Vernacular Games

Vernacular Games

By Red CoatArts
Download on the App Store

Vernacular Games episodes

  • Vernacademia 09 -- Guild Wars 1 vs 2
    Another game impressions/interview piece. This time Sientir talks about Guild Wars 1 and 2 and his impression of their approach to designing the two games.
    You can find the rest of the playlist at:
    soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac/sets/vernacademia-podcast-season-2
    Our Website: https://www.vernaculargames.com/
    Our Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/vernaculargames
    Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/VernacularGames
    Our Minds: https://www.minds.com/vernaculargames/
    Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VernacularGames/
    Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/VernacularGames?lang=en
    Our Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac
    Our Audius: https://audius.co/vernaculargames
    Cliff Notes:
    00:04 Introduction
    01:07 A brief history
    03:08 The Modes of Play
    04:28 The iteration process
    05:44 Guild Wars 1 Crafting
    08:14 Guild Wars 2 Crafting
    11:57 Material Acquisition in both Games
    12:40 Experimenting with Questing
    16:48 The Point of Quests
    18:32 Contextualization, Hearts and Presence
    19:34 Goblin Slayer and Reputation
    20:50 Level Cap and Skill Acquisition
    21:19 Guild Wars 1 Progression
    23:25 Guild Wars 2 Progression
    24:46 Guild Wars 1 and Early Level Cap
    26:47 Guild Wars 2 and Later Level Cap
    28:00 Guild Wars 2 Combat and Build System
    28:51 Comparing Guild Wars 2 to Middle Earth Shadow of War
    32:24 Guild Wars 1, Balance, and Bad Builds
    37:16 Guild Wars 2, and Lowered Build Variance
    39:56 Guild Wars 1 and Barrier of Entry vs. Depth
    40:25 Guild Wars 2 and Opportunity Cost
    42:33 The Removal of the Healer Class
    43:35 Play Variance or Lack there of
    46:05 Big Take Aways
    46:39 Managing Scope
    47:55 You Need to Define a Game's Design Identity
    48:41 Overall Guild Wars 2 is not a bad game
    49:14 Wrap Up, Next Podcast, and Sign Off
    50 min
  • Vernacademia 08 -- Complexity Part 2
    The Second part of our exploration of Complexity. Here we explore the for different types of Complexity
    You can find the rest of the playlist at:
    soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac/sets/vernacademia-podcast-season-2
    Our Website: https://www.vernaculargames.com/
    Our Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/vernaculargames
    Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/VernacularGames
    Our Minds: https://www.minds.com/vernaculargames/
    Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VernacularGames/
    Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/VernacularGames?lang=en
    Our Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac
    Our Audius: https://audius.co/vernaculargames
    Cliff Notes:
    00:05 Introduction
    00:23 The 4 Complexity Manifestations
    01:25 Identifying Negative and Positive Engagement
    02:41 Comprehension Complexity
    03:31 Negative Comprehension Complexity
    04:37 Games that Focus on Comprehension Complexity
    04:57 Phoenix Wright, Professor Layton, and Ghost Trick
    05:24 Engagement from Discovering What Something Is
    05:32 Situational Complexity
    06:52 What is Situational Complexity
    07:10 Situational Complexity and The Word Search
    07:48 The Situation Assessment Triangle
    08:46 How Memory Grouping Interacts with Situational Complexity
    10:21 Strategic Complexity
    10:54 Startegic Complexity and the Learning Curve
    11:59 Make sure Strategy involves Meaningful Choice
    12:59 Positive Strategic Engagement
    13:26 The Importance of Readability for Strategy
    14:00 Readability and E-sports
    14:26 Executional Complexity
    14:55 All objects have Executional Complexity
    15:17 Executional Complexity and the Learning Curve
    15:51 Executional Complexity as a barrier to play
    16:25 Conventional Sports Games and Training
    16:56 Training and Video Games
    17:20 Positive Executional Complexity
    18:17 How do we apply these concepts to Game Design
    19:18 Ghost Trick and Focusing on specific elements of Complexity
    20:18 Multi-faceted Complexity manipulation
    20:59 The Counter System Example
    21:20 Examining a Forced Stealth Sequence for Complexity
    22:24 Complexity as a function of Learning and Wrap up
    23:55 Next Cast
    24:23 Sign Off
    25 min
