We dive deep into empathy with Robin (designer on The Sims 2: Open for Business, MySims, producer on Journey, Glitch, co-founder of Funomena where she's currently working on Wattam and Luna) this week. Other topics include Robin’s pitch for a Street Angel game, games being systems that run on the software of us, what producers actually do, how to design for and instill empathy in players, fostering a genuine non-adversarial connection between players, how to reward contemplative play, games that celebrate mistakes, why aren’t we making games about being loved, the future of AI and storytelling, and how to stave off creative starvation.

Our Guest on the Internet

Robin's Twitter

Funomena's Website and Twitter

Stuff We Talked About

Street Angel: The Princess of Poverty Vol 1

The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Robin's GDC Indie Gamemaker Rant

Tales of Tales’ Cathedral in the Clouds Kickstarter

GDC Experimental Gameplay Workshop

Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.

-Also Sleep No More is Macbeth, not Hamlet, as Robin pointed out to us after recording this-