'My fingers are worn to bleeding nubs. I am typing this with my tongue. my keyboard is sticky with game dev drool. Do you not understand...'

Thus did 2026 begin. Welcome back to the world of game dev, this time about 'murdering darlings', the Curst curse and why Newt will always trump Aliens' M577 Armored Personnel Carrier.

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Our final episode of 2025! Talking Travelling At Night's alpha, the sine wave of game dev, where Fallen London's Overgoat came from and how we're attempting to solve the 'layer of plastic' in AAA RPGs.

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This week in the life of jobbing game developers, we reach ALPHA. Cue period appropriate beatnik slang, a disagreement about potato croquettes and why 2D and 3D are such frenemies in isometric CRPGs.

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Skeleton Songs is BACK with a game-dev-centric season all about the inside story of making an indie RPG. In this episode, find out why CRPGs are such hard work, why UI eats time, why we're scared of Disco Elysium, and what's up with Travelling At Night. Also we have a fight about jazz.

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"The final victory of sci-fi is its final defeat," says AK, gnomically, before we sing the Beverly Hills Cop theme tune and talk about trombones. Join us for a discussion of 'the best fiction novel of the 20th century', A Wizard of Earthsea, and its masterful magic system: from Native American folklore to shamanism, demonic to natural theurgy, and eastern wyrms to western protodragons.

Is it written for children or not? What is 'Equilibrium'? Why is 'clot of shadow' so upsetting, and what does it have to do with Cultist Simulator?

In memory of Ursula Le Guin, and little Hoag.

Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:

- A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin
- City of Illusions, by Ursula Le Guin
- Cultist Simulator, by us

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Lord of the Rings + Narnia + Jane Austen = ?

A smash-hit 800-page faux-Victorian novel of realist magic and alternate histories, of course! Welcome to the world of Susanna Clarke, whose rules-based, Mametian and very 'English' magic system is one of the best we've had the good fortune to meet.

Join us for a discussion of made-up magical scholarship, urban versus natural magic, whether you should consider the Land of Faerie for your next holiday destination, and 'the beauty of grey'.

Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:

- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
- Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
- The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, by Susanna Clarke
- Harm's Way, by Colin Greenland
- Take Back Plenty, by Colin Greenland
- Lud-in-the-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees
- The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
- Cultist Simulator + BOOK OF HOURS, by us
- Deus Ex, by Ion Storm
- "Time Enough At Last", by John Brahm and Rod Serling

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Author. Visionary. Dreamweaver. Plus bellhop. Meet Jack Vance, one of the most inventive fantasy authors we've ever heard of, and probably not a pirate king. What happens when fairies become too lumpen and earthy? Why are Lvl1 wizards in D&D so rubbish? Who is Larkin the Baby-Stealer, and why are you reaching for that kazoo?

We talk Cugel the Clever, Vancean magic and why you shouldn't make bread from dogs.

Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:

- Lyonesse, by Jack Vance
- Tales of the Dying Earth, by Jack Vance
- 'Liane the Wayfarer', by Jack Vance
- Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, by Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness
- BOOK OF HOURS, by us
- Fallen London / Sunless Sea, by Failbetter Games
- Dungeons & Dragons, by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson

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"If magic works, why isn't the President of the United States doing it?"

After a 'brief' hiatus, we're back! We pick up where we left off and talk about the magic of Doctor Faustus, whether magic is 'liberation or damnation', and the distinction between ceremonial magic and what specialists term 'Doing A Big Spell'.

Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:

- The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, by, mostly, Christoper Marlowe
- Cultist Simulator / BOOK OF HOURS / The Lady Afterwards, by us
- A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin

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Welcome to a new season, all about magic and literature! We talk William Shakespeare's Tempest, from women-wizards from Algiers to royal demonology. Caliban's Moth, Ariel's Lantern and AK nearly dies in a spiegel tent.

Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:

- "The Tempest", by William Shakespeare
- Against Worldbuilding, and Other Provocations, by Alexis Kennedy
- Daemonologie, by King James I
- The Lesser Key of Solomon, anonymous

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What makes games 'savoury'? Why is Twitter such a bad place to get game design advice? And is it ever sensible to push a count off a cliff?

This episode, Lottie and Alexis talk art, games and critique, through architect Christopher Alexander to Jack Cohen and Brian Aldiss' fight over speculative xenobiology in Helliconia. Listen to avoid the perils of categorisation, and the pitfalls of diamonds - and hear Alexis fake his own death. Literally.

Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:

- The Devil's Elixirs, by E T A Hoffmann
- The Snare of the Tree, by Alexis Kennedy
- A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander
- Cultist Simulator, by us
- Sunless Sea, by Alexis Kennedy and Failbetter Games
- Helliconia, by Brian Aldiss

Follow us on Twitter and sign up to the mailing list to make sure you don't miss the next episode! ♥

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