Platforms and Pitfalls

This month we talk about… stuff…. Both of us are in great moments of change in our lives right now, either moving between countries or to opposite sides, so unfortunately our traditional format wasn’t really possible in the time we had. So, this time we spoke about some of the conversations that are going on in gaming.

This month we take more a narrative focus looking at how open worlds are used to tell stories. With special guest, Jack Richardson. And we talk about Horizon Zero Dawn, Final Fantasy XV, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and Yakuza 0

This month we look at how games escalate, how they keep pushing us to inevitable end points. We looked at Tetris, Cthulu Saves the World, Slay the Spire, Universal Paperclips and Lethal League.

Continuing in our unintentional series of experiments, this month’s episode is actually a liveshow we did for the Tasmanian GameDev Society. We looked at antagonistic co op, where your friends are a part of the challenge! Using Overcooked, Snipperclips, Super Mario 3D World, Kane and Lynch: Dead Men and SpaceTeam.

The original file was broken in a few ways, here is an updated and fixed version

This month we look at the the rather curious middle ground genre of the Japanese developed Western RPG. Since this episode is a little less design focused but with a greater emphasis on history than our own knowledge really allowed, we’ve courted Michelle Belmont from the retro gaming podcast Doors and Dungeons, and Tom Lipschultz, who worked on localizing 2 of the games here. Compared to normal we talk about much more than the usual five games, but we focus on The Black Onyx, Wizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls, Ultima III Exodus (for NES and Famicom), King’s Field and Brandish: The Dark Revenant, and their different takes to the Japanese developed Western styled RPG.

It is a bit of a departure in some senses from our normal episode, and much longer. We hope you enjoy it.

This episode the team from Bit Storm takes over the show and mixes up the format a little. Ben and Trevor discuss the evolution of point and click adventure game interfaces, discussing games like Space Quest, Monkey Island, Unavowed, Leisure Suit Larry and more.

This month we look at the relationship between game loops and time. Using Monster Hunter World, Granblue Fantasy, Persona 4, Rogue Legacy and Asura's Wrath to look at how games design themselves around the time we spend with.

Opening Season 2 of Platforms and Pitfalls we talk about our last six episodes, answering questions we received over the time, and addressing points that only came to us with the power of hindsight.

Breaking our usual form, this month instead of talking about a topic using 5 games, we are talking about 5 topics focusing on one game, Final Fantasy VIII.

Looking at grappling in Ocarina of TIme, Bionic Commando (2009), Umihara Kawase Shun, Worms and Devil May Cry 4