My guest today is a game designer and Founding Chair of New York University’s Game Center. An influential writer, speaker, and thinker on video games he has taught generations of emerging young designers. The New York Times once described him as the “reigning genius of the mysteries of games.”

My guest’s experience is not merely academic, however: in 2005 he co-founded area/code, the studio which subsequently released one of the best regarded puzzle games yet made: Drop7. Most recently, he joined forces with his son, who is also a game designer, and together released Babble Royale, a free-to-play battle royale influenced by the boardgame Scrabble.

“Making games combines everything that’s hard about building a bridge with everything that’s hard about composing an opera,” he once said. “Games are operas made out of bridges.” Welcome, Frank Lantz.

Play the console:

• Wipeout
• Rhythm Tengoku
• Galcon
• Cinco Paus
• Everything

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