Special Guest: Tristan Moore is the co-founder and lead designer at Broken Widow Studios. He accepted a sidequest from a message board and ended up walking us through Open World game design and theory. We’re back after our short hiatus to ask: What are some of our first open world game experiences? How have open worlds changed over time? And where exactly am I supposed to be going next?

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Guest: Tristan Moore | @TristanParrish | https://www.brokenwindowstudios.com/

Steve and Jarrod take a moment to discuss how Aging Games are holding up with a modern context. Is it important to play games in their day? Does Half-Life 2 hold up? Does games-as-a-service mean the doom of a huge portion of gaming history?

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Sorry! We’re AFK this week but we still have a bunch of Narcosis codes to giveaway. While you’re on the edge of your seat waiting for us to return, go back and check out Epsisode 34: Romance with Victoria Tran. That episode contains instructions on how to get your free code for Steam, XBOX or PS4.

We’ll BRB will another episode and another topic so stay tuned. Thank you to all our fans for being amazing people. We’ll see you on the next one.

Special Guest: Victoria Tran is a community developer at KitFox Games and currently working on Boyfriend Dungeon where you get to date your weapons. She helps guide us through the lovestruck world of Romance in video games. How do you fit human relationships into an algorithm? How does Romance in games often fall short and when will we get an AI like in the film “Her”?

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Guest: Victoria Tran | @TheVTran | https://www.instagram.com/peachbuttcomics/

Special Guest: Dany Peña, founder of Gamertag Radio, throws in his two cents about how Community Feedback is considered in the game development process. How do we interpret an influx of opinion and implement it in an actionable manner? How do we get developers to support their employees?

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Guest: Danny Peña | @Godfree | https://www.gamertagradio.com

Special Guest: Caleb Grace, the Lead Designer on The Lord of the Rings LCG, joins us for a non-stop thrill ride through our attempts to define tension as a mechanic in video game design. What types of things do designers use to create tension? Is tension a prerequisite to qualify something as a game?

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Guest: Caleb Grace | https://www.fantasyflightgames.com

Special Guest: Jeff Mattas was a regular on the Weekend Confirmed Podcast and now he’s a freelance writer and voice actor for video games. He leads us through a not so silent debate on the decision to make your lead character a Silent Protagonist and what makes that a successful design choice. What games have a positive example or make good use of a silent protagonist? What games are hindered by including a silent protagonist? What would a deep conversation with Mario be like?

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Guest: Jeff Mattas | https://www.thevoicerealm.com/talent/Jeff.Mattas | @JeffMattas

Special Guest: Ari MacGillivray is the former writer at Ubisoft for games like Assassins Creed, Far Cry and For Honor and she joins us to fill in the gaps between our knowledge and understanding of how Lore in video games is presented. Do certain types of games lend themselves to storytelling through lore? Is there such a thing as too much lore? Too little? And what is going on in the story of Dark Souls?

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Guest: Ari MacGillivray | https://www.reflectorentertainment.com/ | @macgillivray514

Returning Guest: Tanya Depass of the Spawn on Me Podcast and founder of I Need Diverse Games chimes in on her thoughts about leveling and progression systems in video games. How have RPG elements creeped into every game in existence? Why is progression important? And what the hell exactly is the meaning of a Hunter Rank in Monster Hunter World?

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Guest: Tanya Depass | http://www.INeedDiverseGames.net/ | @cypheroftyr

Special Guest: David Amador, developer on Quest of Dungeons and founder of Upfall Studios, opens his wares to us to take a look behind the scenes on designing shops and vendors in video games. What games include unhelpful or poor examples of shops? How have shops changed over time? Do shops reveal shortcomings in game design?

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Guest: David Amador | http://www.upfallstudios.com/ | @DJ_Link