Wardcast

It’s our second and final night at MAGFest 2018. We’re joined by Robby Ciszek — the Undead Dev — working on UFO Rodeo, Emerson Smith, founder of ESIO LLC, and Frank DiCola, co-founder of Game Revenant and artist and designer on Where Shadows Slumber.

We talk about exhibiting mobile games at the show; avoiding the bomb cyclone; nabbing some sweet, sweet MAGBucks; and more.

Games include Joggernauts, DinoBlasters, Mask of Semblance: The Trading Card Game, Treasure Adventure World, and Scoot Pooch.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

It’s the first podcast of 2018 and the first podcast of MAGFest! We’re bringing you some multipart nightly shows while we hang out at the one and only Music and Games Festival.

In part one of tonight’s show, Dylan is joined by RVA Game Jammer Ruthie Edwards and VR dev Emerson Smith, founder of ESIO LLC. We talk about what we’ve seen and played on the show floor, from Amanda Hudgins’ #1000ButtonProject to Mega Cat Studios’ custom NES games.

In part two, Dylan and Will are joined by MAGFest exhibitors Robby Ciszek, proprietor of The Undead Dev and UFO Rodeo, and Casey Labrack, developer of DinoBlaster. We discuss beard-offs, panels about doing a game jam (come on and slam), getting trapped in elevators, MAGFest memes, and trying to spot all the MAGBabies on the show floor.

Games include Fight Knight, Zarvot, KungFu Kickball, Pokémon Puzzle League, Super Button Pusher Turbo Alpha Z, Line Wobbler, Electric Scrapeboard, Desolus, Joggernauts, Denizen, Hercules, and Splitty Robot.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

Once more the Earth has circled the Sun, and once more we sequester ourselves to determine the Wardcast Best Games Played.

For those unfamiliar, here’s how it works: our list consists of what we believe to be the top ten games we played this year. We consider any game played in 2017, not just games released in 2017. Everyone brings their personal top ten games to the table, from which we will decide the official Best Games Played. Once the chosen ten have been decided upon, we will create a superlative for each game that best encapsulates the spirit of its experience.

We’d like to thank everyone who’s been on the show this year: Ruthie Edwards; Tim Howell, Chris Howell, and John Duthie; Alex Rice; Dan Cotting; Mason Brown; Nick Nundahl and Joe Wetmore; Luke Porr; Justin Mitchell; Momin Khan; Tyler Rhodes; Kirk Musngi; Shawn Patton; Josiah Renaudin; Kenny Kim; Jay Tholen; David Byers; Mike Futter; M Joshua Cauller; and Michael Listo. And a special thanks to this year’s co-hosts Will Blanton, Sam Loeschen, and Alex Damrath! Our extended Wardcast family is what makes the show so fun to do!

Merry 2017!

Awards include Best Reinvention, Freshest Ideas, Best Synthesization, Best Philosophy, Grandest Adventure, Purest Design, Coolest Experience, Greatest Feat, Most Treacherous, and Coolest Gadgets.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

It’s our last regular episode of the year, and it’s here where we make our stand. We critique the quality of the game mechanics of White Elephant, discuss our time with Wolfenstein II — including some heavy spoilers, and rediscover Ryu’s love of pound cake.

Ludum Dare 40 happened last weekend, so we discuss the games we played and the games we made, which include Will’s escape🥚hatch, Alex’s Pizza’matic 5000, and Dylan’s Polyose.

From there we move on to The Game Awards announcements, from Campo Santo’s In the Valley of Gods to whatever the hell Death Stranding is.

And that’s it for your regularly scheduled Wardcast for 2017. Coming up: Best Games Played, maybe some MAGFest, and a new Hidden Gems panel coming to you this January at PAX South. Stay tuned!

Games include Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Warframe, Candy Box 2, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Rymdkapsel, Cards Against Humanity, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Dr. Mario, HQ, Puzzle Fighter, Bit Swapper, All Day I Dream About Eyeballs, Zealot, Super Mario Odyssey, and Monument Valley 2.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

Joining Dylan over the air this week is friend of the show and Motion Capture Stage Technician at 2K Games, Michael Listo!

Michael speaks with Dylan about what goes into his role, the current trends in motion capture technology, and the common mocap techniques used on the job.

We also discuss motion capture in film, advertising, and VR, and how his time studying Visual Effects at SCAD prepared him for his professional career.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

Will, Alex, and Dylan discuss the burgeoning robocky film genre, the EA Battlefront II loot box fiasco, and the predictably disappointing Justice League box office debut.

We endure the hellishness of Mario Odyssey’s Darker Side of the Moon, and we talk about Hair Nah and our experiences getting our hairs touched.

Alex “BattlerUnknown” Damrath gets back on the gamedev horse with his game, Playground, all the while Dylan contemplates why he and Sam got their games waitlisted for MAGFest’s Indie Video Game Showcase.

Games include Overwatch, Super Mario Odyssey, Hair Nah, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

With the Richmond Marathon surrounding us on all sides, we journey into the realm of physical games. We got 280 characters in our pocket, and with it, we propose Doom 2 to take place in Buddhist hell. Alex joins in on the Mario Odyssey discussion — with embarrassing anecdotes about Uncle amiibo.

In news, BlizzCon happened, where Blizzard announced a new Overwatch hero, a new World of Warcraft, and an old World of Warcraft. Will’s planning for his next game dev project, and we conduct more battle royale talks, now with mystical bush magic!

Games include Super Mario Odyssey, Overwatch, Flippy Knife, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and Fortnite: Battle Royale.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

Now that Will’s married, we converse about our prerequisites for what constitutes an arcade, Windows being garbage, trying to play Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Mario Odyssey’s lack of hat-on-hat action.

Once again, we ring the game industry death knell. This time, it’s for NeoGAF, the Kinect, and Runic Games — where co-founder Travis Baldree shares his memories of the studio.

Lastly, Paris Games Week happened, and we talk about the use of domestic violence and violence against women in the trailers for Detroit: Become Human and The Last of Us Part II respectively. A slew of indie game sequels were also announced, and we discuss what it means in an industry that’s normally reticent to do follow ups to independent releases.

Games include Super Mario Odyssey and Codenames.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

It’s a special day here on the Wardcast: Dylan is joined by Joe Wetmore and Kenny Kim, here to talk about — among other things — their eternal cosmic bond.

Joe explains his distaste for the new Star Trek, Dylan does an explainer on PUBG hacks, and we all discuss the many things about Middle-Earth: Shadow of War that make us uncomfortable.

We keep Tolkien talks going as we dive deep into Lord of the Rings lore, gush on pretty boy Sauron, and contemplate J.R.R.’s writing chops.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

Dylan, Alex, and Sam reconvene to discuss the poor handling of MAGFest’s distribution of hotel rooms. Alex brings a board game, for which there was a price to pay, and Sam discusses the contract game he’s been working on and what it’s like to work on a kid’s game that is COPPA compliant.

Taking advantage of physics systems in games has us talking about Just Cause 2 mods and an infamous Liberty City swingset. In other news, Shadow of War has a bad story, neo-Nazis are mad about Wolfenstein, and as is frighteningly becoming the norm, some more layoffs and closings are happening in the games industry. With the shuttering of Visceral, we say goodbye to the potential of Star Wars Uncharted and await the coming death of the AAA single player game.

Games include Silent Hill 2, Home Sweet Home, Splatoon 2, Kingdom Death: Monster, Deceiver, Golf Story, and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!