The Drawing Room

In 1967, Patrick McGoohan was the biggest television star in the UK. Rather than continue with his hit series "Danger Man" (aka "Secret Agent" in the United States), he would produce a bizarre avant-garde television show called The Prisoner. 

The premise is simple: A secret agent resigns, and is captured by a secret organization that wants to find out why. They place him in a beautiful seaside village resort that is really a prison for secret agents like himself. The series is a cat-and-mouse struggle between "No. 6" (the number assigned to the captured agent) and "No. 2," (the leader of the village). 

The show is much more than that, however. Rob, Kip and Patrick discuss the show's themes, weirdness, and overall high-quality. 

Note: Rob's microphone was, unfortunately, his webcam for the first 30 minutes of the podcast. It reverts back to his usual vocal mic in the latter half. Sorry for the reduction in quality! 

In this "fireside chat" (co-host Patrick was "live" in studio for this podcast), the guys talk about Disaster Report 4. A fascinating game from Japanese game industry veterans, Disaster Report 4 has you dodging aftershocks while engaging in sometimes weird conversations with other earthquake survivors! 

As both Rob and Patrick are fans of Tommy Wiseau and The Room, they take a little time to discuss Wiseau's bizarre sitcom called "The Neighbors." 

In this casual episode, Rob talks about what games he's been playing, while Kip goes talks about his experiments biohacking to optimize his health (yes, we keep things eclectic!). 

Games discussed: 

Resident Evil Village

Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles 

Yakuza 7 Like a Dragon 

Other Video Game Topics: 

Sony PSP

Computer Builds in 2021 

Health Topics: 

PROTEIN! 

How Rob and Kip are doing with their diets 

What supplements does Kip take? 

How Kip is trying to raise his metabolism

For this special episode of The Drawing Room (yes, it is Drawing ROOM, not BOARD, despite Rob's continual usage of "Drawing Board" in his introductions- he promises to remember the real name of HIS OWN PODCAST soon!), Rob interviews the team members of MAYJ Studios, an indie studio formed at Purdue University to create Sonata Theory.

Sonata Theory is a story-based adventure game, combining beautiful artwork, visual novel style dialog sequences, environment exploration, and magic! Oh, and it just so happens to have a pretty decent soundtrack as well ;).

In this post-mortem, part of the team (Emily Hill, lead designer, Isaiah Eleazar, producer, and Isabelle Pacis, 2D art) discuss the positives and negatives of the Sonata Theory development experience.

Topics Discussed:

1. What is Sonata Theory?

2. Why college is actually harder than the games industry

Rob and Kip's friendship did not start because of game development or video games. It started because they would often chat about music they liked while at work.

One style of music near and dear to Kip is authentic blues music! And Rob, being a guitarist, is also very familiar with the blues. So the two spend an hour discussing what the blues means to them, what they consider authentic (as opposed to what is "Blues Hammer" from Ghost World), and that time Rob and his friends got kicked out of a blues jam session in Ohio!

Note:

The opening music is "You Got To Take Sick and Die" by Boyd Rivers.

Check out this awesome performance on youtube, here.

Just because the guys are talking about non-video game topics doesn't mean we abandon gaming, our raison d'etre! For this cast, we discuss Falcom's long-running Trails of Cold Steel series, specifically the "first" game in the series (sort of, you'll have to listen...), Trails of Cold Steel 1.

What kind of "weaknesses" does the main character, Rean Schwarzer, have?

What character rivalries are the most interesting?

What character do Rob and Patrick like best?

Is the game hard, and if so, is it fair?

And, as ever, Patrick comes to the party with a tremendous amount of Falcom history and knowledge!

Welcome! We have re-branded the Grid Snaps Podcast into The Drawing Room, a variety show where Rob, Kip, and Patrick discuss video games, culture, music, and anything else we find interesting!

The first episode of our new podcast (we promise to still do a LOT of video games!) is on something near and dear to both Rob and Kip: low carb diets. Yes, both Rob and Kip are long-time practitioners of this way of eating, and they have both had tremendous success! While diet gurus are a dime a dozen (and we are NOT gurus), we thought it might be interesting for our listeners to hear how a couple of desk-bound game developers keep off the pounds and stay fit.

It's that time of year- when all the podcasts do a "year wrap" episode, and we're no different here. Rob and Patrick discuss the games they played throughout 2020. Games include:

Tokyo Xanadu

Fire Emblem Three Houses

Persona 5

Yakuza Judgment

Kandagawa Jet Girls (from Patrick)

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate

Nier Automata

Ys VIII

Also... did you know Grid Snaps has been running for THREE YEARS!?! Yep! We begin the show by talking about how we are going to grow this podcast beyond just a podcast about games! Stay tuned in 2021 for this awesome new rebranding- but rest assured the podcast continues on! 

Rob has his students ask him anything- the game industry, interesting anecdotes from working in games, and more!

Note: This was done "live in the classroom," and in a few places the microphone distorts slightly.

What makes the Grid Snaps Podcast unique in the world of video game podcasting is the game industry expertise of the hosts. Yet that's not all: Rob and Kip have many industry friends and colleagues, and it is always a special treat when they come on the show to share with us!

If you are interested in multiplayer level design, look no further than this podcast, as Rob and Kip interview Insomniac, LucastArts, Sledgehammer Games and Cold Iron designer Gabriel Galaz. Topics covered include:

1. Gabe's career and what got him into games.

2. Multiplayer level design fundamentals: what are they?

3. How to balance ego and humility.

4. The use of metrics in game design and development: how to make fun a tangible goal, not some magic that randomly happens.

This was a really fun interview- not just because of the conversation, but because of all the learning and knowledge Gabe graciously shared! A must listen!