Literate Gamer

We breakdown one of our favorite grand strategy games, Stellaris.

This game is continually evolving and improving, so a critical assessment on such a dynamic and organic game is difficult, but we felt the game was worth the effort.

You can pickup Stellaris directly from Paradox, or wherever you get amazing games.

This was a live panel discussion we gave at Indy PopCon on Game Criticism. We were joined by Kyle from the Experience Grind Podcast

You can find us on Twitter @LiterateGamer, you can Find the Experience Grind podcast on twitter at @expgrindpodcast and you can find Indy PopCon on Twitter @IndyPopCon

We sat down with one of Red Hook Studio's co-founders, Chirs Bourassa, to talk about mortality, player capital, and eldritch horror in their amazing turn-based RPG, Darkest Dungeon.

Darkest Dungeon recently released a DLC, the Crimson Court, and will be available for iPad on August 24th.

You can find Darkest Dungeon online at http://www.darkestdungeon.com/, and on Twitter @DarkestDungeon

We're Indy natives, and we figured "Hey, why not doing something good for the incoming gamer community and share our local knowldge".

I'm going to warn you, the quailty sucks. Augustin had nothing to do with this episode, so don't hold it against him.

If you aren't going to GenCon, or ever visting Indianapolis, well, this episode isn't going to do you a lot of good.

Anwyay, enjoy and welcom to Indianapolis.

We'll be back next with better, high quality, content. We have a fantastic interview to drop next week.

This episode was recorded live at Indy PopCon on the Podcast stage. We were joined by Jason Percy and Dave with World's Collide where they discuss their new card game, challenges that an independent game designer encounter, and their plans for their game going forward.

Worlds Collide can be found on Facebook at ColideWorlds, and on Twitter.

In the near future we'll be sharing our Game Criticism panel discussion we also recorded at Indy PopCon.

Zak McClendon, lead designer of Psychonauts 2, joins Literate Gamer to talk about the experience of working on the sequel to one of the most beloved platformers in recent memory.

Zak currently works for Double Fine. He was previously involved with 2K Marin, where he was the lead designer on BioShock 2, Harmonix, and Crystal Dynamics.

You can find Zak on Twitter @zakmcc and you can find all things Double Fine on their website.

This week we cover Spore.

This was a canned episode we've been sitting on for a bit. We're taking our summer break, so you're getting it now. However, our Patreon backers are getting a super awesome epsidoe TODAY tthat the rest of you won't be getting until next week.

https://www.patreon.com/LiterateGamer

It's not too late, you could still sign up for the Patreon.

The Hearty Dice Friends, Grant Howitt and Chris Taylor, join Literate Gamer to discuss the idea of applying a critical eye towards Table-top RPGs.

Grant and Chris can be found on their podcast, the Hearty Dice Friends, and on Twitter @GSHowitt and @TheMaddigan . Their latest release, The Spire, is currently available for funding on Kickstarter .

Katherine Isbister, researcher in games and human/computer interaction, joins Literate Gamer to discuss the role of emotion in game play and design.

Katherine Isbister is a professor at the University of California Santa Cruz, and a core faculty member for the Center for Games and Playable Media. She is the author of How Games Move Us, Better Game Characters by Design, and Game Usability. She's also a generally groovy person and you can find more about her at http://www.katherineinterface.com/ and on Twitter @kcisbister

Literate Gamer critically examines From Software's PS4 exclusive, Bloodborne. An atmospheric action RPG in a similar vein as Dark Souls, Bloodborne is strongly influenced by 'eldritch horror' and the writing of H.P. Lovecraft.

Be sure to check out Literate Gamer on Patreon and Twitter.