Everybody's Talking At Once

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/etao-podcast-20-20150511.mp3

Action Henk is a game about momentum, perfectionism, and making things that actually are as amazing as we remember things being in our childhoods—not just recapturing former glory, but surpassing it. Or to put it another way, Action Henk is the game that we all expect Sonic the Hedgehog to be, but that it never quite is. Or it’s Sonic by way of Trials, maybe.

It’s such a tough thing to pin down, and yet it’s what puts Action Henk a cut above—and for that matter, it’s the main thing that separates Super Mario World from Shaq-Fu. Powerful stuff, then.

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• I haven’t written about Lethal League (yet), but it and Gang Beasts do both come highly recommended.

“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.

Left click to play. Right-click to download.

Zach Barth returns for a spoiler-centric look at a game where spoilers arguably don't even matter, his absolutely delightful engineer-'em-up Infinifactory. Mechanically, the game is in one sense unspoilable. Sure, seeing a solution to a given puzzle takes an open-ended head-scratcher and turns it into a set of IKEA furniture, but there's still a process of building, and at least potentially a process of learning. And you're only ever seeing a solution, never the solution.

The issue of narrative spoilers gets a bit more complicated. Just as SpaceChem offers a an allegory for humanist thought (as Zach said last time we talked), so too does Infinifactory offer and allegory for—well, again, that would be spoiling it.

Infinifactory is about to be officially released from early access, but given that you've been able to play the game in near-finished form for quite a while now, what does it mean, really, that it's about to be "released?"

The experience of releasing a game from Early Access into Right On Time Access is something that Zach and I will save for Part 3 in our series of interviews—did I mention that we're going to do a Part 3 in our series of interviews?—while this time 'round we talk about the Early Access experience itself, the drive to build beautiful things in a game ostensibly about utilitarian efficiency, and the origins of handsome animated Infinifactory gifs like the one above.

Seriously, by the way, in case you care: brimming with spoilers.

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• And The Zachtronics Podcast really is off to a rollicking start.

"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

We're on iTunes. We're also on Stitcher. And let's not forget Podbay.

Left click to play. Right-click to download.

Erin Robinson of Ivy Games stops by to discuss Gravity Ghost, her work teaching game design at Columbia College Chicago, talking animals, not-talking animals, and the previously untapped power fantasy of terraforming planets with one's long, beautiful hair.

I was really taken with Gravity Ghost from the first time I played it and, as I mention in the interview, the ending made me feel the need to snuggle my beloved game-designing dog for quite a while. It's affecting, this game.

And not to put too fine a point on it, but my hair really is quite stunning.

• And that BoJack Horseman quote came from this AMA.

• And here's that interview that Erin did with the Phoenix Examiner.

• Yep, Frozen Synapse is still two-for-one, presumably forever. So that's neat.

• I'll go ahead and link that incredible Leigh Alexander talk again.

• For those unfamiliar with Cory Archangel's Super Mario Clouds. (Seeing a screening of that in a class at UChicago was a surreal experience, to say the least).

• Ian Bogost's How To Do Things With Videogames contains useful definitions of artgames and prodecuralism, a reframing of the David Carr/Clay Shirky dichotomy, and some helpful, hopeful words on the issue of "gamer identity."

• Here's Don Cheadle telling you not to be an actor and Charles Bukowski instructing "young men" not to be poets.

"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/etao-podcast-18-20150302.mp3

I was really taken with Gravity Ghost from the first time I played it and, as I mention in the interview, the ending made me feel the need to snuggle my beloved game-designing dog for quite a while. It’s affecting, this game.

And not to put too fine a point on it, but my hair really is quite stunning.

• And that BoJack Horseman quote came from this AMA.

• And here’s that interview that Erin did with the Phoenix Examiner.

• Yep, Frozen Synapse is still two-for-one, presumably forever. So that’s neat.

• I’ll go ahead and link that incredible Leigh Alexander talk again.

• For those unfamiliar with Cory Archangel’s Super Mario Clouds. (Seeing a screening of that in a class at UChicago was a surreal experience, to say the least).

• Ian Bogost’s How To Do Things With Videogames contains useful definitions of artgames and prodecuralism, a reframing of the David Carr/Clay Shirky dichotomy, and some helpful, hopeful words on the issue of “gamer identity.”