  • Vernacademia 07 -- Complexity
    The first part of our exploration of Complexity. Here we dig into the concept of Barrier of Entry and how it interacts with Level of Depth
    You can find the rest of the playlist at:
    soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac/sets/vernacademia-podcast-season-2
    Our Website: https://www.vernaculargames.com/
    Our Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/vernaculargames
    Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/VernacularGames
    Our Minds: https://www.minds.com/vernaculargames/
    Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VernacularGames/
    Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/VernacularGames?lang=en
    Our Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac
    Our Audius: https://audius.co/vernaculargames
    Cliff Notes:
    00:06 Introduction
    00:28 What is Complexity
    01:24 The Four Types of Complexity
    02:12 Comprehension Complexity
    02:56 Situational Complexity
    03:41 Three parts of Situational Complexity
    04:04 Strategic Complexity
    04:24 Strategic Complexity in Pokemon
    05:49 Executional Complexity
    06:31 What does Complexity do for Games?
    06:59 Barrier of Entry
    07:32 Barrier of Entry in Chess
    08:10 Depth as Positive Complexity
    09:19 Managing Complexity
    09:58 Barriers of entry as Doors
    10:19 How to identify your Barriers of Entry
    11:05 Keep new players in mind
    11:54 Depth in Depth
    12:08 Depth as rooms in a building
    13:27 Barrier of Entry ratio to Level of Depth
    14:02 Mark Rosewater and Lenticular Design
    14:36 Wrap Up
    14:54 Sign Off
    15 min
  • Vernacademia 06 -- Early ID FPSes
    Sientir speaks a bit on his experience with ID's earlier first person shooter games and other tangentially related things
    You can find the rest of the playlist at:
    soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac/sets/vernacademia-podcast-season-2
    Our Website: https://www.vernaculargames.com/
    Our Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/vernaculargames
    Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/VernacularGames
    Our Minds: https://www.minds.com/vernaculargames/
    Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VernacularGames/
    Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/VernacularGames?lang=en
    Our Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac
    Our Audius: https://audius.co/vernaculargames
    Cliff Notes:
    00:03 Introduction
    00:52 What did Sientir like about FPS games?
    01:37 How do you compare current FPS to old school FPS?
    02:33 What pushes him away from current FPS games?
    03:39 How did FPS impact Sientir's design sensibilities?
    04:22 Impact of Player Speed
    04:57 Old school color compared to new school
    05:57 Worlds designed for fun rather than to imitate reality
    06:38 Opinions on Doom 2016
    07:04 Graphical Stylization vs. Realism
    08:16 GI-Joe style
    08:39 ID and Arcade play
    09:51 Weapon Limitations and unreality
    10:41 Demon Souls to Dark Souls and Encomberance
    11:27 Weapon Selection and the weapon dial
    12:04 Environment Exploration, Speed to world size
    13:55 Interesting Traversal in games
    15:05 Alternative Movement, Ocarina of Time
    15:42 Quake and Environment Design
    16:02 Hexen and Environment Design
    16:32 Dark Souls 2 and area resonance and implementation
    18:59 The dying creepy forest aesthetic
    19:40 The Aesthetic feelings that stuck with Sientir
    21:33 Projectile Design that allows the player to interact with it
    22:44 Encapsulating Thoughts
    24:31 Sign Off
    25 min
  • Lost At Sea
    One more piece the Grey Matter puzzle. The mindscape of a young aspiring meteorologist, traumatized by a pirate raid during a family cruise. He now relives that moment, his Aquaphobia turning the pirates into beings of pure water while his fascination causes the skies to storm and the oceans to rage.
    6 min
  • Vernacademia 05 -- Music
    Here we explore how Music is used in games and what it does to the overall experience
    You can find the rest of the playlist at:
    soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac/sets/vernacademia-podcast-season-2
    Our Website: https://www.vernaculargames.com/
    Our Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/vernaculargames
    Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/VernacularGames
    Our Minds: https://www.minds.com/vernaculargames/
    Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VernacularGames/
    Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/VernacularGames?lang=en
    Our Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac
    Our Audius: https://audius.co/vernaculargames
    Cliff Notes:
    00:05 Introduction
    01:19 What roles can music play?
    01:43 Mood and Ambiance Management
    02:02 Hyrule Field in the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
    02:54 The Courtyard in Super Mario 64
    04:11 Sound Choice in the Souls Series
    04:31 Guild Wars 1 and Musical Contrast
    04:54 Emotional control through Music
    05:23 Musical Alerts
    06:20 Musical Alerts in Legend of Zelda
    06:43 Sonic and the Drowning Alert
    06:58 Creating Emotional Continuity Through Anthems
    07:56 Songs Influence Player perception of characters
    08:15 Captain Falcon and F-Zero GX
    08:39 Musical Selection and Pokemon
    09:22 Fighting Games and Anthems
    10:13 How to use music?
    10:53 Dynamic in game music
    11:55 Minamalist Dynamic Music
    12:26 Reactive Compositions
    12:39 Randomized Compositions
    13:29 Transitioning between Musical Elements
    14:23 Transitions and Fire Emblem
    15:43 Silence as a musical choice
    16:14 An example of Audio Mixing
    17:14 Megaman X3 and Sound Management
    18:29 Benefits of Effective Music Usage
    19:37 Song types to pay particular attention to
    20:39 Make sure to communicate with your composer
    21:31 Wrap Up and Next Cast
    21:54 Sign Off
    23 min
  • Vernacademia 04 -- Transitions
    Here we explore the concept of transitions in games and why they are important to the overall experience
    Our Website: https://www.vernaculargames.com/
    Our Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/vernaculargames
    Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/VernacularGames
    Our Minds: https://www.minds.com/vernaculargames/
    Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VernacularGames/
    Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/VernacularGames?lang=en
    Our Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac
    Our Audius: https://audius.co/vernaculargames
    Cliff Notes:
    00:04 Introduction
    00:20 What are Transitions
    00:58 Why are they important?
    02:08 Why use them in games?
    02:46 Data Management
    03:18 Ways to Manage Memory
    03:53 Transitions to Manage Pacing
    04:51 Increasing Impact of Events
    05:22 Methods of doing Transitions
    05:41 Cut Transitions
    06:08 Masked Transitions
    06:50 Super Metroid vs Metroid Prime
    07:46 Other styles of Cut and Masked Transitions
    08:47 What to keep in mind
    08:53 Establish Transition Rules
    09:42 What do your Transitions say?
    09:57 Dark Souls 2 and Transitions
    10:50 Ocarina of Time and Cut Abstraction
    11:19 Ocarina of Time Beta Quest
    11:50 Zonal Transitions
    12:12 Sonic the Hedgehog Zonal Transitions
    13:13 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Zonal Transitions
    14:03 Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Zonal Transitions
    14:45 Overview and Wrap up
    15:17 Next Cast and Sign Off
    16 min
  • Vernacademia 03 -- Run and Gun Games
    Red Talks about and Defines his concept of Run and Gun games
    You can find the rest of the playlist at:
    https://soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac/sets/vernacademia-podcast-season-2
    Our Website: https://www.vernaculargames.com/
    Our Minds: https://www.minds.com/vernaculargames/
    Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VernacularGames/
    Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/VernacularGames?lang=en
    Our Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/redcoatvernac
    Our Audius: https://audius.co/vernaculargames
    Cliff Notes:
    00:04 Introduction
    00:20 What is a Run and Game
    00:35 Reflexive versus Contemplative
    01:02 What are Run and Gun Games like
    02:30 Enemies as the focus
    02:51 Guns n' projectiles
    03:35 Pacing in Run and Guns
    04:27 Difference between Shmup and Run and Gun
    05:49 Shadow the Hedgehog - Run and Gunner?
    06:35 The Flowering of Skill
    09:30 Design Philosophy of Tough Love
    11:05 Mechanical Media Res
    11:20 Where to start the learning curve
    12 min

About Vernacular Games

From the publisher's feed

An indie game development group with a focus on making unique content that pushes the medium forward creatively and makes opportunities for others to create content within said medium.