Lifeless Planet is a narrative puzzle-platformer for Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. A astronaut has been sent to what’s supposed to be a verdant, unpopulated world — but his arrival reveals a barren wasteland populated by Cold War-era Russians. How did they get here, and what happened to the lush planet NASA had detected?

In this episode, I speak with David Board of developer Stage 2 Studios about the game’s evolution from its Kickstarter in 2011 to its PS4 release in 2016; the updated graphics engine; how movies such as The Martian, Gravity, and Interstellar have affected public perception of space exploration; manned vs. robotic exploration; and science fiction.

Watch the video above, or download the audio edition from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive.

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Disclosure: a review copy of this game was provided to me by the publisher.