers, following the gossamer wisp of Ariadne-thread which we call 'game design.' Other vocabulary items: 'Catharsis.' 'Linearity.' 'Environmental storytelling.' 'Escutcheon.'

It is incumbent on Dan and Jenni to play a game that Ryan wrote, and so we three treat you to a game that Ryan wrote, all about how tortured and brooding he is. It is some surprise that Ryan has never swooshed around in a cape while pretending to be a vampire! Well, not in any structured ludic context, anyway.

As the protagonist of Slouching Towards Bedlam struggles to decipher a mystery of supracosmic proportions, Dan Ravipinto struggles arguably more valiantly to showcase this selfsame game to Ryan and Jenni, who, it seems, at times, would rather be watching 'The Secret World of Alex Mack.'

Dan Ravipinto brings us a supremely creepy IF Comp winner, and Ryan and Jenni proceed to goof on it incessantly. Dan says this game won 'a couple' of XYZZYs, but what really happened was, it was nominated in eight out of ten categories and won in four of them. None of those numbers qualify as 'a couple.'

In the thrillbinding conclusion of Jenni and Hamish playing Dial C for Cupcakes, a corpse is investigated, a hallucination is not interactive, and a ghost appears! Pretty scary, boys and girls!

This episode starts out with Ryan asking if GDC has 'terrible live shows,' but he wasn't implying that any live shows at GDC would be terrible! He was saying that if Clash of the Type-Ins did a live show at GDC, it would be terrible. Only self-deprecation was intended. No other kinds of deprecation. Anyway in this episode Hamish and Jenni play a game about cupcakes.

Hamish McIntyre brings us a spooky story about a vampire in the desert. Surrounded by dunes, Jenni and Ryan struggle to find shelter before the sun rises. PLUS: Game Design Tips And Tricks; A Dog That Is Also A Gun; Graham Nelson's Voice.

In the scant minutes left before he has to leave for dinner, Jim Crawford plays Ryan's game about a sinking ship. Will he survive to see the high score table? PLUS: Jenni explains the etymology of 'abaft.' Ryan explains why he thought the dagger stuck in the mast was a remotely good idea. Jim explains why Inform 7 is stupid.