In this podcast Daniele Giardini and Pietro Polsinelli (myself) discuss story flow in games – and how game endings are told. We roam from The Witcher to Sunless Sea, crossing game genres. Hear us here:

At the end of the podcast we read and discuss a quote from If Games Were Like Game Stories…

My favourite moment from Papers, Please was when someone gave me a banner for a sports team named the Arstotzka Arskickers. I had a choice of whether to put it up on my wall, or not.

Compared to all the other decisions… taking bribes, separating families, conspiring to take down the Arstotzkan government… this was a small and silly decision. I put it up on my wall, of course.

But the reason this is so memorable to me, is because the game actively acknowledged this small act! A few people commented on the banner, some remarking it’s tacky, some cheering “Go Arskickers!” And then, of course, this decision bites me in the ass when the inspector comes by and tells me the decoration is against protocol, and fines me.

Games and books quoted:

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The post Storytelling flow in videogames – DAG pod 23 appeared first on Design a Game.

In this podcast I chat with We Are Muesli about (some of) the games we liked in 2014. We each put together a list of games and we sort of interviewed each other.

Great Indie Games 2014

Of course there is Monument Valley. But what else?

Honorable mention in applied games: Calculords by Seanbaby.

Also mentioned: The Outcast, Blackbar, Device 6, The Sailor’s Dream.

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The post Games we loved in 2014 – DAG pod 21 appeared first on Design a Game.

In this dreamy podcast Daniele Giardini and Pietro Polsinelli (myself) discuss the notion of depth in games. We don’t reach any definitive conclusion, but we have fun

Here is the podcast:

Games with depth

The formal definition of depth in games referred to at the beginning is here.

Two of the definitions proposed by Pietro and discussed are

Those addictive games that after play you feel bad for having played. And those that you feel good. This reveals something. Think post coitum

Depth as an ongoing relationship with the player.

Some games we refer to are Papers Please, Commander: The Great War, Angry Birds, Kingdom Rush, Dark Souls II.

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The post Beyond mechanics: games with depth – DAG pod 20 appeared first on Design a Game.