Idle Thumbs

Len and long-lost prodigal cohost Ian gird themselves for the apocalypse in Total War Warhammer: Lords of the End Times. We discuss the new factions, the new crisis mechanics, and how not even a walking god of death is scarier than what happens when you outsource your Shogun 2 remaster to the lowest bidder.

In this episode, Soren interviews Xalavier Nelson, founder of Strange Scaffold and best known for his work on El Paso Elsewhere, Clickolding, and An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs. They discuss why he drew review screenshots using MS Paint, whether you should do the hard thing when making a game, and what’s a good price for eyeballs. This episode was recorded on March 9, 2026 and was engineered by Michael Hermes.

Games discussed: Shenmue, Civilization IV, Secret of Monkey Island, Geometry Wars, All Hail the Spider God, Screw You Bear Dad, Slayer Shock, An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs, Truck-kun is Supporting Me from Another World?!, Life Eater, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, Mr. Bucket Told Me To, Offworld Trading Company, Star Control, I Am Your Beast, Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator

Len sits down with Endless Legend 2 game director Derek Paxton and game designer Julien Gueguen to talk about the 1.0 release of Endless Legend 2, how 4X devs iterate on feedback, and how they managed to put out 60 major updates in the course of a year.

SPOILER ADVISORY: This episode contains character spoilers throughout (if you don't want to be spoiled on which classic Star Wars archetypes can be recruited, or which movie characters make cameos). PLOT SPOILERS for the big mid-game time skip begin at 48:05 and conclude at 1:14:09.

Jon and Luke are joined by PC Gamer's Ted Litchfield to discuss Star Wars Zero Company, a tactics game in a galaxy far, far away from several of the developers of NuXCOM and Marvel's Midnight Suns. We discuss our favorite characters, why you should never give firearms to an astromech droid, and all of the other things that make this one of the best Star Wars games in a parsec.

Designer Notes is hosting a special guest episode from Simon Parkin’s excellent podcast My Perfect Console, in which he interviews Soren Johnson about his career and his favorite games. In each episode, Simon asks the guest to choose five games to compose their version of a perfect console or, in Soren’s case, a perfect personal computer. Check out the show at myperfectconsole.com.

Games discussed: Pinball Construction Set, M.U.L.E., Seven Cities of Gold, Legacy of the Ancients, Alpha Centauri, Oxford Mercer, Civilization III, Civilization IV, Spore, Offworld Trading Company, Old World

Len and Nerium are joined once again by special guest Diana to discuss a lot of the smaller games we played this summer that didn't make it into a full episode, our varying levels of EU5 addiction, and mechsploitation.

Games Discussed:

Sovereign Tower

Dispatch

Suzerain

EU5

Civ 7 Test of Time

Mortal Shell II

Elden Ring: The Convergence

Big Walk

The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily

Twisted Tower

Endacopia

Openfront.io

Len, Jon, and Fraser set sail with Corsair Cove, a pirate city-builder with a reckless disregard for building codes. We discuss our different buccaneer building styles, the card- and dice-based ship combat, and try to answer the eternal question: what DO you do with a drunken sailor?

Len sits down with Game Director Marv Gouw and Consulting Art Director (and Relic co-founder) J. Aaron Kambeitz to talk about ZeroSpace, a new RTS inspired by the greats of the genre with BioWare-style cutscenes and story decisions. We dig into the odd place RTSes find themselves in the industry right now, how the "Homeworld look" relates to typefaces, and how the changes in the games industry today echoes those the film industry went through decades ago.

In this episode, Soren interviews Owen Mahoney, who served first as the CFO and then as the CEO of Nexon. They discuss what the transition to free-to-play meant for game design, how to make sure your company has the right type of shareholders, and how close Nexon came to buying Riot. This episode was recorded on March 11, 2026, and was engineered by Michael Hermes.

Games discussed: Pong, Spacewar, Choplifter, RobotWar, QuizQuiz, MapleStory, KartRider, Stellaris, League of Legends, Minecraft, ARC Raiders, Lethal Company

Len and DM are joined by the current Age of Empires II world champion, Hera, to discuss the state of the game in 2026. We try to explain its longevity, examine what it takes to be a top-level esports player, and discuss Hera's streamer invitational tournament, The King's Gauntlet.