Core Elements

This week we welcome Michael Pachter, game industry analyst extraordinaire with Wedbush Securities. Michael is known for his insight into the business of games and currently hosts a show on Game Trailers called Pach Attack. In this episode, we discuss the way THQ has done the right thing all the way to the poor house, how MMO subscription models may take over your FPS, and what we can expect from the unholy union between Notch and Tim Schafer.

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This week we are joined by Lexie and Terence of Hitbox Team, makers of the stylistic platformer, Dustforce. In this episode, we discuss the audacity of cloning, the evil alliance of Tim Schafer and Notch on Psychonauts 2, and the curious case of old game sales. We had some pretty serious Skype issues this week, so please forgive our audio difficulties.

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This week we are joined by Kellee Santiago, co-founder of That Game Company... makers of Flower, Flow, and Journey. In this episode, we discuss whether Lineage is too old to be relevant, cognitive dissonance as it applies to saving the world, ethical considerations of game cloning, and how much Space Chem sandbox mode terrifies us.

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This week's guest is Isaac and Meat Boy creator, Edmund McMillen! We discuss the ideological dipoles of Bioshock and Stalker, the philosophical merit of Zynga games, the inevitable decay of Mario Cart, and the stigmatic childhood of Wes and Spencer.

We experienced some technical difficulties on the recording of this week's episode, so pardon the audio quality and the delayed release.

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This week's guest is Jeff Roberts of RAD Game Tools. Jeff gives us a unique look into developing for developers, as well as sharing with us multiple decades worth of experience in the business of games. Topics include the mysterious alien artifacts one finds on flagpoles, the social ramifications of repulsive logos, and the bizarre world of Everquest fiction.

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Jonathan Blow of Braid fame joins us for our first episode of 2012. Taking time out from his latest project, The Witness, Jonathan talks with us about how cheating is not really cheating, what all these MMOs are trying to pull off, and whether we should ever use the word pretentious again. We are ringing in the new year with a spectacular new episode. Join us!

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This week we're joined by Andrew Greenberg, probably one of the most prolific game designers we've gotten to interview. Andrew was one of the original White Wolf developers of Vampire: The Masquerade, worked on video games that span from Emperor of the Fading Suns to Mall Tycoon, and is a director of SIEGE, a southern game development conference. In this episode, we discuss the pitfalls of the ESRB, the lethality of latex pleasure devices, and the relative worth of game developers in comparison to lawyers.

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This week we're joined by Benjie Freund, sound designer for Tribes Ascend at Hi-Rez Studios. In this episode, we discuss Spencer's Game of the Year, how blacksmithing and saving the world are not mutually exclusive, and what sounds drive the sound guys batty.

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This week's show features Brian Green of Namaste Entertainment. In this episode, we discuss the past, present and future of MMOs, Brian's change of heart regarding user generated content, and repeat the word Skyrim a preposterous number of times. Spencer is sick as a dog, so Eric Fullerton joins us as a guest host.

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This week's show features Jason Wishnov of Iridium Entertainment, developers of Sequence. In this episode, we discuss the relative complexity of checkers, the horrors of not getting acting credits, and the hidden secrets of the game journalist IRC channel. Additionally, we reanimate FreQuency and discuss the past, present and future of rhythm gaming.

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