Up Up Down Down

Toca Boca's Amanda Rösler joins us to discuss making great games for kids. We talk about why Toca Boca's apps are more like toys than they are games, games for kids on the App Store, and the pitfalls of making games for kids. Later, we talk about co-op games we're looking forward to playing.

iMore's Peter Cohen joins us to discuss morality in video games, and what it means to play dictators, serial killers, and just plain jerks. We determine whether or not this makes us bad people, and whether or not it's going to traumatize our kids. Finally, we discuss the futility of going to E3.

Justin Voss of Low Earth Orbit joins us to talk stealth games. We discuss the origin of stealth games, instant failure, and the joy of finding alternative ways to complete a mission. Then, we rag on Metal Gear Solid and salivate over E3 announcements.

Scott Stevenson of Low Earth Orbit joins us to talk open world games. We discuss side quests, player choice, railroading, and trying to tell a story when the player can ruin everything. As usual, we end with a diversion into games we're excited about, and some peculiar Kickstarters.

Ars Technica's Kyle Orland joins us to discuss the great failures in game consoles. We talk about our favourite doomed consoles, the story of Sega's downfall, and Nintendo's journey through the desert with the Wii U.

Developer and humourist Curtis Lassam joins us to discuss humour in games. We discuss comically hard games, sandboxes as a vehicle for comedy, what makes it hard to write a funny game, and a goat.

Neven Mrgan, designer of wonderful apps and games, joins us to discuss retro games. We discuss his upcoming game Space Age, the challenges of pixel art, and Neven's previous games The Incident and Blackbar.

Myke Hurley, world-renowned podcaster, joins us to discuss portable consoles, the future of the PS Vita, and the iPhone as a portable game console.

Grace 'GTZ' of Fat, Ugly, or Slutty joins us to discuss jerks on Xbox Live, getting people to play nice together, and hellbanning.

Angelina Fabbro of Mozilla joins us to discuss games on the web, why the hell people are still using C++, and business models for web-based games. After that, we jump in to games we're playing on the iPad, what's wrong with MMOs, and how Pokémon will never die.