Craig D. Adams (Superbrothers A/V) and Patrick McAllister (Pine Scented Software) join us as they embark on the release of their interstellar adventure JETT: The Far Shore. We cover its 10+ year development, telling a small piece of a big story, and assembling the right squad to help land it.

Show notes:

JETT: The Far Shore

Superbrothers A/V

Pine Scented Software

Fatal Inertia

Sworcery ARG?

Jim Guthrie

scntfc

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift

Monster Hunter

Fumito Ueda

Ralph McQuarrie

17-BIT

Getting Things Done

Variable State co-founders Jonathan Burroughs, Terry Kenny, and Lyndon Holland pop by to chat about their supernatural anthology drama Last Stop. We discuss capturing London through its details, telling an interconnected story across multiple genres, and the importance of pacing.

Show notes:

Variable State

Virginia

Last Stop

Hannah Nicklin

Attack the Block

Fleabag

Firewatch

Thirty Flights of Loving

Primer timeline

Dunkirk

We're joined by Anne Austin and Nate Austin of Worldwalker Games to explore their charming myth-making tactical RPG, Wildermyth. We dig into the challenges of procedural storytelling, clever ways of handling time passage and death, and capturing a tabletop feel without the table.

Show notes:

Wildermyth

Worldwalker Games

AI-Driven Dynamic Dialog through Fuzzy Pattern Matching

The Thing (video game)

The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 (board game)

Descent: Journeys in the Dark

XCOM

Spirit of the Century

Graham Parkes and Bela Messex of GoodbyeWorld Games join us to discuss their beautiful, blink-controlled adventure through the afterlife, Before Your Eyes. We discuss the benefits of disempowerment, working off faith in technology, and teaching players to let go.

Show notes:

Before Your Eyes

GoodbyeWorld Games

Graham Parkes

Bela Messex

Little Bug

Close Your

Blendo Games

Walter Murch's In the Blink of An Eye

Death of a Salesman

C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce

Where You Are short film

We chat to Umurangi Generation's Tali Faulkner about his (IGF grand prize-winning!) "first-person photography game in the sh*tty future." We discuss keeping scope small while having a lot to say, the role of respectful design and Indigenous knowledge, and positioning players to see for themselves.

Show notes:

Tali Faulkner

Umurangi Generation

Sarah Elmaleh

Shooting the Apocalypse by Jini Maxwell

Freeplay Parallels 2020 talk

Neon Genesis Evangelion

British nuclear tests at Maralinga

ThorHighHeels' OST

Umberto Eco's UR-FASCISM

For our 75th episode special, we endeavor to find which games lie at the intersection of our tastes, talking through our ranking algorithm and counting down our top 22 games. Thanks for all the support so far!

Show notes:

Sportsfriends

Knytt

StepMania

0SPACE

The Little Prince 

Let's Mosey: A Slow Translation of Final Fantasy VII

Chrono Trigger by Michael P. Williams

Chrono Trigger Mixtape

Losing Your Grip: Futility and Dramatic Necessity in Shadow of the Colossus

Arcane Kids Manife$to

Kaizo Mario

TENNNES

TENORI-ON

Our Top 22 (SPOILERS):

10th place: Super Puzzle Fighter N++ Katamari Damacy Dance Dance Revolution 9th place: Samurai Gunn 8th place: Everyday Shooter 7th place: Kentucky Route Zero Fez The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 6th place: Super Mario Kart Super Mario Galaxy Portal Final Fantasy VII Doom 5th place: Mario 64 Drop7 Desert Golfing Chrono Trigger 4th place: Shadow of the Colossus 3rd place: Spelunky 2 2nd place: Spelunky HD 1st place: Super Mario World

The second special episode originally created in partnership with AMC Games for the in-flight entertainment of Airplane Mode, a very literal flight simulator. We chat about ritual in games, rethinking our relationship to time, and bringing it to bear on our own work and play.

Show notes:

Lifeline...

Shadow of the Colossus

Tharsis

Star Trek: Discovery

The Castles of Burgundy 

Lost Cities

Desert Bus

Pippin Barr's Durations

Marina Abramović’s The Artist is Present

Zach’s Transit Meditation

San Andreas Deer Cam

Dishonored

Assassin's Creed Odyssey: Discovery Tour

Grand Theft Auto Pacifist

The Traveling Swordsman Problem

Nick's Thanksgiving Blade Triptych

Casey Reas’ Processing

How to do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

Delayed Response: The Art of Waiting From the Ancient to the Instant World

The Great British Bake Off

Apex Legends

VESPER.5

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

Brandon Sanderson

Aconite founders Star St. Germain and Nadya Lev and lead designer Scott Jon Siegel join us to discuss their beautiful, mixed reality mind bender HoloVista. We chat about embracing hidden object game design, telling personal stories through a lens of social media, and subverting the selfie museum.

Show notes:

HoloVista

Star St. Germain

Nadya Lev

Scott Jon Sigel

Aconite

Coilhouse

The Fallen Cosmos

SFZero

Journey to the End of the Night

Ian Bogost

Jane McGonigal

Gardens of Time

How Return of the Obra Dinn Works 

Mariode

Blake Kathryn

Nour: Play With Your Food

Andrew Morgan

Andi Hegedus 

MTV Cribs

Meow Wolf

teamLab

Museum of Ice Cream

Strix

Cory O'Brien

LiveJournal

Sara Carr

Mesmer & Braid: The Alternate Reality Game

Steve Peters 

Nick Tierce 

Jakub Wasilewski of Beetlewing joins us to talk about his new grand-yet-bite-sized space strategy game, Slipways. We discuss game feel as inspiration, breaking your game for fun and profit, and limiting your universe to expand your audience.

Show notes:

Jakub Wasilewski

Beetlewing

Slipways

PICO-8

Indie Fund

Celeste

hearthstone

Pocket-Run Pool

Twilight Imperium

Teomachia (Jakub's board game)

Master of Orion

Magic: The Gathering

SpellTower

Slay the Spire

Tom Francis

Evan Anthony and Jeremy Abel of Feral Cat Den join us to discuss their inspired cosmic adventure game, Genesis Noir. We discuss the aesthetics of interaction, processing your game launch, and shooting for the stars with your ending.

Show notes:

Feral Cat Den

Evan Anthony

Jeremy Abel

Genesis Noir

Vectorpark

Hohokum

GNOG

Cosmicomics

Reaktor

Florence

Skillbard

Oikospiel

Inside

Busby Berkeley

Rez

Marcin Zeglinski

Interstellar

L.A. Noire

Wabi-sabi

Kintsukuroi