• Here’s Don Cheadle telling you not to be an actor and Charles Bukowski instructing “young men” not to be poets.

“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.

Left click to play. Right-click to download.

Infinifactory feels like SpaceChem for the world that Minecraft hath wrought—which makes sense, given that it's the latest from Zach Barth, who both masterminded SpaceChem and ushered in the Blocks 'n Voxels Age with his seminal "infinifranchise" (Zach's competitive mine-'em-up Infiniminer was the direct inspiration for Minecraft, and well, after Minecraft came the flood).

"They're all terrible," Zach said of his infinigames when I spoke to him. I respectfully disagree (and he's at least half-joking anyway), but his larger point stands: Notch took Infiniminer and made "something totally different and totally better." Infiniminer sees Zach attempting something totally different and totally better, as well, building on his older work in unexpected ways.

And also, Zach is a very chill guy.

You may quote me.

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• Here's Jay Allen on "this clash of anonymous imageboard culture with the parts of social media where people live and work".

• And here's Leigh Alexander on how gamer culture is sort of stuck in 1990, and what specifically she means by that is utterly fascinating and hugely important.

• I grabbed Max Barry's Lexicon and Lev Grossman's The Magicians. I'm excited to read both. Do also consider checking out John Darnielle's fairly spectacular novel, Wolf in White Van. And pretty much everything by William Gibson, obviously.

• And people, Over the Garden Wall really is just amazing.

• Toni Morrison was indeed the one who said the thing about being a conduit. Here's what got me thinking about that idea recently.

"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

Dan Teasdale stops by to talk about Roundabout, the debut game from his newly-founded two-person indie studio No Goblin. We discuss the game (which is awfully good), his previous work on Destroy All Humans! and the Rock Band series, and why we both love The Jackbox Party Pack.

And yes, he does divulge the origins of the name "No Goblin." I then proceed to get kind of obsessed with Dan's colloquial use for the word "goblin."

Sorry again if that got weird for you, Dan.

Roundabout is a game about driving an ever-revolving stretch limousine through an open urban/suburban landscape—an activity that is amusing as hell to learn, remarkably satisfying to master, and physically nonsensical in the videogamiest of ways—with a sweeping story in the style of Behind the Music, told through purposefully dodgy full motion video.

There's really nothing at all like Roundabout, in other words. It's funny, heartfelt, genuinely original, and audaciously weird. Count me all the way in.

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• I hunted down a (definitely totally not emulated) copy of Kuru Kuru Kururin, and just as Dan says, it's exacting beyond all reason. Like, seriously.

• The Men of Game Dev Calendars for 2014 and 2015 are still available.

"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/etao-podcast-16-20150127.mp3

And yes, he does divulge the origins of the name “No Goblin.” I then proceed to get kind of obsessed with Dan’s colloquial use for the word “goblin.”

Sorry again if that got weird for you, Dan.

There’s really nothing at all like Roundabout, in other words. It’s funny, heartfelt, genuinely original, and audaciously weird. Count me all the way in.

———

• I hunted down a (definitely totally not emulated) copy of Kuru Kuru Kururin, and just as Dan says, it’s exacting beyond all reason. Like, seriously.

• The Men of Game Dev Calendars for 2014 and 2015 are still available.

“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.

When I interviewed Jack Lawrence Mayer for UChicago Arts back in 2102, he was about to launch Single Long, his seven-episode digital series for HBO. His latest project, LA Famous, follows the same basic format—but he's produced it without the backing of HBO or, for that matter, any other network or studio.

So this week, Jack Lawrence Mayer stops by to discuss his work, his overall mission "to do shows without permission," and the implications of that mission: Isn't it exciting that we can make things and put them out there without anybody having to put up huge amounts of money? Definitely. But also, isn't it a little terrifying that so much work now gets produced without any expectation of money changing hands, like, ever? Again, definitely, definitely.

We also take some time to discuss the Jack's new Monday Morning Movies podcast, the importance of being told no, how a lower budget is something that's easier to hear than to see, and the utterly indefensible ending of Grease!

Plus, we tear into the noxious archetype of the good guy—or rather, the nice guy—protagonist who's just been dumped by some cruel, incomprehensible woman. She is tearing [the straight male protagonist] apart, Lisa!

Yeah, Jack wants to react against that trope. Fuck that trope.

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• That period of wakefulness was sometimes called "dorveille." Quoth WikiPedia, "This was also a favorite time for scholars and poets to write uninterrupted, whereas still others visited neighbors, had sex, or engaged in petty crime."

• WikiPedia also tells us that "the nature and classification of the ASMR phenomenon is controversial, with a considerable cult following and strong anecdotal evidence to support the phenomenon but little or no scientific explanation or verified data."

• "There have been eras that took a far more intense interest in spectacles of cruelty than ours, but none that was so transfixed by watching people act like assholes," says Geoffrey Nunberg of the UC Berkeley School of Information.

• Shane Carruth's second film is called Upstream Color, and it's just as weird and wonderful as I'm describing, I promise.

• Louis CK's first movie (before Pootie Tang, even) was Tomorrow Night.

• The only Magic Johnson Theater still open for business is the one in Harlem. It's currently owned and operated by AMC.

• I think I combined "glib" with "gloom and doom" to form "gloob and doom." You heard it here first.

• As Jack says, High Maintenance is very much worth checking out.

• And do absolutely give Yasujirō Ozu a go.

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"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/etao-podcast-15-20141003.mp3

So this week, Jack Lawrence Mayer stops by to discuss his work, his overall mission “to do shows without permission,” and the implications of that mission: Isn’t it exciting that we can make things and put them out there without anybody having to put up huge amounts of money? Definitely. But also, isn’t it a little terrifying that so much work now gets produced without any expectation of money changing hands, like, ever? Again, definitely, definitely.

Plus, we tear into the noxious archetype of the good guy—or rather, the nice guy—protagonist who’s just been dumped by some cruel, incomprehensible woman. She is tearing [the straight male protagonist] apart, Lisa!

Yeah, Jack wants to react against that trope. Fuck that trope.

———

• That period of wakefulness was sometimes called “dorveille.” Quoth WikiPedia, “This was also a favorite time for scholars and poets to write uninterrupted, whereas still others visited neighbors, had sex, or engaged in petty crime.”

• WikiPedia also tells us that “the nature and classification of the ASMR phenomenon is controversial, with a considerable cult following and strong anecdotal evidence to support the phenomenon but little or no scientific explanation or verified data.”

• “There have been eras that took a far more intense interest in spectacles of cruelty than ours, but none that was so transfixed by watching people act like assholes,” says Geoffrey Nunberg of the UC Berkeley School of Information.

• Shane Carruth’s second film is called Upstream Color, and it’s just as weird and wonderful as I’m describing, I promise.

• Louis CK’s first movie (before Pootie Tang, even) was Tomorrow Night.

• The only Magic Johnson Theater still open for business is the one in Harlem. It’s currently owned and operated by AMC.

• I think I combined “glib” with “gloom and doom” to form “gloob and doom.” You heard it here first.

• As Jack says, High Maintenance is very much worth checking out.

• And do absolutely give Yasujirō Ozu a go.

———

“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.

Zac Burns of Ludeme Games joins me to discuss his studio's digital adaptation of Chess 2, which is out on OUYA, and as of today, on Steam as well. Along the way, we talk about the challenges of translating tabletop games into videogames, the (many) problems with modern intellectual property and copyright law, and why the OUYA has been and remains such a welcoming space for first-time independent game developers.

That, and why free-to-play is not, in and of itself, the devil.

Chess 2: The Sequel is just what it purports to be, namely a sequel to Chess. Not just a variant of Chess, mind you, but an attempt at an iterative sequel that builds on the original game's much-lauded merits (deep, chance-free, intellectually demanding one-one-one confrontation) while eliminating or mitigating its key deficiency (an emphasis on strategic stasis and rote memorization).

Chess doesn't have an author as such. Chess 2 does. Which raises all manner of odd questions about ownership, tradition, culture, subculture, and yes, sequels.

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• Here are the rules of Chess 2. You can download them for free, or kick in a $5 "tip" if you so choose—and as Zac says, you can try the game out with nothing more exotic than a regular old Chess set and some loose change.

• As Zac says, we recorded this interview on Independence Day. Yay America.

• For those interested in the Aereo case.

• WordPress was indeed hiding some of the older episodes from iTunes, Stitcher, Podbay, and so on. That should be fixed now, and you can always see our whole back catalog of podcasty delights right here on ye olde blog.

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"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

Both piano pieces were performed by Paul Pitman, and the recordings are available for free on Musopen.